Limanora the island of progress
elements of moonbeams to help them in destroying bacterial life, and
leave only their healthy and inspiring tendencies; thus dealt with,
the rays of the moon gave a stimulus to the brain-tissues which worked
up imaginative materials. And every star had, in their science, its own
peculiar influence, sometimes malign, more commonly beneficial, when
treated according to their wise discoveries.
Little of all this would have been possible without the inolan or
measurer of light, one of the most delicate instruments they possessed.
This was but a modification of the human eye as it had been developed
in their bodies. It magnified the impression made on the lens so that
it should move a small mirror delicately hung _in vacuo_; the
reflection of this mirror ran along a graduated scale on which it
recorded by bleaching a point of colour, the energy of light in the
beam producing the movement. This recorded not merely the strength of
the rays of which their eyes were conscious, but that of many octaves
of light outside of the range of all human eyes. A more modern and
delicate form of the inolan used a microscopic camera as the medium of
measurement; this had accomplished new wonders in the way of measuring
the power of rays from stars out of reach of the human eye. A third
photometer, recently invented and still untested when I visited the
collection of measurers, had made use of electricity in collecting and
testing the quality and energy of beams of light.
In all of these forms of the inolan there was an arrangement for
ridding each ray of its heat and of other forms of energy before it
entered the lens; a thermometer measured the heat; and the other
elements were absorbed and analysed by a subsidiary apparatus as the
beam approached the inolan. Another modification of the apparatus had
a prismatic arrangement attached to it, not unlike their inamar,
and this broke up the beam of light into its colour components; the
inolan measured each separate component, the length of its wave,
and the energy required to produce it, its camera also recording in
photographic form the metallic elements through which the beam had
passed. A more recent modification, promising great results, was one
which by means of a vacuum-lens recorded the dark beams that shone from
unseen stellar bodies through the corona of our own or other suns. When
fully developed they expected this to reveal the secrets of the darker
depths of the heavens; the systems revolving round the stars would
stand out clearly with all their elements for the investigation of the
astronomic families.
Nor did the extraordinary refinement of these instruments, that were
constantly being discovered, interfere in any way with the development
of Limanoran senses. On the contrary they stimulated advance. Every new
aid to any sense pointed the way to its improvement; and in a few years
or generations this aid was rendered almost superfluous and a new and
more delicate machine must be invented; for the combination of so many
functions in the living body rendered the observations of any one sense
less exact and trustworthy than those of a machine which had but one
purpose.
Thus the evolution of the senses kept up an unending race with the
evolution of fine machinery to aid them. Even the roughest, most
material, and least specialised of all the senses, touch, had grown
into something that was most delicate in its manipulation; and one of
the most important parts of the education of my senses was to refine
and develop it. They had specialised it to an astonishing degree. The
lips, especially the outer edges of them, were able to distinguish
the latent energy in any substance applied to them; whilst a delicate
fringe of hair upon the upper lip, too minute to be seen by ordinary
eyes, revealed to them the movements and character of gases and vapours
that were so faint in their impulse as to be unrecognisable by the
other senses. The measurement of force had been raised to a high point
of exactness in their huge chests and shoulders. Their hands, within
certain limits, felt temperature with the accuracy and minuteness of a
thermometer. And the prehensile and manipulative skill of their fingers
far surpassed that of the ablest European conjuror I had ever seen.
Without any intention to outwit my senses, they would do things with
their hands so swiftly that I could not follow the movements. It seemed
to me at first as if they had more joints in their fingers than other
human beings, so nimble were they; but this was not the case, although
the arm had greater scope of movement than mine; in fact it seemed to
move in the shoulder socket as in a universal joint, so freely could it
revolve in all directions. Their joints were really more padded with
cartilage than mine, so that there was more flexibility in the limbs
along with greater firmness and strength.
Their nerves were also more magnetic than those of other men, conveying
the messages to and from the brain and will-centres with far more
swiftness and certitude. Indeed, if I were to find any one point in
their systems which most differentiated them from European humanity, it
was this increased and accelerated nerve-energy. For a long time their
rapidity and ease of movement and action bewildered me; whilst I was
deliberating what was to be done, they had done all that was needed.
