Empire unusual suggested

162 PASSPORT TO MAGONIA
Observation and deduction agree, in fact, that the organized
action of a superior race must appear absurd to the inferior one.
That this does not preclude contact and even cohabitation is an
obvious fact of daily life on our planet, where humans, animals,
and insects have interwoven activities in spite of their different
levels of nervous system organization.
Proposition 2. If we recognize that the structure and nature
of time is as much of a puzzle to modern physicists as it was to
Reverend Kirk, then it follows that any theory of the universe
that does not take our ignorance in this respect into account is
bound to remain an academic exercise. In particular, such a
theory could never be invoked seriously in a discussion of the
constraints placed on possible visitors to our planet.
Proposition 3. The entire mystery we are discussing contains
all the elements of a myth that could be utilized to serve political
or sociological purposes, a fact illustrated by the curious link between
the contents of the reports themselves and the progress of
human technology, from aerial ships to dirigibles to ghost rockets
to flying saucers—a link that has never received a satisfactory
interpretation in a sociological framework.
With respect to the last point, I find it remarkable that the
first instance of a blackout caused by a UFO should be found
in Twilight Bar, a play written by Arthur Kocstler in 1933.
During the play, which takes place on a small unnamed island
where a civil war is about to break out, an enormous "meteor"
flies over the town with a high-pitched whistling sound as all the
lights go out. The craft plunges into the sea, and two beings,
dressed in white coveralls and moving as if in a trance, come
ashore and introduce themselves as messengers sent to warn mankind
that it has three days in which to mend its ways. Otherwise,
the creatures say, mankind will be destroyed and the earth will
be repopulated by a superior race.
Similarly, I am indebted to Donald Hanlon for pointing out that
the first reference to UFO effects on car ignition came in a novel
written in 1950 by Bernard Newman and entitled The Flying
Saucer. It is true that when Newman's book was written, some
UFO reports involving magnetic disturbances (of the compass)
were circulating. Even in 1944, the military had already amassed
NURSLINGS OF IMMORTALITY 163
considerable information about unidentified flying objects, the
first large-scale scientific investigation having been done the previous
year. But the fact remains that the coincidence between
these works of imagination and the actual details of the reports
that came from the public is a remarkable one, and it opens the
way to unlimited speculation. Unfortunately, this is precisely the
point where we must stop speculating.
To conclude, let us remark that the density (timewise) of
UFO manifestations is not decreasing. Let us also note that
knowledge of the structure of time would imply superior knowledge
of destiny (I am using the word "destiny" to designate not
the fate of individuals but the mechanism through which physical
events unfold and the canvas upon which they are implemented).
Perhaps I should remind the reader of two points we
have touched upon earlier: (1) the relativity of time in Magonia,
a theory passed on to us in numerous tales we have reviewed; and
(2) that astonishing little remark made by a sylph to Facius
Cardan, which antedates quantum theory by four centuries: "He
added that God created [the universe] from moment to moment,
so that should He desist for an instant the world would perish."
As Jerome Cardan says, "Be this fact or fable, so it stands."
I cannot offer the key to this mystery. I can only repeat: the search
may be futile; the solution may lie forever beyond our grasp; the
apparent logic of our most elementary deductions may evaporate.
Perhaps what we search for is no more than a dream that, becoming
part of our lives, never existed in reality. We cannot be
sure that we study something real, because we do not know what
reality is; we can only be sure that our study will help us understand
more, far more, about ourselves. This is not a worthless
task, and this idea gives me comfort, as I leave you with the lines
of Milton:
I took it for a faery vision
Of some gay creatures of the element
That in the colours of the rainbow live
And play i the plighted clouds. I was awestruck
And as I passed, I worshipped; if those you seek
It were a journey like the path to heaven
To help you find them.