In our immediate universe there are at least one hundred million stars, a number of which have over five hundred worlds revolving around them; others have only six or ten.  The average, as above stated, is estimated at forty-nine.  Then, also, far out in the depths of space, there are nebulous spots visible only through the most searching lenses.  These are new systems of milky ways or new universes, so immensely distant that our most powerful telescopes cannot even resolve them into stars.

There are inhabited worlds so far from us that, if one could travel the distance around our Earth in one second, he could proceed in one direction, at this rate of speed, for twenty million years and yet see far ahead of him the flickering lights of numberless other inviting suns and worlds.

We cannot possibly grasp an idea of such infinite distances, neither can we form any adequate conception of the long, long stretches between star and star, which is the same as saying, between solar system and solar system.  In our Milky Way the stars seem to be crushed together into a whitish jelly, but the awful truth looms up before us with all sublimity that, although these stars seem to lie one upon another, they are millions and trillions of miles apart.

In regard to our own solar system much speculation is rife as to the existence of human creatures on the several larger planets.  Theories of all kinds have been advanced; some speculative or absurd, others so plausible as to give rise to interesting questions, such as communicating with Mars, and perhaps of taking a journey to the Moon.  These suggestions, while fanciful, awaken our interest and excite our curiosity.  Can any one predict the excitement that would prevail in our world if a human creature from some other planet were suddenly to set foot upon our soil?  We would fling a thousand questions at him to learn something of the strange realm from which he came.

And how great would be our amazement if we were to have the exalted privilege of journeying to other worlds, seeing the types of human creatures living there, and witnessing a thousand other things too strange and wonderful to mention?

I invite you to listen as I tell a condensed story of a number of worlds which I have visited, all within the boundary line of our own universe.  I cannot even tell a tithe of what I saw and heard, but must content myself with giving a passing view of a thousand worlds, some of which are situated in a very distant corner of our universe.

Well you may ask:  “How could you travel from world to world and see the various forms of human life, and then remain alive to tell a part of the marvelous tale?”

If it is a mystery to you, it is also a mystery to me.  I cannot describe the pinions that carried me, nor tell whence came the strength that moved my wings, any more than I can explain by what process I was preserved alive in worlds of fire, in worlds of ice, and in worlds without air.  But the sight of all these things was as real to me as the dreams of the night, and it must be admitted that dreams are often as realistic as the acts of our wakeful moments.