第18章 BOOK I.(17)

"Good-morning,"said Bearwarden,as he shook hands with his visitors."Charmed to see you.""That's a great invention,"said Secretary Stillman,examining the bellows."We must get Congress to make an appropriation for its introduction in the department buildings in Washington.You have no idea how it dries my throat to be all the time shouting,'Come in!'""Do you know,Bearwarden,"said Secretary Deepwaters,"I'm afraid when we have this millennium of climate every one will be so well satisfied that our friend here (pointing to Secretary Stillman with his thumb)will have nothing to do.""I have sometimes thought some of the excitement will be gone,and the struggle of the 'survival of the fittest'will become less problematical,"said Bearwarden.

"The earth seems destined to have a calm old age,"said Cortlandt,"unless we can look to the Cabinet to prevent it.""This world will soon be a dull place.I wish we could leave it for a change,"said Ayrault."I don't mean forever,of course,but just as people have grown tired of remaining like plants in the places in which they grew.Alan has been a caterpillar for untold ages;can he not become the butterfly?""Since we have found out how to straighten the axis,"said Deepwaters,"might we not go one better,and improve the orbit as well?--increase the difference between aphelion and perihelion,and give those that still like a changing climate a chance,while incidentally we should see more of the world--I mean the solar system--and,by enlarging the parallax,be able to measure the distance of a greater number of fixed stars.Put your helm hard down and shout 'Hard-a-lee!'You see,there is nothing simpler.

You keep her off now,and six months hence you let her luff.""That's an idea!"said Bearwarden."Our orbit could be enough like that of a comet to cross the orbits of both Venus and Mars;and the climatic extremes would not be inconvenient.The whole earth being simultaneously warmed or cooled,there would be no equinoctials or storms resulting from changes on one part of the surface from intense heat to intense cold;every part would have a twelve-hour day and night,and none would be turned towards or from the sun for six months at a time;for,however eccentric the orbit,we should keep the axis absolutely straight.At perihelion there would simply be increased evaporation and clouds near the equator,which would shield those regions from the sun,only to disappear again as the earth receded.

"The only trouble,"said Cortlandt,"is that we should have no fulcrum.Straightening the axis is simple enough,for we have the attraction of the sun with which to work,and we have but to increase it at one end while decreasing it at the other,and change this as the poles change their inclination towards the sun,to bring it about.If a comet with a sufficiently large head would but come along and retard us,or opportunely give us a pull,or if we could increase the attraction of the other planets for us,or decrease it at times,it might be done.If the force,the control of which was discovered too late to help us straighten the axis,could be applied on a sufficiently large scale;if apergy----""I have it!"exclaimed Ayrault,jumping up."Apergy will do it.

We can build an airtight projectile,hermetically seal ourselves within,and charge it in such a way that it will be repelled by the magnetism of the earth,and it will be forced from it with equal or greater violence than that with which it is ordinarily attracted.I believe the earth has but the same relation to space that the individual molecule has to any solid,liquid,or gaseous matter we know;and that,just as molecules strive to fly apart on the application of heat,this earth will repel that projectile when electricity,which we are coming to look upon as another form of heat,is properly applied.It must be so,and it is the manifest destiny of the race to improve it.Man is a spirit cursed with a mortal body,which glues him to the earth,and his yearning to rise,which is innate,is,I believe,only a part of his probation and trial.""Show us how it can be done,"shouted his listeners in chorus.

"Apergy is and must be able to do it,"Ayrault continued.

"Throughout Nature we find a system of compensation.The centripetal force is offset by the centrifugal;and when,according to the fable,the crystal complained of its hard lot in being unable to move,while the eagle could soar through the upper air and see all the glories of the world,the bird replied,'My life is but for a moment,while you,set in the rock,will live forever,and will see the last sunrise that flashes upon the earth.'