Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
375
The Book of the Damned
·
Charles Fort
234
But
our
data:
Of
vast
worlds
that
are
orbitless,
or
that
are
navigable,
or
that
are
adrift
in
inter-planetary
tides
and
currents:
the
data
that
we
shall
have
of
their
approach,
in
modern
times,
within
five
or
six
miles
of
this
earth--
But
then
their
visits,
or
approaches,
to
other
planets,
or
to
other
of
the
few
regularized
bodies
that
have
surrendered
to
the
attempted
Entity
of
this
solar
system
as
a
whole--
The
question
that
we
can't
very
well
evade:
Have
these
other
worlds,
or
super-constructions,
ever
been
seen
by
astronomers?
I
think
there
would
not
be
much
approximation
to
realness
in
taking
refuge
in
the
notion
of
astronomers
who
stare
and
squint
and
see
only
that
which
it
is
respectable
and
respectful
to
see.
It
is
all
very
well
to
say
that
astronomers
are
hypnotics,
and
that
an
astronomer
looking
at
the
moon
is
hypnotized
by
the
moon,
but
our
acceptance
is
that
the
bodies
of
this
present
expression
often
visit
the
moon,
or
cross
it,
or
are
held
in
temporary
suspension
near
it--then
some
of
them
must
often
have
been
within
the
diameter
of
an
astronomer's
hypnosis.
Our
general
expression:
That,
upon
the
oceans
of
this
earth,
there
are
regularized
vessels,
but
also
that
there
are
tramp
vessels:
That,
upon
the
super-ocean,
there
are
regularized
planets,
but
also
that
there
are
tramp
worlds:
That
astronomers
are
like
mercantile
purists
who
would
deny
commercial
vagabondage.
Our
acceptance
is
that
vast
celestial
vagabonds
have
been
excluded
by
astronomers,
primarily
because
their
irresponsibilities
are
an
affront
to
the
pure
and
the
precise,
or
to
attempted
positivism;
and
secondarily
because
they
have
not
been
seen
so
very
often.
The
planets
steadily
reflect
the
light
of
the
sun:
upon
this
uniformity
a
system
that
we
call
Primary
Astronomy
has
been
built
up;
but
now
the
subject-matter
of
Advanced
Astronomy
is
data
of
celestial
phenomena
that
are
sometimes
light
and
sometimes
dark,
varying
like
some
of
the
satellites
of
Jupiter,
but
with
a
wider
range.
However,
light
or
dark,
they
have
been
seen
and
reported
so
often
that
the
only
important
reason
for
their
exclusion
is--that
they
don't
fit
in.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
