CHAPTER XXV. ISLANDS OF HEAVEN.

 

I HAD noticed a number of islands dotting the lake here and there as far as the eye could reach, making the whole scene transcendently beautiful. Many of these islands were quite near the shore, so near that one could distinguish the forms of men and women moving about upon them.

 

“Those islands which you observe," said Annie, "are intermediate between the spiritual and the angelic, the connecting links between the two worlds, and the people who inhabit them are neither spirits nor angels; they are too advanced to be classed merely as spirits, but not yet being united or made whole, they are not angels; they are mediums, and bold the same position relatively that the mediums do on earth; they cannot yet dwell among the angels, they are beyond the spirits—they often feel their isolated position, and look forward with eagerness to the time when they will become angels. Dearest Mary, you are very nearly in that condition yourself; you have become weary of being merely a spirit, and begin to yearn for the angelic state; already you feel your isolated condition."

 

Ah! yes; she read my soul as though it were an open book. Sigismund now entered.

 

"Our little boat is ready, dear Annie," said he. "Would you and Mary like to take a sail around among the islands? They are exceedingly interesting and very beautiful."

 

"We shall be very glad to visit one or more of them," replied Annie, "and Mary will then have an opportunity of understanding better the position of an intermediate class of beings."

 

We now went down to the water's edge, and entered the fairy-like boat. Sigismund grasped a pair of golden oars, and slowly rowed the boat from the shore. The light within this heavenly world is not like the light of earth, and in order to give my readers a correct idea of it, I must ask them if they have ever seen the different shading of calcium lights on earth; now, let one imagine all these beautiful shades of colored light sparkling like dainty frost-work on a window pane when the golden morning sun is rising and shining upon it; now, imagine all this ten times more beautiful still, and one will have a faint conception of the light which glinted and sparkled on the water, and through which these lovely islands were outlined. All things combined to fill the soul with rapture. O! the old idea of heaven is wearisome darkness compared to the real heavens and spiritual spheres as they actually exist.

 

We rowed lazily around among the islands for sometime; they were all inhabited, dotted over with lovely villas and smaller structures of exceeding beauty and brightness; trees, vegetation, flowers, winding silvery paths whereon many a beautiful form was gliding, pet animals, also wild ones appearing among the thickets. At last we touched at an island somewhat larger than the others, the most beautiful one of all the groups which we had passed. It was oblong or egg­shaped, about three miles long by two or more wide, and rose out of the golden purpling waters of the lake, as an immense egg might have done, showing half of its entire bulk. In the center of the island rose a domed edifice with long, slender, needle­shaped spire, cutting the exquisite light like an immense Damascus blade. This blade glittered like the finest of polished steel; the hilt, in the form of an inverted cross, was of fretted gold. The dome was of sapphire, and the body of the building was of precious stones, far more beautiful and precious than any I ever saw on earth, and the names of most of them were not known to me.

 

"Strange as it may seem," said Sigismund, "this island has but one inhabitant, the owner and constructor of yonder beautiful edifice, yet the gentleman who lives here entertains many visitors; spirits flock here by thousands during the hours in which he can be seen. He is a great philosopher and scientist, dear Mary, and all souls who visit him are made wiser and better through the information which he is able to impart."

 

Annie's eyes wore a very mysterious expression, which I was not able to understand.

 

"We visit this gentleman quite often," continued Sigismund, "and this is not my first visit to-day. While you and Annie were conversing together in the parlor, at our villa, I took the opportunity of paying a visit to my friend, the philosopher, in order to appoint a time when he would be at leisure to receive us privately; for, we like better to talk with him in his own parlor than listen to an elaborate discourse when a large congregation are present. When I asked him for a private reception, he gave me a happy smile, saying, he should be pleased to do so; that his audience would soon be dismissed, and by the time we should arrive he would be refreshed and ready to receive us. I told him, however, that we should not be alone: a lady, my wife's sister, would come with us.

 

"She will be most welcome." he said blandly.

