North or South Pole, and without bothering about what is happening in your brain; but I am not a man for rest and a carefree life: the proof is that when I learned of your vision, I resolved to leave everything, risking the Shah of Persia’s disfavour, to come here and question you.
And also to attend to your daughter’s wedding!
My daughter’s wedding is a detail. I have never seen my daughter in the crystal, and I have seen you there.
Me? You have seen me there? So you can see into it too?
A fine question! if not, would I believe in your vision? Crystal, you see, and by crystal I mean any mineralogical substance well and duly crystallised, is not what the common person thinks; it is a mysterious mirror which, at a given moment, received the imprint and reflected theimage of a great spectacle. This spectacle was that of the vitrification of our planet. Call it crystallisation if you will, it is all the same to me. Crystallisation is, according to you, the action by which the molecules making up a mineral unite after having been dissolved in a fluid? Whether this fluid be burning hot or frozen matters little to me, and I declare that with regard to primitive substances you know no more than I. I concede the igneous nature of the primitive world; but, if I grant you the existence of a still-active fire, I declare that it burns at the centre of a diamond, which is the core of the planet.
“Now, between this colossal gemstone and the granite crust which serve it as a gangue, galleries, grottos, immense gaps open out. This is the action of a withdrawal that undoubtedly left large empty spaces, and when calm was re-established, these empty spaces filled up with the most admirable and precious gemstones. It is there that ruby, sapphire, beryl, and all those rich crystallisations of silica combined with aluminium, in other words of sand with clay, soar up in gigantic pillars or hang from the vaulted roofs in formidable needles. It is there that the smallest stone outstrips the size of the Egyptian pyramids, and he who sees this sight will be the most fortunate of lapidaries and the most famous of naturalists. Now then, I saw this crystalline world in an escaped fragment of the treasure, in a marvellous gem that showed me your image at the same time as my own, just as you saw Laura’s and your own in another gem. This is a revelation of an extra-scientific nature which is not given to everyone, and from which I intend to benefit.
“It is evident for me that we both possess a certaindivinatory sense which comes to us from God or the devil, it matters little, and which drives us irresistibly to the discovery and the conquest of the subterranean world. Your dream, more complete and lucid than mine, admirably specifies what I sensed: that is, that the gateway to the enchanted underground is at the poles and, as the North Pole is the less inaccessible, it is there that we must head as quickly as possible …
Allow me to catch my breath, my dear uncle, I cried out, my patience and politeness exhausted. Either you are mocking me, or you are mixing a few very incomplete scientific notions with the puerile chimeras of a sick mind.
Nasias did not explode as I was expecting. His conviction was so complete, that this time he was content to laugh at my incredulity.
We must put an end to this, he said, I must state a fact. Either you see in the crystal, or you do not see; either your sense of the ideal survives despite the stupidities of your materialist education, or these stupidities have extinguished it in you through your own fault. If the latter is the case, I shall abandon you to your miserable destiny. So prepare yourself to undergo a decisive test.
Uncle, I replied firmly, there is no need for a test. I do not see, I have never seen in the crystal. I dreamed that I saw my fantasies depicted there. It was a sickness I had, and which I no longer have, I feel, ever since you have sought to demonstrate the evidence of these
And also to attend to your daughter’s wedding!
My daughter’s wedding is a detail. I have never seen my daughter in the crystal, and I have seen you there.
Me? You have seen me there? So you can see into it too?
A fine question! if not, would I believe in your vision? Crystal, you see, and by crystal I mean any mineralogical substance well and duly crystallised, is not what the common person thinks; it is a mysterious mirror which, at a given moment, received the imprint and reflected theimage of a great spectacle. This spectacle was that of the vitrification of our planet. Call it crystallisation if you will, it is all the same to me. Crystallisation is, according to you, the action by which the molecules making up a mineral unite after having been dissolved in a fluid? Whether this fluid be burning hot or frozen matters little to me, and I declare that with regard to primitive substances you know no more than I. I concede the igneous nature of the primitive world; but, if I grant you the existence of a still-active fire, I declare that it burns at the centre of a diamond, which is the core of the planet.
“Now, between this colossal gemstone and the granite crust which serve it as a gangue, galleries, grottos, immense gaps open out. This is the action of a withdrawal that undoubtedly left large empty spaces, and when calm was re-established, these empty spaces filled up with the most admirable and precious gemstones. It is there that ruby, sapphire, beryl, and all those rich crystallisations of silica combined with aluminium, in other words of sand with clay, soar up in gigantic pillars or hang from the vaulted roofs in formidable needles. It is there that the smallest stone outstrips the size of the Egyptian pyramids, and he who sees this sight will be the most fortunate of lapidaries and the most famous of naturalists. Now then, I saw this crystalline world in an escaped fragment of the treasure, in a marvellous gem that showed me your image at the same time as my own, just as you saw Laura’s and your own in another gem. This is a revelation of an extra-scientific nature which is not given to everyone, and from which I intend to benefit.
“It is evident for me that we both possess a certaindivinatory sense which comes to us from God or the devil, it matters little, and which drives us irresistibly to the discovery and the conquest of the subterranean world. Your dream, more complete and lucid than mine, admirably specifies what I sensed: that is, that the gateway to the enchanted underground is at the poles and, as the North Pole is the less inaccessible, it is there that we must head as quickly as possible …
Allow me to catch my breath, my dear uncle, I cried out, my patience and politeness exhausted. Either you are mocking me, or you are mixing a few very incomplete scientific notions with the puerile chimeras of a sick mind.
Nasias did not explode as I was expecting. His conviction was so complete, that this time he was content to laugh at my incredulity.
We must put an end to this, he said, I must state a fact. Either you see in the crystal, or you do not see; either your sense of the ideal survives despite the stupidities of your materialist education, or these stupidities have extinguished it in you through your own fault. If the latter is the case, I shall abandon you to your miserable destiny. So prepare yourself to undergo a decisive test.
Uncle, I replied firmly, there is no need for a test. I do not see, I have never seen in the crystal. I dreamed that I saw my fantasies depicted there. It was a sickness I had, and which I no longer have, I feel, ever since you have sought to demonstrate the evidence of these
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