The Book of the Damned

whereas, if we accept Continuity, we cannot accept that there are anywhere two things to start with, would search our data for periodicities. It is

th by the affairs of the city of which it is a part; city by county; county by state; state by nation; nation by other nations; all nations by climatic conditions; climatic conditions by solar circumstances; sun by general planetary circumstances; solar system "as a whole" by other solar systems-so the hopelessness of finding the phenomena of entirety in the ward of a city. But positivists are those who try to find the unrelated in the ward of a city. In our acceptance this is the spirit of cosmic religion. Objectively the state is not realizable in the ward of a city. But, if a positivist could bring him

d several proximities, thus emphasized, have been revelations to me: nevertheless,

es and in yellow substances, and disregard the rest. Then, too, if here and there a black rain should be a week early or a month late-that would be "acceleration" or "retardation." This is supposed to be legitimate in working out the periodicities of comets. If black rain

f books should be written. 1849 is notable for extraordinary falls, so far apart that a local explanation seems inadequate-not only the black rain of Ireland, May, 1849, but a red rain in Sicily and a red rain in Wales. Also,

ic science of the 19th century was only a relation of reaction against theologic dogma, and has no more to do with Truth than has a wave that bounds back from a shore. Or, if a shop girl, or

empt could be realized, that would be the attaining of realness; but this attempt can be made only by disregarding psychic phenomena, for instance-or, if science shall eventually give in to the psychic, it would be no more legitimate to explain the immaterial in terms of the material than to explain the material in terms of the immaterial. Our own acceptance is that material and immaterial are of a oneness, merging, for instance, in a thought

never seen before. As to what it was, they had not a notion, but they saw that the sheep ate i

h, manna had fallen in ancient times-because it was still falling-but that there was no tutelary influence behind it-that it was a lichen from the steppes of Asia Minor-from one place in a whirlwind and down in another place.

ible substances. They are all dogmatically said to be "manna"; and "manna" is dogmatically said to be a species of lichens from the steppes of Asia Minor. The position that I take is that this explanation was evolved in ignorance of the fall of vegetable substances, or edible substances, in other parts of the world: that it is the familiar attempt to explain the general in terms of the local; that, if we shall have data of falls of vegetable substance, in, say, Canada or India, they were not of lichens from the steppes of Asia Minor; th

is to explain segrega

of grain, barrels of sugar; things that had not been whirled up from one part of

ks-but grain in ba

-its covering lik

of them clashing together, after a wreck-they burst open; the co

similar to our own commodities carried over this ea

eck on one of this earth's oceans, would, by the time they reached the bottom, no longer be recognizable as bags or barrels; that, if we

Irish Aca

ing to their work after dinner (during which there had been a snowstorm) found the flat ground around the pond cov

table-top. "The mass was damp and smelt disagreeably, l

ibrously,

c expl

place, and do

y another degree or aspect of something, or combination of things, in a village of Central Africa. The novel is a challenge to vulgarization: write something that looks new to you: someone will point out that the thrice-accursed Greeks said it long ago. Existence is Appetite: the gnaw of being; the one attempt of all things to assimilate all other things, if they have not surrendered and submitted to some higher attempt

like gree

stance

l-black,

rsh-substance is flake-li

h have long stems. A camel is indistinguishable

did think that Prof. Hitchcock's performance in identifying the Amherst phenomenon as a fungus was rather notable as scientific vaudeville, if we acquit him of the charge of seriousness-or that, in a place where fungi were so common that, before a given evening two of them sp

ness: so then that this substance was "marsh paper," which "had b

ond

"the meteor-paper was found to consist part

rd

al Irishmen: chair

marsh-paper w

ion was chiefl

So no logician would be satisfied with identifying a peanut as a camel, because both have hum

sidering, to think that a green substance could be snatched up from one place in a whirlwind, and fall as a black substance s

local deposition that was seen to occur by som

dous fall from

rsh paper in the world c

"in great quantities," in Norway and Pomerani

ll in Norway and other parts of

ce called "marsh paper." There'd have been falls of fence rails, roofs of houses, parts of trees. Nothing is said of the occurre

e data of all falls to this earth, except of substances of

Philosop

d as "a mass of black leaves, having the appearance o

convincing to the royal Irishmen. Vegetable composition is disregarded, quite as it might be

ale-like. If so be convenience, "leaf-likeness" is "scale-likeness." In this attempt to assimilate with the conve

t, though nothing has identity of its own, anything can be "identified" as anything. Or there's nothing that's not reasonable, if one snoopeth not into its exclusions. But here the conflict did not end. Berzelius examined the substance. He could not find n

o project with our own expression, which, o

ooked to see-hieroglyphics?-somethin

, upon this earth's surface there is infinite variety of substances detachable by

