Astronauts -- Fiction; Human-alien encounters -- Fiction; Science fiction; Space flight -- Fiction; Space ships -- Fiction
"And there you have infinity of Space," Brett added, as his father
paused. "Unending Space both smaller and larger than ourselves.
We--everything of which we can be physically aware--represent no more
than a single step in the ladder which has no bottom nor no top. You
can not conceive an end in either direction. There is no such thing.
Nor--as Father says--can you declare anything to be small or large
considered by itself alone. This then is Space as we conceive it to be.
Illimitable, unending--infinite Space."
The conception momentarily seemed wholly beyond my grasp. What I would
have answered when for a moment Dr. Gryce and Brett paused I do not
know, for from the house the approaching voices of Martt and Frannie
reached us.
"You'll fall, I tell you! Frannie, give me that!"
"I won't."
"You'll trip over the wires and you'll fall and smash it!"
"I won't."
The sound of a crash. And Martt's voice, "There, I told you!"
They were upon us, wheeling the tray laden with breakfast; Martt,
flushed, laughing. "Oh, hello, Frank--they didn't switch you wrong, did
they? Frannie broke the heater coils--if the breakfast gets cold, don't
blame me."
And Frannie, also flushed and laughing and a trifle rueful over the
mishap. Dressed in a blue blouse and widely flaring, knee-length
trousers, with her golden hair tossing on her shoulders. The picture of
a little housewife, of early morning informality. I thought I had never
seen her so beautiful.
III
"That, Frank, is our conception of the infinity of Space."
With breakfast finished Brett had resumed the discussion. We were
all seated in the arbor. Martt and Frannie momentarily were quiet,
seemingly keenly interested in the impression upon me which they
anticipated would come from their father's disclosures.
Dr. Gryce said, "The idea of Time unending is indissolubly bound with
the concept of infinite Space. You will realize, Frank, for some
centuries it has been understood that Time and Space are inextricably
blended. We think instinctively of Space as a tangible entity--of
length, breadth and thickness. And of Time, as intangible. Such really
is not the case. Space has three dimensions--but Time also has a
dimension."
"Length," Martt put in. "It sounds like a play on words, but--"
"It isn't," Frannie finished for him. "I can't imagine anything clearer
than that Time has length."
Dr. Gryce ignored them. "You must understand also that Time as we
conceive it can not exist except as the measurement of a _length_
between two events. And what is an event? It presupposes the existence
of _Matter_, does it not? Matter thus is introduced into the universe.
It also can not be independent of Time and Space. So long as anything
material exists, there must be Space for it to exist in; and Time to
mark the passing of its existence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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