Philip Van Doren Stern (ed) (19 page)

"The
calm
of
evening
was
upon
the
world
as
I
emerged
from
the great
hall,
and
the
scene
was
lit
by
the
warm
glow
of
the
setting
sun. At
first
things
were
very
confusing.
Everything
was
so
entirely
different
from
the
world
I
had
known—even
the
flowers.
The
big
building I
had
left
was
situate
on
the
slope
of
a
broad
river
valley,
but
the Thames
had
shifted
perhaps
a
mile
from
its
present
position.
I
resolved
to
mount
to
the
summit
of
a
crest,
perhaps
a
mile
and
a
half away,
from
which
I
could
get
a
wider
view
of
this
our
planet
in
the year
Eight
Hundred
and
Two
Thousand
Seven
Hundred
and
One A.D.
For
that,
I
should
explain,
was
the
date
the
little
dials
of
my machine
recorded.

"As
I
walked
I
was
watchful
for
every
impression
that
could
possibly
help
to
explain
the
condition
of
ruinous
splendour
in
which
I found
the
world—for
ruinous
it
was.
A
little
way
up
the
hill,
for
instance, was a great heap of granite, bound together by masses of
aluminium, a vast labyrinth of precipitous walls and crumbled heaps, amidst
which were thick heaps of very beautiful pagoda-like plants— nettles
possibly—but wonderfully tinted with brown about the leaves, and incapable of
stinging. It was evidently the derelict remains of some vast structure, to what
end built I could not determine. It was here that I was destined, at a later
date, to have a very strange experience—the first intimation of a still
stranger discovery—but of that I will speak in its proper place.

"Looking
round with a sudden thought, from a terrace on which I rested for a while, I
realised that there were no small houses to be seen. Apparently the single
house, and possibly even the household, had vanished. Here and there among the
greenery were palace-like buildings, but the house and the cottage, which form
such characteristic features of our own English landscape, had disappeared.

" 'Communism,' said *
to myself.

"And
on the heels or that came another thought. I looked at the half-dozen little
figures that were following me. Then, in a flash, I perceived that all had the
same form of costume, the same soft hairless visage, and the same girlish
rotundity of limb. It may seem strange, perhaps, that I had not noticed this
before. But everything was so strange. Now, I saw the fact plainly enough. In
costume, and in all the differences of texture and bearing that now mark off
the sexes from each other, these people of the future were alike. And the children
seemed to my eyes to be but the miniatures of their parents. I judged, then,
that the children of that time were extremely precocious, physically at least,
and I found afterwards abundant verification of my opinion.

"Seeing
the ease and security in which these people were living, I felt that this close
resemblance of the sexes was after all what one would expect; for the strength
of a man and the softness of a woman, the institution of the family, and the
differentiation of occupations are mere militant necessities of an age of
physical force. Where population is balanced and abundant, much child-bearing
becomes an evil rather than a blessing to the State; where violence comes but
rarely and offspring are secure, there is less necessity—indeed there is no
necessity—for an efficient family, and the specialisation of the sexes with
reference to their children's needs disappears. We see some
beginnings
of
this
even
in
our
own
time,
and
in
this
future
age
it
was complete.
This,
I
must
remind
you,
was
my
speculation
at
the
time. Later,
I
was
to
appreciate
how
far
it
fell
short
of
the
reality.

"While
I
was
musing
upon
these
things,
my
attention
was
attracted by
a
pretty
little
structure,
like
a
well
under
a
cupola.
I
thought
in
a transitory
way
of
the
oddness
of
wells
still
existing,
and
then
resumed the
thread
of
my
speculations.
There
were
no
large
buildings
towards the
top
of
the
hill,
and
as
my
walking
powers
were
evidently
miraculous,
I
was
presently
left
alone
for
the
first
time.
With
a
strange
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
recognise,
corroded
in
places
with
a
kind
of
pinkish
rust
and
half
smothered in
soft
moss,
the
arm
rests
cast
and
filed
into
the
resemblance
of griffins'
heads.
I
sat
down
on
it,
and
I
surveyed
the
broad
view
of
our old
world
under
the
sunset
of
that
long
day.
It
was
as
sweet
and
fair a
view
as
I
have
ever
seen.
The
sun
had
already
gone
below
the horizon
and
the
west
was
flaming
gold,
touched
with
some
horizontal bars
of
purple
and
crimson.
Below
was
the
valley
of
the
Thames,
in which
the
river
lay
like
a
band
of
burnished
steel.
I
have
already spoken
of
the
great
palaces
dotted
about
among
the
variegated
greenery,
some
in
ruins
and
some
still
occupied.
Here
and
there
rose
a white
or
silvery
figure
in
the
waste
garden
of
the
earth,
here
and
there came
the
sharp
vertical
line
of
some
cupola
or
obelisk.
There
were no
hedges,
no
signs
of
proprietary
rights,
no
evidences
of
agriculture; the
whole
earth
had
become
a
garden.