“It lies buried somewhere in the great Pacific, Roland,” replied Mr. Midith, with a suppressed sigh. “It was swallowed up by the vast expanse of the deep, when I landed on earth about ten years ago, and I had to swim for life. It frightens me still when I think of that dreadful event.” “Mrs. Uwins, you told me, time and again, that you do not believe in miracles,” said Rev. Dudley to his sister. “What, then, do you call Mr. Midith’s visit on earth? Do you call that miraculous? Have I not often told you, dear sister, that God in His infinite power is as capable of working a miracle now as He was in ancient times?” “I do not call that a miracle at all, James. I am sure that if we understood the dynamics by virtue of which Mr. Midith was enabled to make his visit, we would no more call it a miracle than we call the flying of a kite, or the running of a locomotive, a miracle. Is not that so, Mr. Midith?” “Yes, Mrs. Uwins, you are right; there is no miracle whatever about my mundane visit. It was all accomplished by the aid of immutable laws which undoubtedly hold good alike on the nearest and the remotest stars of the universe. We want to keep in mind that the miraculous always disappears just in proportion as we discover the natural laws that operate the phenomena of nature.” “But, Mr. Midith, is not the interplanetary space beyond the planets’ atmospheres a vacuum?” asked Viola. “How could you live and breathe in a vacuum? We are taught by our philosophers that all interstellar space is filled with an imponderable (without sensible weight), highly attenuated (made thin) medium called _ether_. But we are not aware that it will support life. How is that, Mr. Midith?” “As I have said before, Viola, I should prefer to give you this difficult explanation after you get better acquainted with our enterprises. After you have learned more about our mechanical genius, our social and industrial problems. It will be much more easily understood by you then, than it would be now.” “All right, Mr. Midith, just as you think best,” said Viola with a pleasant countenance. “If we ask you questions out of the natural order just let us know.” “Did our earth seem homelike to you, Mr. Midith, when you first looked around and as you gradually became better acquainted?” I asked. “Let me tell you right here, ladies and gentlemen, in answering this question truthfully, I may say things that may not be very agreeable to some of you. But I believe that nearly all of you are searching for truth regardless of consequences; and whenever one has arrived at such a stage of intellectual development, he is at least willing to give truth a fair hearing, whether it is for the time being pleasant or unpleasant.”