LUMEN _The One Hundred and Forty-first of the Minor Planets, situated between Mars and Jupiter, which was discovered at the Paris Observatory by M. Paul Henry, on the 13th of January 1875, received the name of LUMEN in honour of the Author of this Work._ LUMEN BY CAMILLE FLAMMARION AUTHORISED TRANSLATION FROM THE FRENCH BY A. A. M. AND R. M. _With portions of the last chapter written specially for the English Edition_ NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1897 _Copyright, 1897,_ BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY. _Fifty-two thousand copies of the French original of this volume have been sold_ University Press: JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. CONTENTS FIRST CONVERSATION PAGE RESURRECTIO PRÆTERITI 1-63 Death--The soul--The hour of death--Separation of the soul--Sight of the soul in Heaven--The Solar System in the heavens--The Earth as seen from the heavens--The star Capella--Velocity of light--The terrestrial planet seen from afar--The worlds seen from afar--Lumen--Lumen sees again his own life. SECOND CONVERSATION REFLUUM TEMPORIS 64-105 Journey on a ray of light--Events retraced--Re-ascending the Ages--Psychical optics--Light and sound--Man organised from the planet--The soul and destiny. THIRD CONVERSATION HOMO HOMUNCULUS 106-128 The sphere of human observation--Time and space--Events in space--Time, space, and eternity. FOURTH CONVERSATION ANTERIORES VITÆ 129-196 Space and light--The star Gamma in Virgo--The system of Gamma in Virgo--Former existence--The plurality of existences--The unknown--The constellations--The elements--Life on the earth--The process of alimentation--Nutritive atmospheres--Poetry on the Earth--A humanity--The organisation of beings--The development of life--The genealogical tree of life--The men-plants--Souls and atoms--Other senses--Atoms and monads. FIFTH CONVERSATION INGENIUM AUDAX: NATURA AUDACIOR 197-224 A world in Orion--Analysis of the nervous system--The Commune--Animated molecules--Various forms of life--Infinite diversity on Sirius--Phosphorescent passions--Lives too long--Infinite diversity--The magnifying power of time--A chrono-telescope--Light. LUMEN FIRST CONVERSATION RESURRECTIO PRÆTERITI QUÆRENS. You promised, dear Lumen, to describe to me that supremest of moments which immediately succeeds death, and to relate to me how, by a natural law, singular though it may seem, you lived again your past life, and penetrated a hitherto-unrevealed mystery.