BOOK OF, THE DAMNED 259 



been numerous accidents to the "main brace," and that it had 

 required splicing so often that almost any ray of light would have 

 taken on a rotary motion. 



In Knowledge, Jan. 25, 1884, Mr. "Brace" answers and signs 

 himself "J. W. Robertson": 



"I don't suppose A. Me. D. means any harm, but I do think it's 

 rather unjust to say a man is drunk because he sees something out 

 of the common. If there's one thing I pride myself upon, it's being 

 able to say that never in my life have I indulged in anything stronger 

 than water." From this curiosity of pride, he goes on to say that 

 he had not intended to be exact, but to give his impressions of 

 dimensions and velocity. He ends amiably: "However, 'no of- 

 fense taken, where I suppose none is meant.' " 



To this letter Mr. Proctor adds a note, apologizing for the pub- 

 lication of "A. Me. D's." letter, which had come about by a mis- 

 understood instruction. Then Mr. Proctor wrote disagreeable let- 

 ters, himself, about other persons what else would you expect in a 

 quasi-existence? 



The obvious explanation of this phenomenon is that, under the 

 surface of the sea, in the Persian Gulf, was a vast luminous wheel: 

 that it was the light from its submerged spokes that Mr. Robertson 

 saw, shining upward. It seems clear that this light did shine up- 

 ward from origin below the surface of the sea. But at first it is 

 not so clear how vast luminous wheels, each the size of a village, 

 ever got under the surface of the Persian Gulf: also there may be 

 some misunderstanding as to what they were doing there. 



A deep-sea fish, and its adaptation to a dense medium 



That, at least in some regions aloft, there is a medium dense even 

 to gelatinousness 



A deep-sea fish, brought to the surface of the ocean: in a rela- 

 tively attenuated medium, it disintegrates 



Super-constructions adapted to a dense medium in inter-planetary 

 space sometimes, by stresses of various kinds, they are driven into 

 this earth's thin atmosphere 



Later we shall have data to support just this: that things enter- 

 ing this earth's atmosphere disintegrate and shine with a light that 

 is not the light of incandescence: shine brilliantly, even if cold 



Vast wheel-like super-constructions they enter this earth's at- 

 mosphere, and, threatened with disintegration, plunge for relief into 

 an ocean, or into a denser medium. 



Of course the requirements now facing us are: 



