The Gap in the Curtain Read Online Free PDF Page B

breath, he explained his plan.
    There must be a certain physical preparation. I am as unlearned in medical science as in philosophy, but I gathered that recently there had been some remarkable advances made in the study of the brain and its subsidiary organs. Very likely I am writing nonsense, for the professor at this point forgot about tempering the wind to the shorn lamb, and poured forth a flood of technicalities. But I understood him to say that, just as the cortex of the brain was the seat of the intellectual activities, so the subcortical region above the spinal cord was the home of the instinctive faculties. He used a lot of jargon, which, not being an anatomist, I could not follow, but he was obliging enough to draw me a diagram in his pocketbook, the writing pad being in the lily pond.
    In particular there was a thing which he called an “intercalated cell,” and which had a very special importance in his scheme. Just as the faculty of sight, he said, had for its supreme function the creation of an extended world, a world of space perception, so the instinct which had its seat in this cell specialized in time-perception . . . I had been reading lately about telegnosis, and mentioned that word, but he shook his head impatiently. The faculty he spoke of had nothing to do with telegnosis. “You have not understood my exposition,” he said. “But no matter. It is enough if you understand my purpose.”
    It was desirable to stimulate the functioning of this cell. That could only be done in a small degree. A certain diet was necessary, for he had discovered that the cell was temporarily atrophied by the wrong foods. Also there was a drug, which acted upon it directly.
    At this I protested, but he was quick to reassure me. “On my honour,” he cried, “it is the mildest drug. Its bodily effect is as innocuous as a glass of tonic water. But I have proved experimentally that it lulls the other faculties, and very slightly stimulates this one of which I speak.”
    Then he revealed his main purpose.
    â€œI am still groping at the edge of mysteries,” he said. “My theory I am assured is true, but in practice I can only go a very little way. Some day, when I am ashes, men will look at the future as easily as today they look out of a window at a garden. At present I must be content to exemplify my doctrine by small trivial things. I cannot enable you to gaze at a segment of life at some future date, and watch human beings going about their business. The most I hope for is to show you some simple matter of sense-perception as it will be at that date. Therefore I need some object which I am assured will be still in existence, and which I am also assured will have changed from what it now is. Name to me such an object.”
    I suggested, rather foolishly, the position of the planets in the sky.
    â€œThat will not do, for now we can predict that position with perfect certainty.”
    â€œA young tree?”
    â€œThe visible evidence of change would be too minute. I cannot promise to open up the future very far ahead. A year—two years maybe—no more.”
    â€œA building which we all know, and which is now going up?”
    Again he shook his head. “You may be familiar with the type of the completed structure, and carry the picture of it in your memory . . . There is only one familiar object, which continues and likewise changes. You cannot guess? Why, a journal. A daily or weekly paper.”
    He leaned towards me and laid a hand on each of my knees.
    â€œToday is the sixth of June. Four days from now, if you and the others consent, I will enable you to see for one instant of time— no longer—a newspaper of the tenth day of June next year.”
    He lay back in his chair and had a violent fit of coughing, while I digested this startling announcement . . . He was right on one point—a newspaper was the only thing for his experiment; that at any rate