BEYOND THE STARS 9 1 



period of 10 22 seconds, or a thousand billion years. 

 Now the currant evinces no perceptible change to us 

 in one second, and if our starry heavens did actu- 

 ally constitute some piece of organic matter such 

 as a currant, we need not expect any very marked 

 changes in it for a period of time far exceeding 

 the longest geological epoch ever postulated. 



To complete the analogy between a small material 

 body like a lentil or a currant and the visible uni- 

 verse, one essential element is wanting. The density 

 of a currant is slightly greater than that of water. 

 The density of the whole visible universe is much 

 less than that. We have already seen that in 

 descending to the infra-world the densities increase 

 10 11 times. In ascending to the supra-world they 

 decrease in at least the same proportion. If they 

 did not do so, the velocities would not remain 

 of the same order as those we are familiar with, 

 but would all tend to approach the velocity of 

 light. 



Now let us go through the converse process, and 

 reduce the visible universe by the world-ratio, or, 

 what comes to the same thing, increase our own 

 size in the same ratio, taking care to alter the 

 scale of time correspondingly. What should we 

 find < 



We should find a small ring, much too small to go 

 on our finger, but showing very intricate and what 

 some people might be disposed to call "artistic" 



