RadioBanter - View Single Post - NEWS

October 3rd 04, 04:51 PM

On Sun, 3 Oct 2004 08:04:08 -0500, (Richard
Harrison) wrote:

It is now assumed that space and time began maybe 15 or 20 billion years
ago. Poe may be wrong.

Hi Richard,

Poe got it right. The greater portion of the night sky is as black
now as it was in Poe's time - nothing has changed to render Poe's
assessment incorrect.

" My general proposition, then, is this: -- In the Original Unity
of the First Thing lies the Secondary Cause of All Things, with
the Germ of their Inevitable Annihilation.

Poe is describing both concepts we now proclaim as the Big Bang, AND
the Big Crunch.

"In speaking of what is ordinarily implied by the expression,
'Universe,' I shall take a phrase of limitation -- 'the Universe
of stars.' Why this distinction is considered necessary, will be
seen in the sequel.

"But even of treatises on the really limited, although always
assumed as the un limited, Universe of stars, I know none in which
a survey, even of this limited Universe, is so taken as to warrant
deductions from its individuality."
...
" It seems to me that, in aiming at this latter effect, and,
through it, at the consequences -- the conclusions -- the
suggestions -- the speculations -- or, if nothing better offer
itself, the mere guesses which may result from it -- we require
something like a mental gyration on the heel. We need so rapid a
revolution of all things about the central point of sight that,
while the minutiae vanish altogether, even the more conspicuous
objects become blended into one. Among the vanishing minutiae, in
a survey of this kind, would be all exclusively terrestrial
matters. The Earth would be considered in its planetary relations
alone. A man, in this view, becomes mankind; mankind a member of
the cosmical family of Intelligences."

These paragraphs introduce a literary device used by Poe to discuss
the topic, a message found in a floating bottle - from the futu

" And now, before proceeding to our subject proper, let me beg the
reader's attention to an extract or two from a somewhat remarkable
letter, which appears to have been found corked in a bottle and
floating on the Mare Tenebrarum - an ocean well described by the
Nubian geographer, Ptolemy Hephestion, but little frequented in
modern days unless by the Transcendentalists and some other divers
for crotchets. The date of this letter, I confess, surprises me
even more particularly than its contents; for it seems to have
been written in the year Two thousand eight hundred and
forty-eight. As for the passages I am about to transcribe, they, I
fancy, will speak for themselves."

I will pause here in anticipation of further inquiry. ;-)

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC