Etidorhpa

John Uri Lloyd

• Publisher: Books on Demand
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9783748133629
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Science Fiction
• Index: Literature

Books are as tombstones made by the living for the living, but destined soon only to remind us of the dead. The preface, like an epitaph, seems vainly to "implore the passing tribute" of a moment's interest. No man is allured by either a grave-inscription or a preface, unless it be accompanied by that ineffable charm which age casts over mortal productions. Libraries, in one sense, represent cemeteries, and the rows of silent volumes, with their dim titles, suggest burial tablets, many of which, alas! mark only cenotaphs-empty tombs. A modern book, no matter how talented the author, carries with it a familiar personality which may often be treated with neglect or even contempt, but a volume a century old demands some reverence; a vellum-bound or hog-skin print, or antique yellow parchment, two, three, five hundred years old, regardless of its contents, impresses one with an indescribable feeling akin to awe and veneration, -as does the wheat from an Egyptian tomb, even though it be only wheat. We take such a work from the shelf carefully, and replace it gently. While the productions of modern writers are handled familiarly, as men living jostle men yet alive; those of authors long dead are touched as tho' clutched by a hand from the unseen world; the reader feels that a phantom form opposes his own, and that spectral eyes scan the pages as he turns them.The stern face, the penetrating eye of the personage whose likeness forms the frontispiece of the yellowed volume in my hand, speak across the gulf of two centuries, and bid me beware. The title page is read with reverence, and the great tome is replaced with care, for an almost superstitious sensation bids me be cautious and not offend. Let those who presume to criticise the intellectual productions of such men be careful; in a few days the dead will face their censors-dead.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Etidorhpa
• Table of contents
• Preface
• PROLOGUE.
• CHAPTER I."NEVER LESS ALONE THAN WHEN ALONE."
• CHAPTER II.A FRIENDLY CONFERENCE.
• CHAPTER III.A SECOND INTERVIEW WITH THE MYSTERIOUS VISITOR.
• CHAPTER IV.A SEARCH FOR KNOWLEDGE.—THE ALCHEMISTIC LETTER.
• CHAPTER V.THE WRITING OF MY CONFESSION.
• CHAPTER VI.KIDNAPPED.
• CHAPTER VII.A WILD NIGHT.—I AM PREMATURELY AGED.
• CHAPTER VIII.A LESSON IN MIND STUDY.
• CHAPTER IX.I CAN NOT ESTABLISH MY IDENTITY.
• CHAPTER X.MY JOURNEY TOWARDS THE END OF EARTH BEGINS.—THE ADEPTS' BROTHERHOOD.
• CHAPTER XI.MY JOURNEY CONTINUES.—INSTINCT.
• CHAPTER XII.A CAVERN DISCOVERED.—BISWELL'S HILL.
• CHAPTER XIII.THE PUNCH-BOWLS AND CAVERNS OF KENTUCKY.—"INTO THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY."
• CHAPTER XIV.FAREWELL TO GOD'S SUNSHINE.—THE ECHO OF THE CRY.
• CHAPTER XV.A ZONE OF LIGHT DEEP WITHIN THE EARTH.
• CHAPTER XVI.VITALIZED DARKNESS.—THE NARROWS IN SCIENCE.
• CHAPTER XVII.THE FUNGUS FOREST.—ENCHANTMENT.
• CHAPTER XVIII.THE FOOD OF MAN.
• CHAPTER XIX.THE CRY FROM A DISTANCE.—I REBEL AGAINST CONTINUING THE JOURNEY.
• CHAPTER XX.MY UNBIDDEN GUEST PROVES HIS STATEMENT AND REFUTES MY PHILOSOPHY.
• CHAPTER XXI.MY WEIGHT DISAPPEARING.
• CHAPTER XXII.MY UNBIDDEN GUEST DEPARTS.
• CHAPTER XXIII.I QUESTION SCIENTIFIC MEN.—ARISTOTLE'S ETHER.
• CHAPTER XXIV.THE SOLILOQUY OF PROF. DANIEL VAUGHN.—"GRAVITATION IS THE BEGINNING AND GRAVITATION IS THE END: ALL EARTHLY BODIES KNEEL TO GRAVITATION."
• CHAPTER XXV.THE MOTHER OF A VOLCANO.—"YOU CAN NOT DISPROVE, AND YOU DARE NOT ADMIT."
• CHAPTER XXVI.MOTION FROM INHERENT ENERGY.—"LEAD ME DEEPER INTO THIS EXPANDING STUDY."
• CHAPTER XXVII.SLEEP, DREAMS, NIGHTMARE.—"STRANGLE THE LIFE FROM MY BODY."
• INTERLUDE.—THE STORY INTERRUPTED.
• CHAPTER XXVIII.A CHALLENGE.—MY UNBIDDEN GUEST ACCEPTS IT.
• CHAPTER XXIX.BEWARE OF BIOLOGY, THE SCIENCE OF THE LIFE OF MAN.[6]
• CHAPTER XXX.LOOKING BACKWARD.—THE LIVING BRAIN.
• CHAPTER XXXI.A LESSON ON VOLCANOES.—PRIMARY COLORS ARE CAPABLE OF FARTHER SUBDIVISION.
• CHAPTER XXXII.MATTER IS RETARDED MOTION.
• CHAPTER XXXIII"A STUDY OF SCIENCE IS A STUDY OF GOD."—COMMUNING WITH ANGELS.
• CHAPTER XXXIV.I CEASE TO BREATHE, AND YET LIVE.
• CHAPTER XXXV."A CERTAIN POINT WITHIN A SPHERE."—MEN ARE AS PARASITES ON THE ROOF OF EARTH.
• CHAPTER XXXVI.DRUNKENNESS.—THE DRINKS OF MAN.
• CHAPTER XXXVII.THE DRUNKARD'S VOICE.
• CHAPTER XXXVIII.THE DRUNKARD'S DEN.
• CHAPTER XXXIX.AMONG THE DRUNKARDS.
• CHAPTER XL.FURTHER TEMPTATION.—ETIDORHPA.
• CHAPTER XLI.MISERY.
• CHAPTER XLII.ETERNITY WITHOUT TIME.
• CHAPTER XLIII.THE LAST CONTEST.
• CHAPTER XLIV.THE FATHOMLESS ABYSS.—THE EDGE OF THE EARTH SHELL.
• CHAPTER XLV.MY HEART THROB IS STILLED, AND YET I LIVE.
• CHAPTER XLVI.THE INNER CIRCLE, OR THE END OF GRAVITATION.—IN THE BOTTOMLESS GULF.
• CHAPTER XLVII.HEARING WITHOUT EARS.—"WHAT WILL BE THE END?"
• CHAPTER XLVIII.WHY AND HOW.—"THE STRUGGLING RAY OF LIGHT FROM THOSE FARTHERMOST OUTREACHES."
• CHAPTER XLIX.OSCILLATING THROUGH SPACE.—EARTH'S SHELL ABOVE ME.[14]
• CHAPTER L.MY WEIGHT ANNIHILATED.—"TELL ME," I CRIED IN ALARM, "IS THIS TO BE A LIVING TOMB?"
• CHAPTER LI.IS THAT A MORTAL?—"THE END OF EARTH."
• CHAPTER LII.THE LAST FAREWELL.
• EPILOGUE.LETTER ACCOMPANYING THE MYSTERIOUS MANUSCRIPT.