Eureka: A Prose Poem — Edgar A. Poe, 1848 — reading text

of them as abso lutely nothing. Now, let us suppose the star Alpha Lyrae directly over head ; and let us imagine that, instead of standing on the Earth, we stand at one end of a straight road stretching through Space to a distance equalling the diameter of the Earth's orbit — that is to say, to a distance of 190 millions of miles. Having observed, by means of the most delicate micrometrical instruments, the exact position of the star, let us now pass along this inconceivable road, until we reach its other extremity. Now, once again, let us look at the star. It is precisely where we left it. Our instruments, however delicate, assure us that its relative position is ab solutely — is identically the same as at the commencement of our unutterable journey. No parallax — none whatever — has been found. THE UNIVERSE. 115 The fact is, that, in regard to the distance of the fixed stars — of any one of the myriads of suns glistening on the farther side 6f that awful chasm which separates our sys tem from its brothers in the cluster to which it belongs — astronomical science, until very lately, could speak only with a negative certainty. Assuming the brightest as the nearest, we could say, even of them, only that there is a certain incomprehensible distance on the hither side of which they cannot be : — how far they are beyond it we had in no case been able to ascertain. We perceived, for exam ple, that Alpha Lyrae cannot be nearer to us than 19 tril lions, 200 billions of miles ; but, for all we knew, and indeed for all we now know, it may be distant from us the square, or the cube, or any other power of the number mentioned. By dint, however, of wonderfully minute and cautious observations, continued, with novel instruments, for many laborious years, Bessel, not long ago deceased, has lately succeeded in determining the distance of six or seven stars ; among others, that of the star numbered 61 in the constellation of the Swan. The distance in this lat ter instance ascertained, is 670,000 times that of the Sun ; which last it will be remembered, is 95 millions of miles. The star 61 Cygni, then, is nearly 64 trillions of miles from us — or more than three times the distance assigned, as the least possible, for Alpha Lyrae. In attempting to appreciate this interval by the aid of any considerations of velocity, as we did in endeavoring to estimate the distance of the moon, we must leave out of sight, altogether, such nothings as the speed of a cannon ball, or of sound. Light, however, according to the latest 116 EUIIEKA. calculations of Struve, proceeds at the rate of 167,000 miles in a second. Thought itself cannot pass through this in terval more speedily — if, indeed, thought can traverse it at all. Yet, in coming from 61 Cygni to us, even at this in conceivable rate, light occupies more than ten years ; and, consequently, were the star this moment blotted out from the Universe, still, for ten years, would it continue to spar kle on, undimmed in its paradoxical glory. Keeping now in mind whatever feeble conception we may have attained of the interval between our Sun and 61 Cygni, let us remember that this interval, however unutter ably vast, we are permitted to consider as but the average interval among the countless host of stars composing that cluster, or " nebula," to which our system, as well as that of 61 Cygni, belongs. I have, in fact, stated the case with great moderation : — we have excellent reason for believing 61 Cygni to be one of the nearest stars, and thus for con cluding, at least for the present, that its distance from us is less than the average distance between star and star in the magnificent cluster of the Milky Way. And here, once again and finally, it seems proper to suggest that even as yet we have been speaking of trifles. Ceasing to wonder at the space between star and star in our own or in any particular cluster, let us rather turn our thoughts to the intervals between cluster and cluster, in the all comprehensive cluster of the Universe. I have already said that light proceeds at the rate of 167,000 miles in a second — that is, about 10 millions of miles in a minute, or about 600 millions of miles in an hour : — yet so far removed from us are some of the THE UNIVERSE. 117 " nebulae " that even light, speeding with this velocity, could not and does not reach us, from those mysterious regions, in less than 3 millions of years. This calculation, moreover, is made by the elder Herschell, and in reference merely to those comparatively proximate clusters within the scope of his own telescope. There are " nebulae," however, which, through the magical tube of Lord Rosse, are this instant whispering in our ears the secrets of a million of ages by-gone. In a word, the events which we behold now — at this moment — in those worlds — are the identical events which interested their inhabitants ten hun dred thousand centuries ago. In intervals — in distances such as this suggestion forces upon the soul — rather than upon the mind — we find, at length, a fitting climax to all hitherto