And it came to pass in those days that a plague fell upon mankind,
slaying only the males and sparing the females for some mysterious
reason.
So that there was only one man left alive upon the face of the earth.
And he was remarkably fair to behold and comely and vigorous as an
elephant.
And feeling the difficulties of his position, the man fled away to the
mountains, armed with a Winchester rifle, and lived among the wild
beasts of the forest....
And the women pursued after him and surrounded the mountain; and
prevailed upon the man, with subtle arguments and pleasant words, that
he should deliver himself up into their hands.
And they made a treaty with him, that he should be defended from
ill-usage and protected from fury and guarded about night and day with
a guard.
And the guard was officered by women who were philosophers, and
who cared for nothing in this world beyond that which is strictly
scientific and matter of fact, so that they were above all the
temptations of this world.
And the man was lodged in a palace, and nourished with all the dainties
of the world, but was not suffered to go forth, or to show himself in
the streets; forasmuch as he was guarded even as a queen bee is guarded
in the hive.
Neither was he suffered to occupy his mind with grave questions or to
read serious books or discourse of serious things or to peruse aught
that had not been previously approved by the committee of scientific
women.
For that which wearieth the brain affecteth the well-being of the body.
And all the day long he heard the pleasant plash of fountain waters and
inhaled delicious perfumes, and the fairest women in the world stood
before him under the supervision of the philosophers.
And a great army was organized to guard him; and great wars were fought
with the women of other nations on his account, so that nine millions
and more of strong young women were killed.
But he was not permitted to know any of these things, lest it might
trouble his mind; nor was he suffered to hear or behold aught that can
be unpleasant to mortal ears.
He was permitted only to gaze upon beautiful things--beautiful flowers
and fair women, and matchless statues and marvelous pictures, and
graven gems and magical vases, and cunningly devised work of goldsmiths
and silversmiths. He was only suffered the music created by the fingers
of the greatest musicians and by the throats of the most bewitching of
singers.
And once a year out of every ten thousand women in the world the
fairest one and the most complete in all things was chosen; and of
those chosen ones the fairest and most perfect were again chosen; and
out of these again the committee of philosophers selected one thousand;
and out of these thousand the man chose three hundred.
For he was the only man in the whole world; and the committee of
philosophers ordained that he should be permitted to remain entirely
alone for sixty-five days in the year, lest he might be, as it were,
talked to death.
At first the man fell occasionally in love and felt unhappy; but as the
committee of philosophers always sent unto him women more beautiful and
more adorable than any he had seen before, he soon became reconciled to
his lot.
And instead of committing the folly of loving one woman in particular,
he learned to love all women in general.
And during fifty years he lived such a life as even the angels might
envy.
And before he died he had 15,273 children, and 91,638 grandchildren.
And the children were brought up by the nation, and permitted to do
nothing except to perfect their minds and bodies.
And in the third generation the descendants of the man had increased
even to two millions of males, not including females, who were indeed
few, so great was the universal desire for males.
And in the tenth generation there were even as many males as females.
And the world was regenerated.