of
one with the other might serve as an incentive to your minds. You saw
it in Nature on Jupiter in the case of several creatures, suspecting it
in the boa-constrictor and Will-o'-the-wisp and jelly-fish, and have
standing illustrations of it in all tailed comets--luminosity in the
case of large bodies being one manifestation--in the rings of this
planet, and in the molecular motion and porosity of all gases, liquids,
and solids on earth; since what else is it that keeps the molecules
apart, heat serving merely to increase its power? God made man in his
own image; does it not stand to reason that he will allow him to
continue to become more and more like himself? Would he begrudge him
the power to move mountains through the intelligent application of
Nature's laws, when he himself said they might be moved by faith? So
far you have been content to use the mechanical power of water, its
momentum or dead weight merely; to attain a much higher civilization,
you must break it up chemically and use its constituent gases."

"How," asked Bearwarden, "can this be done?"

"Force superheated steam," replied the spirit, "through an intensely
heated substance, as you now do in making water-gas--preferably
platinum heated by electricity--apply an apergetic shock, and the
oxygen and hydrogen will separate like oil and water, the oxygen being
so much the heavier. Lead them in different directions as fast as the
water is decomposed--since otherwise they would reunite--and your
supply of power will be inexhaustible."

"Will you not stay and dine with us?" asked Ayrault. "While in the
flesh you must be subject to its laws, and must need food to maintain
your strength, like ourselves."

"It will give me great pleasure," replied the spirit, "to tarry with
you, and once more to taste earthly food, but most of all to have the
blessed joy of being of service to you. Here, all being immaterial
spirits, no physical injury can befall any of us; and since no one
wants anything that any one else can give, we have no opportunity of
doing anything for each other. You see we neither eat nor sleep,
neither can any of us again know physical pain or death, nor can we
comfort one another, for every one knows the truth about himself and
every one else, and we read one another's thoughts as an open book."

"Do you," asked Bearwarden, "not eat at all?"

"We absorb vitality in a sense," replied the spirit. "As the sun
combines certain substan