frivolous considerations of quantity. Our fancies thus occupied with the cosmical distances, let us take the opportunity of referring to the difficulty which we have so often experienced, while pursuing the beaten path of astronomical reflection, in accounting for the immeasur able voids alluded to — in comprehending why chasms so totally unoccupied and therefore apparently so needless, have been made to intervene between star and star — between clus ter and cluster — in understanding, to be brief, a sufficient rea son for the Titanic scale, in respect of mere Space, on which the Universe is seen to be constructed. A rational cause for the phaenomenon, I maintain that Astronomy has palpa bly failed to assign : — but the considerations through which, in this Essay, we have proceeded step by step, enable us clearly and immediately to perceive that Space and Dura tion are one. That the Universe might endure throughout 118 EUREKA. an aera at all commensurate with the grandeur of its com ponent material portions and with the high majesty of its spiritual purposes, it was necessary that the original atomic diffusion be made to so inconceivable an extent as to be only not infinite. It was required, in a word, that the stars should be gathered into visibility from invisible nebulosity — proceed from nebulosity to consolidation — and so grow grey in giving birth and death to unspeakably numerous and complex variations of vitalic development : — it was required that the stars should do all this — should have time thoroughly to accomplish all these Divine purposes — during the period in which all things were effecting their return into Unity with a velocity accumulating in the inverse proportion of the squares of the distances at which lay the inevitable End. Throughout all this we have no difficulty in understand ing the absolute accuracy of the Divine adaptation. The density of the stars, respectively, proceeds, of course, as their condensation diminishes ; condensation and hetero geneity keep pace with each other ; through the latter, which is the index of the former, we estimate the vitalic and spiritual development. Thus, in the density of the globes, we have the measure in which their purposes are fulfilled. As density proceeds — as the divine intentions are accomplished — as less and still less remains to be ac complished — so — in the same ratio — should we expect to find an acceleration of the End : — and thus the philosophical mind will easily comprehend that the Divine designs in constituting the stars, advance mathematically to their ful filment : — and more ; it will readily give the advance a THE UNIVERSE. 119 mathematical expression ; it will decide that this advance is inversely proportional with the squares of the distances of all created things from the starting-point and goal of their creation. Not only is this Divine adaptation, however, mathe matically accurate, but there is that about it which stamps it as divine, in distinction from that which is merely the work of human constructiveness. I allude to the complete mutuality of adaptation. For example ; in human con structions a particular cause has a particular effect ; a par ticular intention brings to pass a particular object ; but this is all ; we see no reciprocity. The effect does not re-act upon the cause ; the intention does not change relations with the object. In Divine constructions the object is either design or object as we choose to regard it — and we may take at any time a cause for an effect, or the con verse — so that we can never absolutely decide which is which. To give an instance :— In polar climates the human frame, to maintain its animal heat, requires, for combustion in the capillary system, an abundant supply of highly azotized food, such as train-oil. But again : — in polar cli mates nearly the sole food ^ afforded man is the oil of abun dant seals and whales. Now, whether is oil at hand because imperatively demanded, or the only thing demanded because the only thing to be obtained ? It is impossible to decide. There is an absolute reciprocity of adaptation. The pleasure which we derive from any display of human ingenuity is in the ratio of the approach to this species of reciprocity. In the construction of plot, for ex- 120 EUREKA. ample, in fictitious literature, we should aim at so arranging the incidents that we shall not be able to determine, of any one of them, whether it depends from any one other or upholds it. In this sense, of course, perfection of plot is really, or practically, unattainable — but only because it is a finite intelligence that constructs. The plots of God are perfect. The Universe is a plot of God. And now we have reached a point at which the intel lect is forced, again, to struggle against its propensity for analogical inference — against its monomaniac grasping at the infinite. Moons have been seen revolving about planets ; planets about stars ; and the poetical instinct of humanity — its instinct of the symmetrical, if the symmetry be but a symmetry of surface : — this instinct, which the Soul, not only of Man but of all created beings,