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The Book of the Damned
·
Charles Fort
246
The
diverting
of
attention.
It
wouldn't
be
possible
in
a
real
existence,
with
real
mentality,
to
deal
with,
but
I
suppose
it's
good
enough
for
the
quasi-intellects
that
stupefy
themselves
with
text-books.
The
trick
here
is
to
gloss
over
Leverrier's
mistake,
and
blame
Lescarbault--he
was
only
an
amateur--had
delusions.
The
reader's
attention
is
led
against
Lescarbault
by
a
report
from
M.
Lias,
director
of
the
Brazilian
Coast
Survey,
who,
at
the
time
of
Lescarbault's
"supposed"
observation
had
been
watching
the
sun
in
Brazil,
and,
instead
of
seeing
even
ordinary
sun
spots,
had
noted
that
the
region
of
the
"supposed
transit"
was
of
"uniform
intensity."
But
the
meaninglessness
of
all
utterances
in
quasi-existence--
"Uniform
intensity"
turns
our
way
as
much
as
against
us--or
some
day
some
brain
will
conceive
a
way
of
beating
Newton's
third
law--if
every
reaction,
or
resistance,
is,
or
can
be,
interpretable
as
stimulus
instead
of
resistance--if
this
could
be
done
in
mechanics,
there's
a
way
open
here
for
someone
to
own
the
world--specifically
in
this
matter,
"uniform
intensity"
means
that
Lescarbault
saw
no
ordinary
sun
spot,
just
as
much
as
it
means
that
no
spot
at
all
was
seen
upon
the
sun.
Continuing
the
interpretation
of
a
resistance
as
an
assistance,
which
can
always
be
done
with
mental
forces--making
us
wonder
what
applications
could
be
made
with
steam
and
electric
forces--we
point
out
that
invisibility
in
Brazil
means
parallax
quite
as
truly
as
it
means
absence,
and,
inasmuch
as
"Vulcan"
was
supposed
to
be
distant
from
the
sun,
we
interpret
denial
as
corroboration--method
of
course
of
every
scientist,
politician,
theologian,
high-school
debater.
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