 

"She is very eager to learn, and will be an intelligent listener and apt pupil. Talk as scientifically as we may, her quick mind will keep pace with us, I think," was my reply.

 

We now landed, and walked up a broad and beautiful pathway, bordered with luxuriant vines and sweetest flowers, running directly up to the entrance. The door was open, and we entered. Sigismund advanced to a door leading into a large parlor, this was also open; taking seats we awaited our host: presently an inner door opened, and the gentleman himself stood before us. While pleasant greetings were being exchanged between himself, Annie, and Sigismund, I had time to survey him rapidly, and as I did so my heart gave a great bound. Surely, this man was the king of all men whom I had ever yet seen, and I felt certain, if I were to live for countless ages, still would he remain the king of men to me.

 

"This lady is Mary, our sister," said Sigismund, turning to me. "Mary, this gentleman is called Solon, and we all think the name suits him admirably."

 

Solon gave me his hand. Our eyes met. O! how wise and grave were his; what depths of thought lay half hidden within them; what power; what glory; what majesty were all about him like a garment. I trembled like a frightened child as his hand clasped mine; he gave me a reassuring, protecting smile.

 

"They tell me you are much interested in philosophy and science," he said; "such subjects, to most ladies, are usually devoid of interest; my hearers are, consequently, nearly all of the sterner sex, although it pleases me much when gentle woman will listen."

 

"The gentlemen are somewhat to blame for such a state of things," was my reply. "How it may be here, I do not yet know; but, on earth, ladies who interest themselves very much in scientific problems, or are of a deeply philosophic turn of mind, are laughed at by most gentlemen, and snubbed, 'bluestockings,' 'strong­minded women,' and many of your sex fly from them in horror, saying, they are not fit for wives or mothers."

 

"That is one great reason why women become so insipid, and think of little else than dress and fashion, spend most of their time gossiping, or slandering their neighbors: their minds are fully as active as most men's, and if not engaged in deep things must become frivolous. A frivolous woman cannot be the companion and equal of a great man, no matter what particular channel his gifts may take," said Sigismund.

 

Solon now invited us into the inner apartment, where a banquet was spread for four; we took seats, and were invited wine, fruit and bread; soon, we were launched on a wordy, scientific sea.

 

"It is deplorable," said Sigismund, "that so many truly great scientific men on earth, should think that life commenced and ended within matter, when, as we here all know, matter is merely the covering of, spirit, spiritual clothing; that life and spirit are all that is real and enduring."

 

"Such minds," replied Solon, "have merely tasted at the cup of wisdom; when they have drunk deeply, their eyes will open to the truth. It is the youth who thinks he is wise, not he who is old. Science, on earth and within the spiritual realm, is still but a stripling, who imagines that he is the personification of all wisdom and bravery; but time and experience will soon teach him that he has but taken the first step in wisdom, and his bravery would ooze out at his finger tips before the powerful strides of one who was older and wiser."

 

"What was the subject of your discourse to-day?" asked Sigismund.

 

"Light and heat," replied Solon. "There are as many spirits here who do not understand how or by what means the spiritual world is made as there are men and women on earth who do not know how or by what means the earth is made. Many on earth think that God made the earth in six days out of nothing, while many here think that He made the heavens and the earths in six days out of nothing. Is this not youthful adolescence? I have been showing my audience to-day that magnetism and matter created the earths, that light and heat created the heavens."

 

I looked at Solon earnestly, for I had long desired to know how the spiritual spheres had been created. When I found myself a woman on earth, I did not know how it had been created, but, as he had said, believed that God made it in six days out of nothing; and when I found myself a spirit within the spiritual world, I did not know how it had been created, and not yet learned. I knew I was a spirit, and this beautiful world was real, and that was all.

 

"Did light and heat create this world? and, if so, how?" I asked.

 

"The method is very simple," replied Solon. "when once understood. All things are simple when thoroughly comprehended. Light and heat have been the creators of the spiritual world, or, more properly speaking, light and heat have been the vehicles on which the spiritual has travelled to its destination."

