The Time Machine Read online

  IV

  'In another moment we were standing face to face, I and this fragilething out of futurity. He came straight up to me and laughed into myeyes. The absence from his bearing of any sign of fear struck me atonce. Then he turned to the two others who were following him andspoke to them in a strange and very sweet and liquid tongue.

  'There were others coming, and presently a little group of perhapseight or ten of these exquisite creatures were about me. One of themaddressed me. It came into my head, oddly enough, that my voice wastoo harsh and deep for them. So I shook my head, and, pointing to myears, shook it again. He came a step forward, hesitated, and thentouched my hand. Then I felt other soft little tentacles upon myback and shoulders. They wanted to make sure I was real. There wasnothing in this at all alarming. Indeed, there was something inthese pretty little people that inspired confidence--a gracefulgentleness, a certain childlike ease. And besides, they looked sofrail that I could fancy myself flinging the whole dozen of themabout like nine-pins. But I made a sudden motion to warn them when Isaw their little pink hands feeling at the Time Machine. Happilythen, when it was not too late, I thought of a danger I had hithertoforgotten, and reaching over the bars of the machine I unscrewed thelittle levers that would set it in motion, and put these in mypocket. Then I turned again to see what I could do in the way ofcommunication.

  'And then, looking more nearly into their features, I saw somefurther peculiarities in their Dresden-china type of prettiness.Their hair, which was uniformly curly, came to a sharp end at theneck and cheek; there was not the faintest suggestion of it on theface, and their ears were singularly minute. The mouths were small,with bright red, rather thin lips, and the little chins ran to apoint. The eyes were large and mild; and--this may seem egotism onmy part--I fancied even that there was a certain lack of theinterest I might have expected in them.

  'As they made no effort to communicate with me, but simply stoodround me smiling and speaking in soft cooing notes to each other, Ibegan the conversation. I pointed to the Time Machine and to myself.Then hesitating for a moment how to express time, I pointed to thesun. At once a quaintly pretty little figure in chequered purple andwhite followed my gesture, and then astonished me by imitating thesound of thunder.

  'For a moment I was staggered, though the import of his gesture wasplain enough. The question had come into my mind abruptly: werethese creatures fools? You may hardly understand how it took me.You see I had always anticipated that the people of the year EightHundred and Two Thousand odd would be incredibly in front of us inknowledge, art, everything. Then one of them suddenly asked me aquestion that showed him to be on the intellectual level of one ofour five-year-old children--asked me, in fact, if I had come fromthe sun in a thunderstorm! It let loose the judgment I had suspendedupon their clothes, their frail light limbs, and fragile features.A flow of disappointment rushed across my mind. For a moment I feltthat I had built the Time Machine in vain.

  'I nodded, pointed to the sun, and gave them such a vivid renderingof a thunderclap as startled them. They all withdrew a pace or soand bowed. Then came one laughing towards me, carrying a chain ofbeautiful flowers altogether new to me, and put it about my neck.The idea was received with melodious applause; and presently theywere all running to and fro for flowers, and laughingly flingingthem upon me until I was almost smothered with blossom. You whohave never seen the like can scarcely imagine what delicate andwonderful flowers countless years of culture had created. Thensomeone suggested that their plaything should be exhibited in thenearest building, and so I was led past the sphinx of white marble,which had seemed to watch me all the while with a smile at myastonishment, towards a vast grey edifice of fretted stone. As Iwent with them the memory of my confident anticipations of aprofoundly grave and intellectual posterity came, with irresistiblemerriment, to my mind.

  'The building had a huge entry, and was altogether of colossaldimensions. I was naturally most occupied with the growing crowd oflittle people, and with the big open portals that yawned before meshadowy and mysterious. My general impression of the world I sawover their heads was a tangled waste of beautiful bushes andflowers, a long neglected and yet weedless garden. I saw a numberof tall spikes of strange white flowers, measuring a foot perhapsacross the spread of the waxen petals. They grew scattered, as ifwild, among the variegated shrubs, but, as I say, I did not examinethem closely at this time. The Time Machine was left deserted on theturf among the rhododendrons.

  'The arch of the doorway was richly carved, but naturally I didnot observe the carving very narrowly, though I fancied I sawsuggestions of old Phoenician decorations as I passed through, andit struck me that they were very badly broken and weather-worn.Several more brightly clad people met me in the doorway, and so weentered, I, dressed in dingy nineteenth-century garments, lookinggrotesque enough, garlanded with flowers, and surrounded by aneddying mass of bright, soft-colored robes and shining white limbs,in a melodious whirl of laughter and laughing speech.

