Thursday, November 20, 2008

FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF

LUCIAN (of Samosata) said in A.D. 165 :
"We were suddenly caught in a whirlwind, which turned our vessel several times around in a circle with tremendous speed and lifted it more than three thousand stadia into the air, not setting it down again on the sea, but kept it suspended above the water at that height, and carried us on, and with swelled sails, above the clouds.
After an aerial voyage of seven days and seven nights, we sighted land in the air. It was an island, luminous, spherical and shining with strong light.
We put into it, and having cast anchor, landed. On examining the country, we discovered that it was inhabited and cultivated.
In the daylight we could see nothing from where we were, but when night came, other islands became visible to us in the surrounding air, some close by, some larger and some smaller, with the apppearance of fire.
There was another island below us , with cities, rivers, seas, woods, and mountains on it. This, we concluded, was our own world."
This could be the most honest description of travel between the planets of our solar system.

WHEN THE SLEEPER WAKES by H.G.Wells (1899).
A metaphorical description the world situation to someone who spent 200 years in suspended animation :
"His Japanese attendant, Asano, in expounding the political history of the intervening two centuries, drew an apt image from a seed eaten by insect parasites. First there is the original seed, ripening vigorously enough. And then comes some insect and lays an egg under the skin, and behold! in a little while the seed is a hollow shape with an active grub inside that has eaten out its substance. And then comes some secondary parasite , some ichneumon fly, and lays an egg within this grub, and behold! that, too, is a hollow shape, and the living thing inside its predecessor's skin which itself is snug within the seed coat. And the seed coat still keeps its shape, most people think it a seed still, and for all one knows it may still think itself a seed, vigourous and alive. 'Your Victorian kingdom' said Asano, ' was like that-kingship with its heart eaten out.' The landowners-the barons and gentry-began ages ago with King John; there were lapses, but they beheaded King Charles, and ended practically with King George, a mere husk of a king...the real power in the hands of their parliament. But the Parliament-the organ of the land-holding tenant-ruling gentry-did not keep its power long. The change had already come in the nineteenth century. The franchises had been broadened until it incuded masses of ignorant men, "urban myriads" who went in their featureless thousands to vote together. And the natural consequence of a swarming constituency is the rule of the party organization. Power was passing even in the Victorian time to the party machinery, secret, complex, and corrupt. Very speedily power was in the hand of great men of business who financed the machines. A time came when the real power and interest of the Empire rested visibly between the two party councils, ruling by newspapers and electoral organizations-two small groups of rich and able men, working at first in opposition, then presently together."
Does this remind us of today, A.D. 2008 ?

ETIDORHPA by John Uri Lloyd, 1895, p.86 :
" The speaker stood in a stooping position, with his face towards the earth as if to shelter it from the sunshine. He was less than five feet in height. His arms and legs were bare, and his skin, the color of light blue putty, glistened in the sunlight like the slimy hide of a water dog. He raised his head, and I shuddered afright as I beheld that his face was not that of a human. His forehead extended in an unbroken plane from crown to cheekbone, and the chubby tip of an abortive nose without nostrils formed a short projection near the center of the level ridge which represented a countenance. There was no semblance of an eye, for there were no sockets. Yet his voice was singularly perfect. His face, if face it could be called, was wet, and water dripped from all parts of his slippery person. Yet, repulsive as he looked, I shuddered more at the rememberance of that cold, clammy hand than at the sight of his figure, for a dead man could not have chilled me as he had done, with his sappy skin, from which moisture seemed to ooze as from the hide of a water lizard."
Supposedly the story of William Morgan, initiator of the Anti-Masonic Period (1826-1845).

NEW ATLANTIS by Francis Bacon, 1624:
"We have also sound-houses, where we practice and demonstrate all sounds and their generation. We have harmonies which you have not, of quarter-sounds and lesser slides of sounds. Diverse instruments of music likewise to you unknown, some sweeter than any you have; together with bells and rings that are dainty and sweet. We represent small sounds as great and deep; likewise great sounds, extenuate and sharp; we make diverse tremblings and warblings of sound, which in their original are entire. We represent and imitate all articulate sounds and letters, and the voices and notes of beasts and birds. We have certain helps, which set the ear do futher the hearing greatly. We have also diverse strange and artificial echoes, reflecting the voice many times,and as it were tossing it; and some that give back the voice louder than it came, some shriller and deeper; yea, some rendering the voice, differing in the articulate sound from that they receive.We also have means to convey sounds in trunks and pipes, in strange lines and distances."
King of "New Atlantis" describing to a sailor "the riches of Solomon's House". Apparently the future North America.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

LUCIAN not LUCIEN(not trying to sound picky, but it does...)

Fascinating story by him, makes a good bed time story...

And the H.G. Wells thing, how ironic that he wrote that the very last year before the century of when that all took place!The Dem.'s & the Rep.'s, all in the end one of the same.

And ETIDORPHA by John Uri Lloyd, I can just imagine, the way he describes the entity. I wanna sketch it out, no actually I wanna meet one of 'em guys some day.

Thanks for posting that!, nice read...

ZHP said...

Eric-Thanks for the spell check, I don't mind. As far as the veracity of it,I cannot of course say, although I believe the name of the tale the quote was taken from was" A True Story"-make of that what you will.
Checkout http://www.holloworbs.com/EtidorhpaContents.htm if you have not already.

Hypervigilant said...

you are the best bloggie in the world!