200 square feet, of a substance that had fallen at Carolath, Silesia, in 1839-exactly similar to cotton-felt, of which

oc. of Bengal,

thick white ones. They were supposed to be mineral fibers, but, when burned, they gave out "the common ammoniacal smell and smoke of burnt hair or feathers." The writer described the phenomenon as "a cloud of 3800 sq

med to be subverted-by more powerful microscopes and telescopes; by more refined, precise, searching means and methods-the new pronouncements

will itself some day be displaced; that

imb, spooks of ladders

egister,

ole cargo, lost somewhere between Jupiter and Mars, having drifted around perhaps for centuries, the original fabrics slowly disintegrating. In Annales de Chimie, 2-15-427, it is said that sam

e blue silk that fell near Naumberg, March 23, 1665. According to Chladni (Annales de

g that is as firm as a rock and that sails in a majestic march. The Irish are good monists: they have of course been laughed at for their keener perceptions. So it's a book we're writing, or it's a procession, or it's a museum, with the Chamber of Horrors rath

s. In 1832, aboard the Beagle, at the mouth of La Plata River, 60 miles from land, Darwin saw an enormous number of spider

an externally derived silky substance, and also of the webs, or strands, rather, of aeronautic spiders indigenous to this earth; that in some instances it is impossible to distinguish o

icable materials hav

t may be doing well enough in this bo

or rags about one inch broad and five or six inches long." Also these flakes were of a relatively heavy substance-"they fell with some velocity." The quantity was great-the shortest side of the triangular space is eight miles long. In the Wernerian Nat. Hist. Soc. Trans., 5-386, it is

igence ceases-or, of course, that intelligence is the confession of ignorance. If you have intelligence upon any subject, that is something you're s

have some intelligence in this matter. If I ever arrive at adjustment upon this subject, then, upon this subject, I shall be

ty so enormous that it attracted

been equally notewo

gland or elsewhere, having seen tons of

on of intelligen

at the place of origin may have be

ain-hitting a small, triangular space for hours-interval of hours-th

inclusion is that, though this substance fell in good-sized flakes of considerable weight, it was viscous. In this respec

e substance that fell in 1841 and 1846, in Asia Minor, described in one publication as gelatinous, and in another as a cereal-that it was a cereal that had passed through a gelatinous region. That t

c America

oned are Green Bay, Vesburge, Fort Howard, Sheboygan, and Ozaukee. The aeronautic spiders are known as "gossamer" spiders, becau

webs were strong in te

ditor

on in any of the reports that we hav

oduct from its terrestrial merger: then our joy

w, 26-566, quotes the Mon

strands and in occasional masses several inches long and several inches broad. According to the

at he sees no reason for doubtin

ure, 1

appeared. This cloud was composed of a woolly substance in lumps the size of a fist, which fell to the ground. The Editor (Tissandier) says of this substance that it was white, but was something that had been burned. It was fibrou

egister,

feet. It was resinous and yellowish: so one inclines to the conventional explanation that it was pollen from pine trees-but, when torn, it had the tenacity of cotton. W

f cargoes-and our notion o

ny, Ireland, dated Nov. 15, 1695: that there had been "of late," in the counties of Limerick and

Munster and Leinster: that for a good part of the spring of 1695 there fell a substance which the country people cal

one's finger." It had a "strong ill sce

sed to have medicinal properties, and "was gathered in pots

n

away, but by simple disregard. The fall is listed by Chladni, and is mentioned in other catalogues, but, from the absence of all inquiry, and of all but formal mention, we see that it has been under excommunication as

ike this earth's products, but from external sources, a region in which this earth's gravitational and meteorological forces are relatively inert-if for many weeks a good part of this substance did hover before finally falling

llow, transparent, soft, and smelling like rancid oil. M. Herman, a chemist who examined it, named it "sky oil." For analysis and chemic reactions, see the Journal. The Edinburgh New Philosophica

it may

etimes wrecked, we think of fuel as well as cargoes. Of course the most convincing data would be of coal falling from the sky: nevertheless, one does suspect that oil-burning engines were discovered ages ago in more advanced worlds-but, as I say, we should leave something to our discip

, about the first of June, 1842, near N?mes, France; i

n Ireland, 1755 (

ich was a substance, said, by Prof. Leeds, of Stevens I

d with hail. Or-if they were of substances that had had origin upon some other part of this earth's surface-had the hail, too, that origin? Our accep

r, 3-468: that, upon the first of May, 1863, a rain fell at Perpignan, "bringing down with it a red substance, which pro

n hailstones"-but the writer in Transactions, says that he had examined the grains, and that they were nothing but seeds of ivy berries dislodged from holes and chinks w

y, May, 1830; said, by Arago, to have bee

ollect data of fa

ay that was so calm that his windmill did not run, fell a brown dust that looked like vegetable matter. The Editor of

lt, for instance, are just as good evidences of innocence-but this condition seems to mean-things lying around among the stars a long time. Horrible disaster in the time of Julius Caesar; remains from it not reachin

l News,

Machattie, who found it to consist mainly of vegetable matter "far advanced in decomposition." The substance was examined by Dr. James Adams, of Glasgow, who gave his opinion that it was the remains of cereals. Dr. Machattie points out tha

ur. Sci.

jkit, India, occurred a fall of grain. It was re

xcited-because it was grai

that natives know best than the natives know-but it so happen

did not immediately recognize it, but thou