  'The big doorway opened into a proportionately great hall hung withbrown. The roof was in shadow, and the windows, partially glazedwith coloured glass and partially unglazed, admitted a temperedlight. The floor was made up of huge blocks of some very hard whitemetal, not plates nor slabs--blocks, and it was so much worn, as Ijudged by the going to and fro of past generations, as to be deeplychannelled along the more frequented ways. Transverse to the lengthwere innumerable tables made of slabs of polished stone, raisedperhaps a foot from the floor, and upon these were heaps of fruits.Some I recognized as a kind of hypertrophied raspberry and orange,but for the most part they were strange.

  'Between the tables was scattered a great number of cushions.Upon these my conductors seated themselves, signing for me to dolikewise. With a pretty absence of ceremony they began to eat thefruit with their hands, flinging peel and stalks, and so forth, intothe round openings in the sides of the tables. I was not loath tofollow their example, for I felt thirsty and hungry. As I did so Isurveyed the hall at my leisure.

  'And perhaps the thing that struck me most was its dilapidated look.The stained-glass windows, which displayed only a geometricalpattern, were broken in many places, and the curtains that hungacross the lower end were thick with dust. And it caught my eye thatthe corner of the marble table near me was fractured. Nevertheless,the general effect was extremely rich and picturesque. There were,perhaps, a couple of hundred people dining in the hall, and most ofthem, seated as near to me as they could come, were watching me withinterest, their little eyes shining over the fruit they were eating.All were clad in the same soft and yet strong, silky material.

  'Fruit, by the by, was all their diet. These people of the remotefuture were strict vegetarians, and while I was with them, in spiteof some carnal cravings, I had to be frugivorous also. Indeed, Ifound afterwards that horses, cattle, sheep, dogs, had followed theIchthyosaurus into extinction. But the fruits were very delightful;one, in particular, that seemed to be in season all the time I wasthere--a floury thing in a three-sided husk--was especially good,and I made it my staple. At first I was puzzled by all these strangefruits, and by the strange flowers I saw, but later I began toperceive their import.

  'However, I am telling you of my fruit dinner in the distant futurenow. So soon as my appetite was a little checked, I determined tomake a resolute attempt to learn the speech of these new men ofmine. Clearly that was the next thing to do. The fruits seemed aconvenient thing to begin upon, and holding one of these up I begana series of interrogative sounds and gestures. I had someconsiderable difficulty in conveying my meaning. At first my effortsmet with a stare of surprise or inextinguishable laughter, butpresently a fair-haired little creature seemed to grasp my intentionand repeated a name. They had to chatter and explain the businessat great length to each other, and my first attempts to make theexquisite little sounds of their language caused an immense amountof amusement. However, I felt like a schoolmaster amidst children,and persisted, and presently I had a score of noun substantives atleas
t at my command; and then I got to demonstrative pronouns, andeven the verb "to eat." But it was slow work, and the little peoplesoon tired and wanted to get away from my interrogations, so Idetermined, rather of necessity, to let them give their lessons inlittle doses when they felt inclined. And very little doses I foundthey were before long, for I never met people more indolent or moreeasily fatigued.

  'A queer thing I soon discovered about my little hosts, and that wastheir lack of interest. They would come to me with eager cries ofastonishment, like children, but like children they would soon stopexamining me and wander away after some other toy. The dinner and myconversational beginnings ended, I noted for the first time thatalmost all those who had surrounded me at first were gone. It isodd, too, how speedily I came to disregard these little people. Iwent out through the portal into the sunlit world again as soon asmy hunger was satisfied. I was continually meeting more of these menof the future, who would follow me a little distance, chatter andlaugh about me, and, having smiled and gesticulated in a friendlyway, leave me again to my own devices.

  'The calm of evening was upon the world as I emerged from the greathall, and the scene was lit by the warm glow of the setting sun.At first things were very confusing. Everything was so entirelydifferent from the world I had known--even the flowers. The bigbuilding I had left was situated on the slope of a broad rivervalley, but the Thames had shifted perhaps a mile from its presentposition. I resolved to mount to the summit of a crest, perhaps amile and a half away, from which I could get a wider view of thisour planet in the year Eight Hundred and Two Thousand Seven Hundredand One A.D. For that, I should explain, was the date the littledials of my machine recorded.

