ey do
not melt into one another like dissolving views, nor do a series of
ordinary pictures follow one another; but the action of the reflected
figures constantly goes on, as though one were watching the actors on
a distant stage.

But if the trained investigator turns his attention specially to any
one scene, or wishes to call it up before him, an extraordinary change
at once takes place, for this is the plane of thought, and to think of
anything is to bring it instantaneously before you. For example, if a
man wills to see the record of that event to which we before
referred--the landing of Julius Caesar--he finds himself in a moment
not looking at any picture, but standing on the shore among the
legionaries, with the whole scene being enacted around him, precisely
in every respect as he would have seen it if he had stood there in the
flesh on that autumn morning in the year 55 B.C. Since what he sees is
but a reflection, the actors are of course entirely unconscious of
him, nor can any effort of his change the course of their action in
the smallest degree, except only that he can control the rate at which
the drama shall pass before him--can have the events of a whole year
rehearsed before his eyes in a single hour, or can at any moment stop
the movement altogether, and hold any particular scene in view as a
picture as long as he chooses.

In truth he observes not only what he would have seen if he had been
there at the time in the flesh, but much more. He hears and
understands all that the people say, and he is conscious of all their
thoughts and motives; and one of the most interesting of the many
possibilities which open up before one who has learnt to read the
records is the study of the thought of ages long past--the thought of
the cave-men and the lake-dwellers as well as that which ruled the
mighty civilisations of Atlantis, of Egypt or Chaldaea. What splendid
possibilities open up before the man who is in full possession of this
power may easily be imagined. He has before him a field of historical
research of most entrancing interest. Not only can he review at his
leisure all history with which we are acquainted, correcting as he
examines it the many errors and misconceptions which have crept into
the accounts handed down to us; he can also range at will over the
whole story of the world from its very beginning, watching the slow
development of intellect in man, the descent of the Lords of the
Flame, and th