 

"Mary, your eyes are as large as a child's," said Annie, with a smile.

 

Solon's face expressed interest.

 

"Truly, Mary; thou art very beautiful in thine eagerness," put in Sigismund.

 

"Yes," continued Solon the spiritual realm has all been brought hither on the wings of light and heat. Beautiful little chariots, are they not, Mary?"

 

"But heat and light are not very small things," I replied.

 

"No; an army is not a small thing, collectively, but each man helping to compose it is, relatively, quite small. The ocean is not small, but the drops of water are very small which make it up."

 

"True: the wisest or most ignorant man or woman could have no chance for doubt here," said Sigismund, and Annie smiled her sweetest assent.

 

 

"Look at the water, Mary," continued Solon. "What think you brought it hither? If you do not know you soon shall. It was all brought hither by heat; light unloaded it, and placed it where it belonged."

 

"Why; how did heat fetch it here?" I asked, almost gaspingly.

 

"How does it carry billions upon billions of tons of water into the atmosphere around the earth; and leave it at proper altitudes?" lie questioned. "Can science deny that great universal fact?"

 

"No," said Sigismund; "the most ignorant and the wisest all well understand that the water above the earth has all been carried there from the earth."

 

"Yet, there was a time when mankind were so youthfully wise, they thought that God made a firmament to divide the waters above from the waters below, but how he pierced it with holes to let the water through, we were not told. Now, heat is such a sweet little god, and works so silently, that we do not perceive what he is about." went on Solon, "but he performs most wonderful feats. If it were not for his enemy, cold, he would dissolve the earth in a short time and carry it all away on his little wings: but the burdened army of heat must fight its way through the dense army of cold, which robs it of a large portion of its treasures. If this were not so, not one drop of water would ever fall back to earth, which heat had taken up; but cold has not the power to rob heat of all its hidden treasures; a portion is still left, and the little gods rush on: their sweetest and most beautiful treasures are still left, and these they deposit at the feet of light. Can any scientist on earth prove that all the water which heat carries up falls back to earth? Can he deny that heat carries water up? Can he deny that cold condenses or robs heat of a larger portion of its burden? Can he affirm that all is taken and none left? If he were here he would be wiser, would he not, Mary?"

 

"I think he would," was my reply, as I glanced out over the beautiful expanse of water.

 

"Cold merely robs heat of the heavier, coarser parts of which water is composed; the refined essence of water it leaves here within the spiritual realm, and the color rays of light place it where it belongs: thus are the waters of the spiritual world gathered together. Now, we have here a world of foliage and flowers, and I told my audience to-day how they come to be here."

 

"And now you will tell me, also," I said, extending my hands toward him, supplicatingly.

 

