444 A Century of Science 



who called on me some years ago with a huge par- 

 cel of manuscript, for which he wanted me to find 

 him a publisher. He had been cruelly snubbed 

 and ill-used, but truth would surely prevail over 

 bigotry, as in Galileo's case. I took his address 

 and let him leave his manuscript. Its recipe for 

 physical immortality, diluted through 600 foolscap 

 pages, was simply to learn how to go without food ! 

 Usually such a regimen will kill you by the fifth 

 day, but if, at that critical moment, while at the 

 point of death, you make one heroic effort and 

 stay alive, why, then you will have overcome the 

 King of Terrors once for all. I returned the 

 gentleman's manuscript with a polite note, regret- 

 ting that his line of research was so remote from 

 those to which I was accustomed that I could not 

 give him intelligent aid. 



On one of the beautiful hills of Petersham, near 

 the centre of Massachusetts, there dwelt a few 

 years since a small religious community of persons 

 who believed that they were destined to escape 

 death. Not science, but faith, had won for them 

 this boon. They believed that the third person 

 of the Trinity was incarnated in their leader or 

 high priest, Father Rowland. This community, I 

 believe, came from Rhode Island about forty years 

 ago, and at the height of its prosperity may have 



