Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/89

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T the November meeting of the Astral Camera Club, Mr. Asa Marvin presiding, Prof. Abram Gridley, the learned master of the Alcalde Union High School, spoke on the unique topic of his proposed 'Rescue Work in History/

He began with the bold declaration that the two great discoveries, twin triumphs of the human mind, which will make this age memorable, were these, the Banishment of Space and the Annihilation of Time. He proposed to illustrate the results of these discoveries and to show how they could be turned to the advantage of mankind by means of an esoteric foray through the echoing aisles of the past.

"It has been shown by the great Dr. Hickok," said Professor Gridley, "that matter is but a portion of space filled with a modicum of 'force, which is actively engaged in holding itself still.' When this activity becomes passive, matter is no more. Thus as matter has no real existence, space, which is its matrix, is banished also from the category of realities.

"Even more remarkable is the discovery of the famous Dr. Hensoldt that time could be literally 'rolled away as a scroll,' and therefore practically annihilated. This fact is stated in these memorable words: 'We count our time by the rotations of our planet. If you were to go close to the north pole and then travel around it in a westerly direction you could walk back all the lost days of your childhood. And if you are moderately swift-footed you might run around that pole until you caught the earth where it was when Julius Cæsar first landed in Britain or when the pyramids were built."

"Only this year," continued the learned schoolmaster, "has the practical significance of all this been brought to light." Referring to the phenomena of thought-transference, our friend and guide, the venerable sage of Angels, spoke before us these words:

"'All manner of sensations,' Mr. Dean has told us, 'may be transmitted, and these over any distance or through any time. It is as easy, for example, for me as an adept to speak to Marcus Brutus as for me to speak to the Lama of Thibet, and equally easy for Plato or Ptolemy to speak to me. Through this power I may yet dissuade Brutus from his awful deed or save Caesar from that ambition through which fall the