Читать книгу The Crystal Button - Chauncey Thomas - Страница 13

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"Three thousand years!" said Professor Prosper absently, as they passed along the street.

"Three thousand years!" echoed Paul; "and yet, by some strange fortune,--whether good or evil I hardly yet know,--I find myself permitted still to live and breathe and to gaze at the pleasant face of the earth. Three thousand years! and yet the sun still shines the same, and the fleecy cloud-ships overhead sail just as calmly, and the wind gives me the same brusque greeting as in the Decembers of old."

"Yes," responded the Professor; "and, as you will learn later, happy childhood plays just the same in mimicry of maturer life; there still reigns the golden age of love-making, accompanied by buoyant hope and castle-building; still there come the soberer joys and responsibilities of middle life; and still each man and woman is followed step by step by the shadow of old age and death. So rolls the world forever through its contrasting seasons. But life's road now is unquestionably much smoother and more comfortable for all of us than it was in your turbulent age of experiment and unrest."

"That is what lam particularly interested to know about. In what respects are you now more at ease? And does this ease extend to all classes? And are all classes happier in consequence?"

"I can answer Yes to your last two questions. Details you must see for yourself. In a general way, however, you will no doubt find the following points suggestive of some of the conditions you may expect to find. Money-getting is no longer the chief goal of effort, and hence many unworthy ambitions have been stifled. Places of power and trust are now filled by strong and trustworthy men; the path to all high places is such that none others can attain them. We no longer have taskmasters, for the simple reason that we no longer have slaves. There is abundance in the way of the world's goods for all, and not so much for any one class as to make them uncomfortable. We have abolished classes. We have less failures and disappointments in our ambitions because the youthful period of experimenting and scheming is past, and we now understand the forces and materials that are at our disposal, and can thus work toward any given end with reasonable assurance of success. History clearly teaches that, in your time, many of your most intelligent and earnest workers failed utterly so far as visible results were concerned. Some of the men of your time whose names are now famous were scarcely known to you, except perhaps as vague theorizers and idealists. From our present point of view we are able to judge the value of their theories, as worked out by later specialists, and justly award them a place among the great ones of the earth who have opened up new avenues of material or intellectual value."

"I can see how that might be so. We did the same by generations that preceded us."

"Yes, but in a less degree, because you lived before the era of truth, justice, and peace, while society was in a ferment, while law was by no means synonymous with justice; while worldly advantage, largely based on a money valuation, was the gauge of success if not of merit; and while the bread-and-butter question overtopped all others."

"Have you no bread-and-butter question now in the world?"

"None of which any private citizen is bound to take any thought. The world produces ample supplies so long as waste, war, idleness, ignorance, and miserliness are not allowed to put their greedy hands in the meal-sack. Under our reign of truth, justice, and peace those buzzards of famine no longer breed. You see, Mr. Prognosis, science, which merely means knowing, has now taken the place of experimenting, which means trying to know, and consequently implies ignorance. You lived in the Experimental Age, whereby the world was taught many valuable lessons; but it was a world of hardships--how hard you did not then realize, or universal anarchy would have put to the test the great question of all, which you did little to settle. Can you now guess what that question was?"

"Human rights?"

"Exactly. You claimed to be Christians, and your nations claimed to be Christian nations, but-excuse me-your customs and your laws wrought more injustice between man and man than any heathen nations that had preceded you, simply because your power was vastly greater. You ruled by force: to-day the world is ruled by truth; and, under the sway of this benign judge, all things have blossomed and fruited in a manner you never dreamed of. All things human have now lost their sting, only excepting sickness and death; and sickness has been very largely reduced, while death has been deferred unto the day when most men, being feeble and weary, have loosened most of the ties that make life a boon."

For a few minutes the two men walked on without speaking. Paul first broke the silence. "Tell me, sir, do you perceive any evidences that nature itself is growing old? Has the sun perceptibly lost volume and power by radiation?"

"That, Mr. Prognosis, is a question you can better decide, because you have means of comparison. What say you? Do you detect any paling of its beneficent fires?"

"I do not find it apparent to the senses. It seems to me as bright as ever, and its rays seem as warm on my cheek."

"Of course," added the Professor, "we know that, within three thousand years past, there must have been some decrease of light and heat by reason of radiation, some decrease of volume from concentration, some increase of mass from meteoric accretions, and consequently some shortening of all the planetary distances. But these changes are so slight that only our most delicate instruments record them. There has also been a slight lengthening of our days and nights, so that we can now calculate the time when the twenty-ninth day of February will no longer be needed to piece out the uneven years. These few changes have occurred, as your scientists were able to predict, and the same movements will forever continue until the sun finally loses its light altogether and nature dies. There have been measurable changes in the last three thousand years; but, as you have said, none of them are perceptible to the senses."

"I can hardly restrain myself, sir, from asking you many more questions regarding physical science, but this is not the time or place for that. Some other time, if you will allow me, I shall not fail to tax your patience to the utmost."

"You need not fear of wearying me by so doing. Like you, I am an enthusiast on such subjects."