They had instruments for measuring the flash of thought from brain to
hand and of sensation from hand to brain, and when tested at first, the
swiftness of the message along my nerves was not one tithe of theirs,
but when my education had somewhat advanced, this disparity was reduced
by half. This advance was accomplished, not merely by practice, but
by variety of diet and medication, and by living in a more magnetic
atmosphere. I was often borne aloft into the purer air that fringes the
envelope of our earth, and there, half-asleep, I drew into my system
the electric elements which went to the quickening of my nerves. Down
in the island everything that would excite me was avoided; the muscles
and the other tissues of the body were exercised, whilst the nerves
completely rested. Then they would be given gentle exercise of their
own, to strengthen and make them supple, without unduly stimulating
them. I soon began to feel the difference in the increasing nimbleness
of my limbs and could move with more celerity and ease. The fingers
were quicker to follow the eye. I grew what my old companions would
have thought unerring in my aim and would have made a deadly shot
with bullet or arrow in the wars of my native country. What was still
better, the tips of my fingers came to be powerfully magnetic both in
their appreciation of the electricity in any body they touched, and in
actively producing magnetic currents. I was even able to cause a faint
flash in the darkness by concentrating my will-power in my fingers, and
waving them in the air.
POSTSCRIPT TO LIMANORA
When he had reached this point in his narrative, a striking instance
of the result of his education occurred. It was getting towards the
end of winter, and we who had our rules of thumb for the changes in
the weather were looking for the equinoctial gales that harbinger the
approach of spring. The days were lengthening, and the light of the sun
was growing clear and strong upon our high-perched huts.
We had noticed a certain distraction in his manner, an absence of
thought or of consciousness, when he was describing the development of
his magnetic sense. And when he ceased for the night he could not rest
but paced uneasily along our platform of cliff which overlooked the
waters of the sound. The moon had begun to wane, and our weather lore
bade us look out for storms at the beginning of her next phase. I could
not go myself to rest for thinking of his strange narrative and the
wonderful people he had sojourned amongst. I sat up many hours writing
out what I could remember of his conversations and descriptions while
it was still clear in my mind.
Some time after midnight I looked out and saw the silver moonshine on
the still waters below and was attracted by the beauty of the scene. I
had thought that he had retired, but I had scarcely seated myself on a
projecting boss of rock that took in one of our widest views, when his
musical voice startled me out of my reverie.
We fell into such sympathetic intercourse as the beauty of night often
stimulates in two sleepless spirits meeting under the moon. He told me
that the earth was then tremulous with suppressed passion, and that
far off in his old home in the Pacific her heart was about to break.
He felt waves of magnetic feeling pass through him, and they drew
his soul back to Limanora. He knew that the spirits he loved there
were yearning for him. For his heart quivered and throbbed with full
memories of all he had known and experienced. There was anguish in the
magnetic undulance vibrating across his being. It was not merely that
a great storm was approaching; that he had known for some days. There
were human pulsations in the ether which beat like an ocean upon his
brain. That was why he could not rest. If only he could have his wings
again, he would try to respond to the call. But it was useless with the
recrudescence of his muddier humanity to attempt return by such aërial
means. I offered to go with him on the morrow to the nearest city and
charter a ship to carry us to his former home. But he would not listen
to my proposal, and bade me seek rest and sleep.
I began to feel that I was intruding on the privacy of an agonised
soul, and I bade him good-night and left him to his own thoughts.
The exhaustion of overcharged emotion soon let me drift into troubled
unconsciousness. Dream followed dream like hurrying clouds over the
moon. At dawn I woke in nightmare. The hut was shaking. I thought that
I was still dreaming. But the swish of the rain and the lashing of
the tree-branches on the roof soon made me understand. The calm of the
night before had given way to tempest; and the earth was suffering
rupture.
I remembered the prediction of our guest, and rushed to his hut. He
was not there; nor could I conjecture whither he had gone. I thought
he had taken shelter in the bush from the storm. Three days it lasted,
and then we were able to go out and search the drenched forest. We
followed up every track that he had been accustomed to take. We went
to all his favourite haunts. But no trace could we find of him, though
days were spent on the search. Then we forced our way through the dense
undergrowth in several directions we had never seen him take; and at
last we came upon a yawning chasm, which had every appearance of being
newly opened. The precipitous side of the mountain had split, and a
vast landslip had swept down it and filled the bottom of the gulf.
We could not resist the natural conclusion; this was the tomb of our
guest. After all his wanderings he had found appropriate resting-place.
The earth he knew so well had taken him to her bosom.
BOOK II
The Limanorans
The Inner Life of a Self-Selected People
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
PREFACE 291
GLOSSARY 295
I.--DISCOVERIES 299
II.--AN ACCIDENT 339
III.--DEATH 354
IV.--AN EPIDEMIC 392
V.--LITERATURE 407