a rare experience to be present at the end of a world. And so in my
enthusiasm I could not prevent myself from crying out with a kind of
vanity, "Behold the end of the world, O God! and this, then, is the
fate in store for all the inhabited worlds!" "This is not _the end_,"
replied a voice in the hearing of my soul; "_this is the beginning_."
"How can this be the beginning?" thought I immediately. "The beginning
of the Earth itself," replied the same voice. "Thou hast seen over
again the whole history of the Earth _in thus withdrawing from her with
a velocity greater than that of light_."
This declaration did not surprise me so much as the first episode
of my ultra-terrestrial life, for I was now familiarised with the
astonishing effects of the laws of light; I was henceforth prepared
for every new surprise. I had some doubts of the fact, in consequence
of certain details that I have not given you to avoid disturbing the
unity of my recital or breaking the thread of my narrative, but which
were nevertheless incomparably more extraordinary than the general
succession of events.
QUÆRENS. But if it was really the Earth, how comes it that the
astronomical calculations you made in order to recognise her in the
constellation of the Altar, indicated, as you have pointed out, that
the world you were examining was neither the Earth nor a star of the
Altar?
[Sidenote: Events retraced.]
[Sidenote: Sidereal perspective.]
LUMEN. The fact is, that even that constellation had itself changed
in consequence of my voyage in space. In place of the stars of the
third magnitude, α, γ, and ϛ (alpha, gamma, zeta), and stars of the
fourth magnitude, β, δ, and θ (beta, delta, theta), which constitute
that figure as seen from the Earth, my distance towards the nebulæ had
reduced those starsa to little imperceptible points. It had placed
other brilliant stars there, which were no doubt α (alpha) and β (beta)
of Auriga, θ, ι, η (theta, iota, eta), and perhaps even ε (epsilon) of
the same constellation--stars diametrically opposite to the preceding
when seen from the Earth, but which were necessarily interposed there
when I had passed them by. The celestial perspective had already
changed, and it had become, in truth, almost impossible to determine
the position of our Sun.
[Sidenote: It was really the Earth that Lumen saw.]