THE LIGHT-RECORD OF THE PAST. 
225 
age, if we could transplant him from the earth to a Sirian planet 
instantaneously, he would—looking towards the earth—behold his 
own wedding in the very act of taking place. It is true that for 
the actual vision of the fact the observer would need to be provided 
with a telescope that would “ Lick ” creation, and having an eye¬ 
piece which should excel Sam Weller’s “ patent double-million 
magnifyin’gas microscope of hextra power;” but the dictionary 
of science—like Napoleon’s—does not contain the word impossible ; 
and the “general public,” only twenty years ago, would have 
considered such a fact as, if anything, more probable than that a 
man in Paris should be able to converse with one in London. 
But here the photographic camera comes to our aid ; it is the eye 
of science, and the effect of light upon the sensitive surface is 
cumulative ; that is, it sees twenty times as well in twenty seconds 
as in one second, and we may allow it hours or even days to do its 
perfect-seeing in. In photographing the heavens, exposures 
exceeding eight hours have been given ; and if the Arctic observa¬ 
tory which we suggested some years ago should ever become a fact, 
such exposures, in the long, serene nights of the Polar zone, might 
well be extended to days or even weeks. 
But even Sirius is probably among the nearest of the fixed 
stars ; and if it were not, who can imagine a limit to space, a 
boundary to that which is infinite ? Outwards then—and with a 
speed far transcending the velocity of light—let us pursue our 
way. Soon, “ looking backwards,” we perceive the events of our 
boyhood ; old men grow youthful, and the withered crone becomes 
first the blooming matron, and then the slender, blushing girl: instead 
of dying, she is born. Then historic battles—Waterloo, Trafalgar— 
nil us with horror ; and—yes, Mary Stuart ivas as beautiful as 
Bizzio proclaimed her ; and—what did you say ? the exact spot 
where Caesar landed in Britain ?—’twas here, east of Pevensey, for 
with these eyes I saw his standard bearer on the beach, being 
myself then on the tiny planet attached to a thirteenth magnitude 
star, situated at two thousand odd light-years from the earth. 
This view of the case may seem to be “ History Made Easy,” for 
our imaginary outward-bound observer : but the reality would be 
October, 1893. 
