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Ad Astra, v. 1, issue 5, January 1940

Page 10

Page 10.     AD ASTRA

FANTASIES THAT BECAME FACT (#2)
"[[underline]]COINCIDENCE![[end underline]]"
by J. Harvey Haggard

These things have the essence, of dreams but are not dreams.They are castles of imagery built with the building stones of fact. If facts and reality are solid,these things whereof we speak have the same solidity of those things you touch and those things you can see on a summery night high in infinite distances above.
Out of a million million moments you are there and I am here, and out of those million millions of moments it shall never recur again, a precious instant, wasted with words that are without meaning, with thoughts that have a fading substance but which flit forever. But you are there and I am here--one brief instant. That is what I mean by coincidence.
I have a good friend who swears what I repeat is true. On the surface it bears the earmarks of superstitious hodgepodge, but underlying it are the elements of matter-of-fact substance. His own brother was far out on the sea, while he lay dreaming. In his mind he saw the decks of the ship swept by wind and rain, felt the vessel heave and toss in the elemental fury of tempest and storm,and as he stood in the hatchway, a massive dog ran from the rainswept decks and sprang up, placing its forepaws on his shoulders. It was only a dream, but a few days later my friend received a telegram saying his brother had died----at the same moment of his strange dream when the massive dog had stood glaring into his eyes. he calls it a strange coincidence, but shudders when he thinks of it. The gossamer stuff of wonderment and horror seems prone to underly all coincidence.
But no matter. TIME they say, is a cycle. The FUTURE runs backward into the PAST, is part of a wheel of time, or the many wheels of time, and if that is so, we each have counterparts from the past and future which are here in the present. Or perhaps many counterparts. Or perhaps we are a part of every living soul that exists. But even thatvis of no moment. it would just be a vast coincidence.
It is all a huge mix-up,if you want to consider the future and past is knotted up with the present, a tangled line of existence, that may carry many counterparts, with the PRESENT INSTANT of coe-existence a strange coincidence of many chance meetings.
In August, 1877, a man hurried from the telescope of the Naval Observatory of Washington. His name was Hall, and he had just made what was to him a momentous discovery. The fact that his name was to be marked down in astronomy for his finding has nothing to do with this correspondence and relation of events, which really began a CENTURY AND A HALF EARLIER.
A century and a half earlier, in 1726, a man by the name of Swift was publishing a biting satire that was to remain forever as a classic by itself. Yet the success of Gulliver's travels has nothing to do with the issue.What DOES concern us is that remarkable thing which he conceived, drawing his substance from nothingness, which was to precede (by a century and a half) the discovery made by enthusiastic young Hall with his 26 inch telescope.
In narrating of the voyage to Laputa, Swift ridiculed the science of the day, astronomy included, and in further revelations
((continued on page 15.))

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Page 10. AD ASTRA FANTASIES THAT BECAME FACT (#2) "[[underline]]COINCIDENCE![[end underline]]" by J. Harvey Haggard These things have the essence, of dreams but are not dreams.They are castles of imagery built with the building stones of fact. If facts and reality are solid,these things whereof we speak have the same solidity of those things you touch and those things you can see on a summery night high in infinite distances above. Out of a million million moments you are there and I am here, and out of those million millions of moments it shall never recur again, a precious instant, wasted with words that are without meaning, with thoughts that have a fading substance but which flit forever. But you are there and I am here--one brief instant. That is what I mean by coincidence. I have a good friend who swears what I repeat is true. On the surface it bears the earmarks of superstitious hodgepodge, but underlying it are the elements of matter-of-fact substance. His own brother was far out on the sea, while he lay dreaming. In his mind he saw the decks of the ship swept by wind and rain, felt the vessel heave and toss in the elemental fury of tempest and storm,and as he stood in the hatchway, a massive dog ran from the rainswept decks and sprang up, placing its forepaws on his shoulders. It was only a dream, but a few days later my friend received a telegram saying his brother had died----at the same moment of his strange dream when the massive dog had stood glaring into his eyes. he calls it a strange coincidence, but shudders when he thinks of it. The gossamer stuff of wonderment and horror seems prone to underly all coincidence. But no matter. TIME they say, is a cycle. The FUTURE runs backward into the PAST, is part of a wheel of time, or the many wheels of time, and if that is so, we each have counterparts from the past and future which are here in the present. Or perhaps many counterparts. Or perhaps we are a part of every living soul that exists. But even thatvis of no moment. it would just be a vast coincidence. It is all a huge mix-up,if you want to consider the future and past is knotted up with the present, a tangled line of existence, that may carry many counterparts, with the PRESENT INSTANT of coe-existence a strange coincidence of many chance meetings. In August, 1877, a man hurried from the telescope of the Naval Observatory of Washington. His name was Hall, and he had just made what was to him a momentous discovery. The fact that his name was to be marked down in astronomy for his finding has nothing to do with this correspondence and relation of events, which really began a CENTURY AND A HALF EARLIER. A century and a half earlier, in 1726, a man by the name of Swift was publishing a biting satire that was to remain forever as a classic by itself. Yet the success of Gulliver's travels has nothing to do with the issue.What DOES concern us is that remarkable thing which he conceived, drawing his substance from nothingness, which was to precede (by a century and a half) the discovery made by enthusiastic young Hall with his 26 inch telescope. In narrating of the voyage to Laputa, Swift ridiculed the science of the day, astronomy included, and in further revelations ((continued on page 15.))