wish to be. And it is no sign of wisdom to say that there is a
county beyond, but that the county boundaries end all, and only
village and county politics may be studied. The European who
believed--no Asiatic or African or American could have believed
--that the earth rested on an elephant and the elephant on
a turtle was wise, in comparison. Nor is it any sign of
intelligence to say that we may learn something of the village
and county while we live, but that to learn anything about the
state and nation we must wait until we are dead. There are too
many in the village who are familiar with both state and nation,
and who have studied their laws, for this to be anything but
idiotic.




Chapter Eight

The Battle Ground


Each and every one of our eighty-odd elementary substances owe
their condition--whether solid, liquid, or gas--to their rate
of vibration. We have reduced all gases to a liquid and nearly
all to a solid form. Conversely, we have raised all solids to a
liquid and nearly all to a gaseous condition. This has been done
by reducing or raising the vibration of each within one octave
--each one of the eighty odd having a special octave, a tone or
half-tone different from any other. Normally, the solids,
vibrating in the lower notes, gather together under Attraction;