{"product_id":"2940014103534","title":"The Blindman's World","description":"1898\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe narrative to which this note is introductory was found among\u003cbr\u003ethe papers of the late Professor S. Erastus Larrabee, and, as an\u003cbr\u003eacquaintance of the gentleman to whom they were bequeathed, I was\u003cbr\u003erequested to prepare it for publication. This turned out a very easy\u003cbr\u003etask, for the document proved of so extraordinary a character that, if\u003cbr\u003epublished at all, it should obviously be without change. It appears that\u003cbr\u003ethe professor did really, at one time in his life, have an attack of\u003cbr\u003evertigo, or something of the sort, under circumstances similar to those\u003cbr\u003edescribed by him, and to that extent his narrative may be founded on\u003cbr\u003efact How soon it shifts from that foundation, or whether it does at\u003cbr\u003eall, the reader must conclude for himself. It appears certain that the\u003cbr\u003eprofessor never related to any one, while living, the stranger features\u003cbr\u003eof the experience here narrated, but this might have been merely from\u003cbr\u003efear that his standing as a man of science would be thereby injured.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE PROFESSOR'S NARRATIVE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt the time of the experience of which I am about to write, I was\u003cbr\u003eprofessor of astronomy and higher mathematics at Abercrombie College.\u003cbr\u003eMost astronomers have a specialty, and mine was the study of the planet\u003cbr\u003eMars, our nearest neighbor but one in the Sun's little family. When no\u003cbr\u003eimportant celestial phenomena in other quarters demanded attention, it\u003cbr\u003ewas on the ruddy disc of Mars that my telescope was oftenest focused. I\u003cbr\u003ewas never weary of tracing the outlines of its continents and seas, its\u003cbr\u003ecapes and islands, its bays and straits, its lakes and mountains. With\u003cbr\u003eintense interest I watched from week to week of the Martial winter the\u003cbr\u003eadvance of the polar ice-cap toward the equator, and its corresponding\u003cbr\u003eretreat in the summer; testifying across the gulf of space as plainly as\u003cbr\u003ewritten words to the existence on that orb of a climate like our own.\u003cbr\u003eA specialty is always in danger of becoming an infatuation, and my\u003cbr\u003einterest in Mars, at the time of which I write, had grown to be more\u003cbr\u003ethan strictly scientific. The impression of the nearness of this planet,\u003cbr\u003eheightened by the wonderful distinctness of its geography as seen\u003cbr\u003ethrough a powerful telescope, appeals strongly to the imagination of\u003cbr\u003ethe astronomer. On fine evenings I used to spend hours, not so much\u003cbr\u003ecritically observing as brooding over its radiant surface, till I could\u003cbr\u003ealmost persuade myself that I saw the breakers dashing on the bold shore\u003cbr\u003eof Kepler Land, and heard the muffled thunder of avalanches descending\u003cbr\u003ethe snow-clad mountains of Mitchell. No earthly landscape had the charm\u003cbr\u003eto hold my gaze of that far-off planet, whose oceans, to the unpracticed\u003cbr\u003eeye, seem but darker, and its continents lighter, spots and bands.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47145921970416,"sku":"2940014103534","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014103534_p0.jpg?v=1763600813","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014103534","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}