  'As I walked I was watching for every impression that could possiblyhelp to explain the condition of ruinous splendour in which Ifound the world--for ruinous it was. A little way up the hill, forinstance, was a great heap of granite, bound together by masses ofaluminium, a vast labyrinth of precipitous walls and crumpledheaps, amidst which were thick heaps of very beautiful pagoda-likeplants--nettles possibly--but wonderfully tinted with brown aboutthe leaves, and incapable of stinging. It was evidently the derelictremains of some vast structure, to what end built I could notdetermine. It was here that I was destined, at a later date, to havea very strange experience--the first intimation of a still strangerdiscovery--but of that I will speak in its proper place.

  'Looking round with a sudden thought, from a terrace on which Irested for a while, I realized that there were no small houses to beseen. Apparently the single house, and possibly even the household,had vanished. Here and there among the greenery were palace-likebuildings, but the house and the cottage, which form suchcharacteristic features of our own English landscape, haddisappeared.

  '"Communism," said I to myself.

  'And on the heels of that came another thought. I looked at thehalf-dozen little figures that were following me. Then, in a flash,I perceived that all had the same form of costume, the same softhairless visage, and the same girlish rotundity of limb. It may seemstrange, perhaps, that I had not noticed this before. But everythingwas so strange. Now, I saw the fact plainly enough. In costume, andin all the differences of texture and bearing that now mark off thesexes from each other, these people of the future were alike. Andthe children seemed to my eyes to be but the miniatures of theirparents. I judged, then, that the children of that time wereextremely precocious, physically at least, and I found afterwardsabundant verification of my opinion.

  'Seeing the ease and security in which these people were living, Ifelt that this close resemblance of the sexes was after all whatone would expect; for the strength of a man and the softness of awoman, the institution of the family, and the differentiation ofoccupations are mere militant necessities of an age of physicalforce; where population is balanced and abundant, much childbearingbecomes an evil rather than a blessing to the State; whereviolence comes but rarely and off-spring are secure, there is lessnecessity--indeed there is no necessity--for an efficient family,and the specialization of the sexes with reference to theirchildren's needs disappears. We see some beginnings of this evenin our own time, and in this future age it was complete. This, Imust remind you, was my speculation at the time. Later, I was toappreciate how far it fell short of the reality.

  'While I was musing upon these things, my attention was attracted bya pretty little structure, like a well under a cupola. I thought ina transitory way of the oddness of wells still existing, and thenresumed the thread of my speculations. There were no large buildingstowards the top of the hill, and as my walking powers were evidentlymiraculous, I was presently left alone for the first time. With astrange sense of freedom and adventure I pushed on up to the crest.

  'There I found a seat of some yellow metal that I did not recognize,corroded in places with a kind of pinkish rust and half smotheredin soft moss, the arm-rests cast and filed into the resemblance ofgriffins' heads. I sat down on it, and I surveyed the broad view ofour old world under the sunset of that long day. It was as sweet andfair a view as I have ever seen. The sun had already gone below thehorizon and the west was flaming gold, touched with some horizontalbars of purple and crimson. Below was the valley of the Thames, inwhich the river lay like a band of burnished steel. I have alreadyspoken of the great palaces dotted about among the variegatedgreenery, some in ruins and some still occupied. Here and there rosea white or silvery figure in the waste garden of the earth, here andthere came the sharp vertical line of some cupola or obelisk. Therewere no hedges, no signs of proprietary rights, no evidences ofagriculture; the whole earth had become a garden.

  'So watching, I began to put my interpretation upon the things I hadseen, and as it shaped itself to me that evening, my interpretationwas something in this way. (Afterwards I found I had got only ahalf-truth--or only a glimpse of one facet of the truth.)

  'It seemed to me that I had happened upon humanity upon the wane.The ruddy sunset set me thinking of the sunset of mankind. For thefirst time I began to realize an odd consequence of the socialeffort in which we are at present engaged. And yet, come to think,it is a logical consequence enough. Strength is the outcome of need;security sets a premium on feebleness. The work of ameliorating theconditions of life--the true civilizing process that makes life moreand more secure--had gone steadily on to a climax. One triumph of aunited humanity over Nature had followed another. Things that arenow mere dreams had become projects deliberately put in hand andcarried forward. And the harvest was what I saw!

