is rigmarole as proof) that all the
members of our solar system are habitable, the interplanetary ether is
forthwith peopled thickly with "souls," without any resort to argument.
This, we suppose, is one of those scientific truths which as M. Figuier
tells us, precede and underlie demonstration. Upon this impregnable
basis is reared the scientific theory of a future life. When we die our
soul passes into some other terrestrial body, unless we have been very
good, in which case we at once soar aloft and join the noble fraternity
of the ether-folk. Bad men and young children, on dying, must undergo
renewed probation here below, but ultimately all pass away into the
interplanetary ether. The dweller in ether is chiefly distinguished
from the mundane mortal by his acute senses and his ability to subsist
without food. He can see as if through a telescope and microscope
combined. His intelligence is so great that in comparison an Aristotle
would seem idiotic. It should not be forgotten, too, that he possesses
eighty-five per cent of soul to fifteen per cent of body, whereas in
terrestrial man the two elements are mixed in equal proportions. There
is no sex among the ether-folk, their numbers being kept up by the
influx of souls from the various planets. "Alimentation, that necessity
which tyrannizes over men and animals, is not imposed upon the
inhabitants of ether. Their bodies must be repaired and sustained by the
simple respiration of the fluid in which they are immersed, that is, of
ether." Most likely, continues our scientific author, the physiological
functions of the ether-folk are confined to respiration, and that it is
possible to breathe "without numerous organs is proved by the fact that
in all of a whole class of animals--the batrachians--the mere bare skin
constitutes the whole machinery of respiration" (p. 95). Allowing for
the unfortunate slip of the pen by which "batrachians" are substituted
for "fresh-water polyps," how can we fail to admire the severity of the
scientific method employed in reaching these interesting conclusions?

But the King of Serendib must die, nor will the relentless scythe of
Time spare our Etherians, with all their exalted attributes. They will
die repeatedly; and after having through sundry periods of probation
attained spiritual perfection, they will all pour into the sun. Since
it is the sun which originates life and feeling and thought upon the
surface of our earth, "why may we not