8 PREFACE 



matches in that parlor, the carpet held such a sur- 

 plus of electricity most any person could by a few 

 gliding steps increase the electricity of their body 

 so they could light the gas by a touch. 



Then I began to think electric fire in man's body, 

 in the clouds, in coal and wood, on the telegraph 

 line, in flint, in cold steel in everything. Electricity 

 must be light, heat, life and creative force, and 

 will explain the mysteries of nature. 



In the hot, dry summer of 1901, when The Cities 

 of the Sun* was issued, my publisher called me to 

 one side and said that his salesman was going 

 out West. He asked, "If he offers to sell your book, 

 which says the sun is not hot, to those old Kansas 

 farmers, won't they mob him and hang him to the 

 first available tree?" I admitted it did look serious 

 on account of the extreme heat then afflicting the 

 West, but told him to have his salesman inform 

 them that if they would go up in a balloon a few 

 thousand feet nearer the sun they would freeze to 

 death, ^nd^J:hat if they had an arm that would 

 reach flfiSfthousand feet up into the atmosphere it 

 would freeze to the elbow in less than thirty min- 

 utes, the hottest day ever known, as every twja^l 

 thousand feet upwards from the earth there is a 

 loss of over one hundred degrees of heat. I mention 

 this to show how some of these theories may shock 

 the sensibilities of some unscientific thinkers. 



All scientists declare that the sun is a burning 

 globe and also the material and electric center of 

 the solar system; but I conceived it to be a 

 living world like our earth, only more prolific in life 



* Published by G. W. Dillingham Company, N. Y, 



