System, the Sun, the Comets, in one intense, overpowering attraction
towards a shining brilliant star, and I felt myself carried towards
it instinctively with a celerity far greater than that of an electric
flash. After a time, the duration of which I cannot guess, I arrived
upon the same ring and upon the same mountain, from which I had first
kept watch when I saw the old men occupied in following the history
of the Earth, seventy-one years and eight months ago. They were still
absorbed in the contemplation of events happening in the city of Lyons
on the 23rd of January 1793. I will avow to you the reason of the
mysterious attraction of Capella for me. For marvellous as it may seem,
there are in creation invisible ties which do not break like mortal
ties; there are means by which souls can commune with each other, in
spite of the distance that separates them.
[Sidenote: He meets the spirit of his wife.]
[Sidenote: They recall their life on Earth.]
On the evening of the second day, as the emerald Moon enshrined itself
in the third ring of gold--for such is the sidereal measurement of
time--I found myself walking in a lonely avenue enamelled with flowers
of sweet perfume. Sauntering along, as if in a dream, imagine my
delight when I saw coming towards me my beautiful and beloved Sylvia.
She was at a ripe age at her death, and notwithstanding an indefinable
change I recognised the features, whose expression had but deepened
and spiritualised, in happy correspondence with her sweet, pure life.
I will not stop to describe to you the joy of our meeting, this is not
the time for it; but perchance some day we may have the opportunity of
descanting upon the different manifestations of affection in this world
and the world beyond the grave, and I only add now that together we
sought our native land on Earth, where we had passed days of peace and
happiness. We delighted to turn our gaze towards the luminous point,
which our state of exaltation enabled us to perceive was a world--the
one upon which we had lived in earthly form--we loved to wed the memory
of the past with the reality of our present, and in all the freshness
of our new and ecstatic sensations we sought to recall and review the
scenes of our youth. It was thus we actually saw again the happy years
of our earthly love, the pavilion of the convent, the flower garden,
the promenades in the charming and delightful environs of Paris, and
the solitary rambles that, loving and beloved, we took together. To
retrace these years we had but to travel together into space in the
direction of the Earth, where these scenes, focused by the light, were
being photographed. Now, my friend, I have fulfilled my promise in
revealing to you these remarkable observations.
Behold the day breaks, and the star Lucifer is paling already under its
rosy light. I must return to the constellations....