  'After all, the sanitation and the agriculture of to-day are stillin the rudimentary stage. The science of our time has attacked buta little department of the field of human disease, but even so,it spreads its operations very steadily and persistently. Ouragriculture and horticulture destroy a weed just here and there andcultivate perhaps a score or so of wholesome plants, leaving thegreater number to fight out a balance as they can. We improve ourfavourite plants and animals--and how few they are--gradually byselective breeding; now a new and better peach, now a seedlessgrape, now a sweeter and larger flower, now a more convenient breedof cattle. We improve them gradually, because our ideals are vagueand tentative, and our knowledge is very limited; because Nature,too, is shy and slow in our clumsy hands. Some day all this willbe better organized, and still better. That is the drift of thecurrent in spite of the eddies. The whole world will be intelligent,educated, and co-operating; things will move faster and fastertowards the subjugation of Nature. In the end, wisely and carefullywe shall readjust the balance of animal and vegetable life to suitour human needs.

  'This adjustment, I say, must have been done, and done well; doneindeed for all Time, in the space of Time across which my machinehad leaped. The air was free from gnats, the earth from weeds orfungi; everywhere were fruits and sweet and delightful flowers;brilliant butterflies flew hither and thither. The ideal ofpreventive medicine was attained. Diseases had been stamped out. Isaw no evidence of any contagious diseases during all my stay. And Ishall have to tell you later that e
ven the processes of putrefactionand decay had been profoundly affected by these changes.

  'Social triumphs, too, had been effected. I saw mankind housed insplendid shelters, gloriously clothed, and as yet I had found themengaged in no toil. There were no signs of struggle, neither socialnor economical struggle. The shop, the advertisement, traffic, allthat commerce which constitutes the body of our world, was gone. Itwas natural on that golden evening that I should jump at the idea ofa social paradise. The difficulty of increasing population had beenmet, I guessed, and population had ceased to increase.

  'But with this change in condition comes inevitably adaptations tothe change. What, unless biological science is a mass of errors, isthe cause of human intelligence and vigour? Hardship and freedom:conditions under which the active, strong, and subtle survive andthe weaker go to the wall; conditions that put a premium upon theloyal alliance of capable men, upon self-restraint, patience, anddecision. And the institution of the family, and the emotions thatarise therein, the fierce jealousy, the tenderness for offspring,parental self-devotion, all found their justification and support inthe imminent dangers of the young. _Now_, where are these imminentdangers? There is a sentiment arising, and it will grow, againstconnubial jealousy, against fierce maternity, against passionof all sorts; unnecessary things now, and things that make usuncomfortable, savage survivals, discords in a refined and pleasantlife.

  'I thought of the physical slightness of the people, their lack ofintelligence, and those big abundant ruins, and it strengthened mybelief in a perfect conquest of Nature. For after the battle comesQuiet. Humanity had been strong, energetic, and intelligent, and hadused all its abundant vitality to alter the conditions under whichit lived. And now came the reaction of the altered conditions.

  'Under the new conditions of perfect comfort and security, thatrestless energy, that with us is strength, would become weakness.Even in our own time certain tendencies and desires, once necessaryto survival, are a constant source of failure. Physical courage andthe love of battle, for instance, are no great help--may even behindrances--to a civilized man. And in a state of physical balanceand security, power, intellectual as well as physical, would be outof place. For countless years I judged there had been no danger ofwar or solitary violence, no danger from wild beasts, no wastingdisease to require strength of constitution, no need of toil. Forsuch a life, what we should call the weak are as well equipped asthe strong, are indeed no longer weak. Better equipped indeed theyare, for the strong would be fretted by an energy for which therewas no outlet. No doubt the exquisite beauty of the buildings I sawwas the outcome of the last surgings of the now purposeless energyof mankind before it settled down into perfect harmony with theconditions under which it lived--the flourish of that triumph whichbegan the last great peace. This has ever been the fate of energy insecurity; it takes to art and to eroticism, and then come languorand decay.

  'Even this artistic impetus would at last die away--had almost diedin the Time I saw. To adorn themselves with flowers, to dance, tosing in the sunlight: so much was left of the artistic spirit, andno more. Even that would fade in the end into a contentedinactivity. We are kept keen on the grindstone of pain andnecessity, and, it seemed to me, that here was that hatefulgrindstone broken at last!

  'As I stood there in the gathering dark I thought that in thissimple explanation I had mastered the problem of the world--masteredthe whole secret of these delicious people. Possibly the checks theyhad devised for the increase of population had succeeded too well,and their numbers had rather diminished than kept stationary.That would account for the abandoned ruins. Very simple was myexplanation, and plausible enough--as most wrong theories are!