Current Literature [pp. 481-488]

CURRENT LITERA TURE.
chasm, jagged and charred at the sides, as if
the product of volcanic fires. Down this
chasm went the engineer, in a "cage," re maining an hour in the dreadful abyss. Ter ror was stamped upon every lineament of his
face, as he was brought forth from the mys terious fissure. Subsequent importunate ques tionings on the part of the American friend
reveal the fact, that, deep down at the bottom
of the abyss, he has seen and heard "un speakable things, which it is not lawful for
man to utter."
The next day, with six veteran miners to
watch their descent, the two men go down to
investigate the horrible mystery. The en gineer, by some wretched fatality, is precip itated to the bottom, and instantly killed,
leaving the one solitary man alone in that
strange world, amid the bowels of the earth,
without possible hope of return, as the rope
and grappling hooks have been loosed from
their anchorage above, and lie at his feet.
The chasm widens rapidly, like a vast funnel; a broad, level road stretches out, illumined, as far as the eye can reach, by what
seem to be artificial gas - lamps, placed at
regular intervals, as in the thoroughfare of a
great city. There is, also, the confused hum,
as of human voices. Have human hands
leveled this road and marshaled these lamps?
These beings (for this vault is all astir with
life) prove to be a race who have borrowed
the outlines of man, and are yet of another
race - tall, but not gigantic. The outline
and expression of face is like that of the
sculptured sphinx: regular in its calm, intellectual, mysterious beauty, and yet having a
nameless something in its aspect which rouses
the instinct of danger, as does the sight of a
tiger or serpent. They seem endowed with
attributes inimical to man. The hidden and
mysterious forces of Nature minister to their
needs and necessities, and are made tributary to their wants. Through the agency of a
wondrous power, which these underground
scientists call "vril," they have arrived at
the unity in natural energic agencies. It
would seem to comprehend, in its manifold
branches, all those forces known in our scientific nomenclature under the names of electricity, magnetism, galvanism, mesmerism,
etc., and which Faraday hints at, under the
more cautious term of correlation, when he
says: "I have long held an opinion, that
the various forms under which the forces of
matter are made manifest, have one common
origin; or, in other words, are so directly
related and mutually dependent, that they
are convertible, as it were, into one another,
and possess equivalents of power in their
action."
These subterranean philosophers assert,
that, by one operation of vril, they can influ ence the variations of temperature; by an other, they can exercise influence over minds
and bodies, both animate and inanimate, to
an extent not surpassed in the romances of
our mystics. "It can destroy like a flash of
lightning; yet, differently applied, it cari re plenish or invigorate life, heal, and preserve;
and on it they chiefly rely for the cure of
disease, or, rather, for enabling the physical
organization to re- establish the due equilib rium of its natural powers, and thereby to
cure itself. By this agency, they rend their
way through the most solid substances, and
open valleys for culture through the rocks of
their subterranean wilderness. From it they
extract the light which supplies their lamps,
finding it steadier, softer, and healthier than
the other inflammable materials they had
formerly used." The vril-staff, in the hand
of a child, can shatter the strongest fortress,
or cleave its burning way from the van to the
rear of an embattled host. Its influence
upon social polity may, therefore, be imagined. This power of operating, however, is
not equal in all, but in proportion to certain
vril-powers in the dispenser. In more common parlance, it is dependent upon the mediumistic qualities of the operator. He must
be en rapport with the purposes to be effected. We are told, most exultantly, that the
vril - staff is an antidote for war; just as the
perfection of instruments of death and destruction is supposed to lessen the possibilities
of carnage, as if miglt could ever make righit.
Reason has always been occupied in reversing the judgment of Force in matters of opinion, else Error, once victorious, would be immortal. Force can not crush Truth.
However, among the Vril-ya there is only
the government of opinion; there is perfect
unanimity in this, and all yield a willing and
full obedience to a single and supreme magistrate, styled Tur, who holds his office for life.
[Nov.
486