"To illuminate," I said, "is to transform."
"No! it is only to reveal! Light dances on the surface; but not the tiniest wave was ever dimpled or crisped by its rays. Matter alone moves matter; and the world is matter. Best not cry, best not even blaspheme. Pass over the fall in silence. Perhaps, at the bottom, there is oblivion. It is the best we can hope, we who see."
And he was gone! Had there been anyone? Was there a real voice? I do not know. Perhaps it was only the roar of Niagara. When I returned to the hotel, I heard that this very afternoon, while I was sunning myself on one of the islands, a woman had thrown herself into the rapids and been swept over the fall. Niagara took her, as it takes a stick or a stone. Soon it will take the civilisation of America, as it has taken that of the Indians. Centuries will pass, millenniums will pass, mankind will have come and gone, and still the river will flow and the sun shine, and they will communicate to one another their stern immortal joy, in which there is no part for ephemeral men.
It is a bright July morning. As I sit in the garden I look out, over a tangle of wild roses, to a calm sea and a flock of white sails. Everything invites to happy thought and innocent reverie. Moreover, it is the day of rest, and every one is at leisure to turn his mind towards pleasant things. To what, in fact, are most people on this continent turning theirs? To this, which I hold in my hand, the Sunday newspaper.
Let us analyse this production, peculiar to the New World. It comprises eight sections and eighty-eight pages, and very likely does really, as it boasts, contain "more reading matter than the whole Bible."
Opening Section 1, I read the following headings:
"Baron Shot as Bank-teller--Ends Life with Bullet."
"Two fatally Hurt in Strike Riots at Pittsburg."
"Four of a Family fear a Dogs' bite" (_sic_).
"Two are Dead, Two Dying; Fought over Cow."
Section 2 appears to be concerned with similar matter, for example:
"Hard Shell Crabs help in giving Burglar Alarm."
"Man who has been Married three times denies the Existence of God."
But here I notice further the interesting and enigmatic heading:
and roused for the first time to something like curiosity, read: