air, the space--may be made, by certain secrets of the higher chemistry,
more palpable and clear. And this, too, is not magic, as the credulous
call it; as I have so often said before, magic (or science that violates
Nature) exists not: it is but the science by which Nature can be
controlled. Now, in space there are millions of beings not literally
spiritual, for they have all, like the animalculae unseen by the naked
eye, certain forms of matter, though matter so delicate, air-drawn, and
subtle, that it is, as it were, but a film, a gossamer that clothes the
spirit. Hence the Rosicrucian's lovely phantoms of sylph and gnome. Yet,
in truth, these races and tribes differ more widely, each from each,
than the Calmuc from the Greek,--differ in attributes and powers. In the
drop of water you see how the animalculae vary, how vast and terrible
are some of those monster mites as compared with others. Equally so with
the inhabitants of the atmosphere: some of surpassing wisdom, some of
horrible malignity; some hostile as fiends to men, others gentle as
messengers between earth and heaven.

"He who would establish intercourse with these varying beings resembles
the traveller who would penetrate into unknown lands. He is exposed to
strange dangers and unconjectured terrors. THAT INTERCOURSE ONCE GAINED,
I CANNOT SECURE THEE FROM THE CHANCES TO WHICH THY JOURNEY IS EXPOSED.
I cannot direct thee to paths free from the wanderings of the deadliest
foes. Thou must alone, and of thyself, face and hazard all. But if thou
art so enamoured of life as to care only to live on, no matter for what
ends, recruiting the nerves and veins with the alchemist's vivifying
elixir, why seek these dangers from the intermediate tribes? Because the
very elixir that pours a more glorious life into the frame, so sharpens
the senses that those larvae of the air become to thee audible and
apparent; so that, unless trained by degrees to endure the phantoms and
subdue their malice, a life thus gifted would be the most awful doom