Page:A thousand years hence. Being personal experiences (IA thousandyearshen00gree).djvu/286

 time with the idea of these being nothing less than messages from outside to our earth—messages which, from want of adequate science attainment, in short, from the duplication being still unknown to us, we knew not how to deal with. Repeatedly, in fact, we were aware, from certain effects produced, that a cross-electric bolt from outside had struck one of our many cross-electric conducto-attractors, which were already all over the world for an infinitude of purposes. Indeed one great electrician of those days, who had happened to notice close to him one of these phenomena, had, with more zeal than discretion, incurred a serious shock by trying to ascertain, at once, the strength and quality of the mysterious visitor. But as to all this we remained in powerless ignorance until the grand discovery of the duplication.

How often has it been said that the greatest discoveries are, of all things, the most simple when once they are known! How simple, for instance, is the law of gravitation! The great discovery of the duplication was no exception to this rule, and so soon as its mystery was made known to an eagerly expectant world, there was only universal wonder that a matter so simple and obvious had not sooner suggested itself. But anyway as to this, we had now at last acceded to the power, which, by means of that duplicatory arrangement, now so everyday a matter even to our school-boys, we could not only despatch our messenger into space, but make him also bring back the reply. The Energy-charge, that