PHILOSOPHIC ANTS 195 



be appreciated by hearing. Unfortunately, as his 

 ears possessed no lens, this universal music was to 

 him of course merely a hideous babel of sound. 



At last, as the workings of his body approached 

 the rapidity of light's own oscillations, he entered 

 on a new phase — surrounded on every side by an 

 ocean of waves which lapped softly against his body 

 — waves, waves, and still more waves. . . 



He was in that region not unlike that from which 

 life has escaped when it ceased to be infinitely little, 

 a region in which none of the events that make up our 

 ordinary life, none of the bodies that are our normal 

 environment, have existence any more — all reduced 

 to a chaos of billows ceaselessly and meaninglessly 

 buffeting his being. 



' Mi ritrovai in una selva oscura.' 



Life is a wood, dark and trackless enough to be 

 sure ; but Mercaptan could not even see that it was 

 a wood — for the trees. 



Yet it was soothing : the very meaninglessness of 

 the wave-rocking released one of responsibility, and 

 it was delicious to float upon this strange etheric sea. 



Then his scientific mind reasserted itself He 

 realized that he had magnified his rate of life and was 

 consuming his precious days at an appalling speed. 

 The lever was thrown into reverse, and he passed 

 gradually back to what he had been accustomed to 

 think of as reality. 



Back to it ; and then beyond it, slowingjjhis vital 



