A recycled, older post about the soft light present in cavern worlds. The
process corresponds to cater's reditribution of frequency that particles of
sunlight undergo-
" I comprehend some of this," I replied; " but I am neither prepared to
assent to nor dissent from your conclusions, and my mind is not clear as to
whether your logic is good or bad. I am more ready to speak plainly about my
own peculiar situation than to become absorbed in abstruse arguments in
science, and I marvel more at the soft light that is here surrounding us
than at the metaphysical reasoning in which you indulge."
" The child ignorant of letters wonders at the resources of those who can
spell and read, and, in like manner, many obscure natural phenomena are
marvelous to man only because of his ignorance. You do not comprehend the
fact that sunlight is simply a matter-bred expression, an outburst of
interrupted energy, and that the modification this energy undergoes makes it
visible or sensible to man. What, think you, becomes of the flood of light
energy that unceasingly flows from the sun? For ages, for an eternity, it
has bathed this earth and seemingly streamed into space, and space it would
seem must have long since have been filled with it, if, as men believe,
space contains energy of any description. Man may say the earth casts the
amount intercepted by it back into space, and yet does not your science
teach that the great bulk of the earth is an absorber, and a poor radiator
of light and heat? What think you, I repeat, becomes of the torrent of light
and heat and other forces that radiate from the sun, the flood that strikes
the earth? It disappears, and, in the economy of nature, is not replaced by
any known force or any known motion of matter. Think you that earth
substance really presents an obstacle to the passage of the sun's energy? Is
it not probable that most of this light producing essence, as a subtle
fluid, passes through the surface of the earth and into its interior, as
light does through space, and returns thence to the sun again, in a
condition not discernible by man?" He grasped my arm and squeezed it as
though to emphasize the words to follow. " You have used the term sunshine
freely; tell me what is sunshine? Ah! you do not reply; well, what evidence
have you to show that sunshine ( heat and light ) is not earth-bred, a
condition that exists locally only, the result of contact between matter and
some unknown force expression? What reason have you for accepting that, to
other forms unknown and yet transparent to this energy, your sunshine may
not be as intangible as the ether of space is to man? What reason have you
to believe that a force torrent is not circulating to and from the sun and
earth, inappreciable to man, excepting the mere trace of this force which,
modified by contact action with matter appears as heat, light, and other
force expressions? How can I, if this is true, in consideration of your
ignorance, enter into details explanatory of the action that takes place
between matter and a portion of this force, whereby in the earth, first at
the surface, darkness is produced, and then deeper down an earth light that
man can perceive by the sense of sight, as you now realize? I will only say
that this luminous appearance about us is produced by a natural law, whereby
the flood of energy, invisible to man, a something clothed now under the
name of darkness, after streaming into the crust substance of the earth, is
at this depth, revivified, and then is made apparent to mortal
eye, to be modified again as it emerges from the opposite earth crust, but
not annihilated. For my vision, however, this central light is not a
necessity; my physical and mental development is such that the energy of
darkness is communicable; I can respond to its touches on my nerves, and
hence I can guide you in this dark cavern. I am all eye."