"Yes, sweet lady; I will tell you. The same vehicle which brought the water, brought the flowers and foliage. When a flower yields up its perfume, or life on earth, what carries it upward that one's nostrils perceive it? Why, dear lady, heat; nothing but heat: but who ever heard of the perfume returning, after it had once ascended? No; it does not return. Heat never yields up this treasure, for it belongs to the soul of the flower. The larger portion of the water, which enters into the composition of the flower, is condensed and carried back by cold, but its beauty and inner essences, heat deposits here in the spiritual world, and light and color rays claim their own: the form, beauty, and inner essence of the flower remain for ever undestroyed earth keeps back merely the dull, outer husk that the flower no longer needs, which would detract from and mar its beauty: thus is our world of trees, foliage and flowers brought together. Can any scientific man affirm that all the sweetness, perfume, life and beauty of the trees, foliage, and flowers return, to enter into the composition of the next summer's array? If he were here, as we are, he would at once see that they did not; and, as it is with the water, foliage, and flowers, so it is with bird, beast, and man: the soul, the form, the inner essence, all are carried by heat upward, cold condenses and returns to earth all that is too coarse and heavy to be fetched hither; the sweetest and most precious treasures are carried by heat beyond the atmosphere of earth, beyond cold, and deposited by light, with its pencil rays of exquisite colors, in great spiritual zones about the earth, and they rest within the spiritual ether, worlds upon worlds of exquisitely glorious life and beauty. Can any scientist deny these great truths? Some look into the atmosphere, on a clear day, and, seeing the sun, they foolishly say, 'Why, there is nothing between us and the sun but this clear atmosphere, but when the light of the sun is obscured by the earth's shadow, at night, they look into the same atmosphere, and, lo! there are thousands of worlds revealed to their sight; still, this great fact does not teach them that appearances are often deceitful, for they say: 'Behold! there is nothing between us and the beautiful moon and stars but the atmosphere and space, interstellar space.' O foolish men! If you were looking on a very dark night into the  atmosphere, and there were no other lamps lighted between the State House and the revolving light in Boston Harbor, strain your eyes as you might, not another object would you see; could you affirm that there was nothing but space between the State House and the harbor light, supposing you had not previously known anything about it, merely because you could not see anything else? The same principle holds good of all the beautiful spiritual zones or worlds which lie between you and the stars; the bright, material light of the sun hides them from your sight in the daytime, as it also hides the stars; at night, darkness hides them from your sight, for you can see nothing but the material light of the moon and stars, which does not reveal the refined and spiritual which lie between. Who on the earth could ever believe, unless they had seen a rainbow, that such exquisite coloring resided within light? but, when conditions are favorable, the fact is revealed."

 

"You have told us," said Sigismund, "that after cold had robbed heat of a large amount of treasure, condensed and carried it back to earth in the form of rain, that light took the remaining and most precious treasures and placed them where they belonged. Will you kindly explain to us the method by which it is done?"

 

"Certainly," replied Solon. "Light is made up of different colored rays; each ray is chemical in its nature, and each ray can be robbed of a portion of its chemical coloring matter; to illustrate: a woman has many skeins of yarn, all pure white; she desires to have them in many colors, she would like to have them of all imaginable shades of coloring, so she dips them in chemical compounds called dye-stuffs, and the desire of her heart is accomplished: now, she takes common grey canvas, and draws upon it the forms of birds, animals, flowers, and many other things too numerous to mention, then she dexterously works in her colored yarns, shading a leaf here, a flower there, a bird in another place, until she has them worked as natural as life. Now, rays of light may be called white yarn, for unless they were colored by chemical compounds, every ray would be white; but as each ray is colored, and there are many different shadings of color, our white rays are transformed into all the colors of the rainbow. Now, heat has fetched hither the canvas and forms drawn therein, that is, heat has brought upward attenuated matter in all its various forms, and attenuated matter might be likened unto loose canvas, with the forms of all things outlined within its meshes. For instance heat has fetched hither the ethereal or volatile essence of a rose, or any other flower or leaf, and that ethereal essence retains the form it wore on earth; the color rays now commence to rob heat of its treasures through chemical assimilation, or the attenuated ethereal essence attracts and holds the chemical dyes that are in the color rays: the more dense the essence the lower the spiritual strata, and heat retains a finer, more ethereal essence still, together with more shadowy forms, and this again attracts finer, more beautiful and perfect shading, and a higher spiritual sphere is formed. Now, all these things rise sphere upon spheres unnumbered, each finer, more beautiful than the last, and who can tell where the end may be? for thus the earth has been yielding up its treasures for countless ages, and countless millions of souls dwell within them; still, eternity stretches onward, upward, downward, and forever and forever."

 

A fine, deep fire burned within Solon's eyes. I sat gazing at him, entranced, bewildered. His wisdom and magnetic presence held me like a charm, which it was impossible to break, and I do not think that I had any desire to break it.

 

"Then we are to understand you to mean, that attenuated matter, which may be called the volatile essence of all things that die on earth, chemically unites with the color rays of light by natural selection or affinity, and, when thus united, form the spiritual zones or spheres?" asked Sigismund.