a new force, apergy might have continued to lie
dormant for centuries. With this force, obtained by simply blending
negative and positive electricity with electricity of the third element
or state, and charging a body sufficiently with this fluid, gravitation
is nullified or partly reversed, and the earth repels the body with the
same or greater power than that with which it still attracts or
attracted it, so that it may be suspended or caused to move away into
space. Sic itur ad astra, we may say. With this force and everlasting
spring before us, what may we not achieve? We may some day be able to
visit the planets, though many may say that, since the axes of most of
those we have considered are more inclined than ours, they would rather
stay here. 'Blessed are they that shall inherit the earth,'" he went
on, turning a four-foot globe with its axis set vertically and at right
angles to a yellow globe labelled "Sun"; and again waxing eloquent, he
added: "We are the instruments destined to bring about the
accomplishment of that prophecy, for never in the history of the world
has man reared so splendid a monument to his own genius as he will in
straightening the axis of the planet.

"No one need henceforth be troubled by sudden change, and every man can
have perpetually the climate he desires. Northern Europe will again
luxuriate in a climate that favoured the elephants that roamed in
northern Asia and Switzerland. To produce these animals and the food
they need, it is not necessary to have great heat, but merely to
prevent great cold, half the summer's sun being absorbed in melting the
winter's accumulation of ice.

"When the axis has reached a point at which it inclines but about
twelve degrees, it will become necessary to fill the antarctic
reservoir in June and the Arctic Ocean in December, in order to check
the straightening, since otherwise it might get beyond the
perpendicular and swing the other way. When this motion is completely
arrested, I suggest that we blow up the Aleutian Isles and enlarge
Bering Strait, so as to allow what corresponds to the Atlantic Gulf
Stream in the Pacific to enter the Arctic Archipelago, which I have
calculated will raise the average temperature of that entire region
about thirty degrees, thereby still further increasing the amount of
available land.

"Ocean currents, being the result of the prevailing winds, which will
be more regular than at present, can be counted upon