"Not exactly," said the doctor, "with a balloon." Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info"

"But before the invention of the balloon, man could not move vertically at will, except for a moment of jumping and undulating terrain."

"No, people can still move up and down." The doctor said.

"It's much easier to move down than up."

"But you can't move in time, you can't leave the present moment."

"My dear sir, this is where your mistake lies, and that of the whole world. In fact, we are always detached from the present moment, our spiritual existence is immaterial and cannot be described by the spatial dimension, which moves from the cradle to the grave at a uniform speed along the temporal dimension. It's like if our life starts from a height of 50 miles above the earth, then our journey must be to the surface below. ”

"But the key problem," the psychologist interjected, "is that you can move in any direction in three-dimensional space, but you can't move back and forth in time at will." ”

"This idea was the germ of my great invention. However, it is wrong to say that we cannot move in time. For example, if I recall an event very vividly, I return to the moment it happened. As they say, I was distracted. I went back in time in an instant, and of course our feet couldn't go back in time, like a savage or an animal couldn't live six feet above the ground. In this respect, however, a civilized man is stronger than a barbarian, who can ride a balloon and rise against the gravitational pull of the earth. In that case, why can't he expect to finally be able to stand still or accelerate his motion in the dimension of time, or even move in reverse? ”

"Oh, this," Philby began, "is totally ......"

"Why can't it be?" The time traveler asked.

"It's counterintuitive." Philby said.

"What do you mean by common sense?" The time traveler asked.

"You can turn black into white with eloquence," Philby said, "but you can never try to convince me." ”

"Maybe not," said the time traveler, "but you're at least beginning to understand the purpose of my study of four-dimensional geometry now." A long time ago, I had a rough idea of a machine ......"

"Let it travel through time!" The young man exclaimed.

"It will move freely in space and time, completely under the control of the driver."

Philby burst out laughing.

"I have an experimental basis." Said the time traveler.

"It's so convenient for the historian," the psychologist suggests, "that he could go back in time, for example, to verify the authoritative account of the Battle of Hastings!" ”

"Don't you think that's a little too tempting?" The doctor said, "Our ancestors were not very tolerant of the times. ”

"One can learn the purest Greek directly from the mouths of Homer and Plato." That's what the young man thought.

"If that's the case, you're going to fail their exams. German scholars have greatly improved the Greek language. ”

"And the future," the young man added, "imagine that people could invest all their money and let it earn interest or make a profit, and then rush to the future to spend it." ”

"To discover a society," I said, "a purely communist society." ”

"It's all nonsense!" Psychologists say.

"Yes, that's what I thought in the beginning, so I never talked about it until I ......"

"Until the experiment proves it!" I said out loud, "Can you prove it?" ”

"Prove it with experiments!" Philby shouted. He was already feeling dizzy.

"We'll have to look at your experiments anyway," said the psychologist, "although it's all nonsense without a doubt." ”

The Time Traveler smiled at everyone, and then, still with that smile, slowly walked out of the room with his hands deep in his trouser pockets. We heard him tugging on his slippers as he walked down the long hallway towards his lab.

Psychologists look at us. "I really don't know what he's up to?"

"It's just trying to play tricks." The doctor said. Philby was about to tell us about a wizard he had met in Burslem, but before he could finish the opening chapter, the time traveler returned, and the story Philby wanted to tell fell through.

The time traveler holds a shiny metal shelf in his hand. It was about the size of a trumpet bell, and was very finely worked, with ivory and a transparent substance inside. Now I must account for everything I have seen, for what has happened after this - unless his interpretation is true - is absolutely unbelievable. He moved an octagonal table in the corner of the room to the front of the fireplace, with two legs on the carpet in front of the fireplace. He placed the mechanism on the table, pulled over a chair and sat down. In addition to that installation, there was a small lamp on the table with a lampshade, which was brightly lit, and a dozen candles were lit around it, two of which were inserted in the brass menorah on the mantelpiece, and several in the menorah on the wall, so that the room could be said to be brightly lit. I sat down in one of the chairs closest to the fire, and then moved forward, almost between the time traveler and the fireplace. Philby sat behind the Time Traveler, eyes looking in front of his shoulders. The doctor and the prefect stood on the right, the psychologist on the left, the young man behind the psychologist, and each of us was engrossed. In my opinion, in this case, no amount of cleverly conceived and clever tricks can be hidden from our eyes.

The time traveler looked at us, and then at his mechanism.

"Is it okay now?" Psychologist asked.

"This little device," said the time traveler, propping his arms on the table and pressing the instrument with both hands, "is just a model." My plan is to make the machine travel through time. As you may have noticed, this thing looks slanted. There's a weird-looking little rod here, it's smooth, shiny, and it looks a bit like a fake. He raised his hand and pointed, "In addition, there is a small silver-white lever here, and there is another one here." ”

The doctor stood up from his chair and stared at the device carefully. "It's beautifully done." He said. We all stood up with the doctor.