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SCIENCE AND THE INFINITE
"THE MYSTERY OF THE APEX"
View No. 3
SCIENCE
AND THE INFINITE
OR
THROUGH A WINDOW IN THE
BLANK WALL
BY
SYDNEY T. KLEIN
SECOND IMPRESSION
LONDON
WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED
CATHEDRAL HOUSE, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
1917
First Published November 1912
Reprinted September 1917
TO
THE RIGHT HON.
ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR
PREFACE
In venturing to prepare this little volume forthe eyes of the reading public, I am fullyaware of the difficulties of the subject andthe inadequacy of the expressions I have beenable to employ, but I have made the attemptat the request of those who have found consolationin some of the thoughts hereinembodied; and the messages left by othersbefore they passed away, embolden me tohope that many others may find in thisvolume some points of interest which willhelp them to appreciate better the "joys"which this life has for those who know howto look for them, and that perhaps others mayeven gain a clearer conception of that whichawaits us beyond the Veil.
Many of us allow ourselves to be overwhelmedby the small worries and vexationsof everyday life, clothing them with a realityquite disproportionate to their importance;we are too apt to look at them, as it were,through a powerful microscope, piling powerupon power of magnification, until we havemade mountains out of mole-hills, whereas ifwe treated them at their true value we shouldlook at them through a telescope, in the reversedirection, when they would appear notonly trivial, but would be seen to be tooremote to have any material effect on ourlives.
The sub-title of this volume, and indeed itsinception, arose from my lately coming in contactwith one of those establishments whichare doing for humanity what a mother's armsdo for the child who is "sick unto death"—abeautiful home with cheerful rooms andcheerful nurses, where patients are tenderlycared for after severe operations, carriedthrough by our most famous surgeons, somecases, alas, almost hopeless from the first. Atthe head of this establishment was one of thosekindly self-abnegating personalities, whoseloving sympathy and encouragement havecomforted the dying and smoothed the pathfor many a weary pilgrim passing from thislife to the next. With immense responsibilitieson her shoulders, and after a day fullof strenuous work, the head of this establishmentwould often sit through the night forhours by the couch of those whose lives couldnot possibly be prolonged for more than a fewdays. It was a few simple answers elicitedby the questions brought to me from thosepoor sufferers, and the way such answersseemed to calm anxieties connected with thefear of death and to render the impenetrableVeil more transparent, which suggested thetitle, "Through a Window in the Blank Wall."
I do not wish to lay claim to having madeany startling discovery; similar thoughts,es