URANIA URANIA BY CAMILLE FLAMMARION _ILLUSTRATED BY_ DE BIELER, MYRBACH, AND GAMBARD _TRANSLATED BY_ AUGUSTA RICE STETSON BOSTON ESTES AND LAURIAT Publishers _Copyright, 1890_, BY ESTES & LAURIAT. University Press: JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE. CONTENTS. Part First. THE HEAVENLY MUSE. PAGE I. A DREAM OF YOUTH 9 II. UNKNOWN HUMANITIES 18 III. THE INFINITE VARIETY OF BEINGS 35 IV. ETERNITY AND THE INFINITE 44 V. THE LIGHT OF THE PAST 57 Part Second. GEORGE SPERO. I. LIFE 71 II. THE APPARITION 86 III. "TO BE, OR NOT TO BE?" 101 IV. AMOR 122 V. THE AURORA BOREALIS 141 VI. ETERNAL PROGRESS 152 Part Third. HEAVEN AND EARTH. I. TELEPATHY 161 II. ITER EXTATICUM COELESTE 207 III. THE PLANET MARS 227 IV. THE FIXED POINT IN THE UNIVERSE 257 V. AD VERITATEM PER SCIENTIAM 302 Part First. THE HEAVENLY MUSE. [Illustration] [Illustration] I. A DREAM OF YOUTH. I was seventeen years old; her name was Urania. Was Urania a fair, blue-eyed maiden, a dream of spring, an innocent but inquisitive daughter of Eve? No; she was simply, as in days of yore, that one of the nine Muses who presided over astronomy, and whose celestial glance inspired and directed the chorus of the spheres; she was the angelic idea which soars above terrestrial dulness. She had not the disturbing flesh, nor the heart whose palpitations are communicated at a distance, nor the gentle ardor of human life; but she existed nevertheless in a sort of ideal world,--lofty and always pure,--and yet she was human enough in name and form to produce a strong and deep impression upon an adolescent soul, to arouse in that soul an indefinite, indefinable feeling of admiration,--almost of love.