I passed a wretched night. I cannot assign this to the small size of my
sleeping-room, for I was able to stretch myself at full length and the
admirable system of ventilation kept the air always fresh. Such sleep as
I had was haunted by dreams in which these four-legged human beings
figured largely. Early in the morning I rose and switched on the light,
hoping that by pacing my cell or the passage without for a few minutes I
might again induce sleep. I saw a strange sight. The silky heads of the
two plants swayed gently to and fro continuously. Their leaves rose and
fell. Somehow they seemed to suggest to me a caged lion.
"You poor devils," I said aloud.
When I had put out the light and stretched myself on the mattress again
I felt the silky head of one of these plants rubbing against my cheek.
It startled me at first. I touched it with my hand. It was about the
size of a man's fist. I felt its thousand fibres vibrating under my
touch.
In the morning another covered tray was brought me, precisely the same
as on the previous evening. A bad night gives one little appetite for
strong ale in the morning and I begged a drink of distilled water from
the Professor. I took that opportunity to explain to him the kind of
food that I should require in the future, and to beg for some facilities
by which I might cook myself a hot dish. This last he refused, but
agreed that my evening ration should be brought to me hot in the future.
I remained with the Professor for fifteen days. Every day for about an
hour he catechised me closely on the manner of life in my own
country--the old world, as he called it. His knowledge and his ignorance
alike amused me. For example, he made a drawing of a hansom-cab which
was really fairly accurate; but he was under the impression that
hansom-cabs were used in Rome at the time of Julius Cæsar. All his ideas
about dates were wrong and confused, and perpetually I had to correct
him. He made notes of all that I told him with an ink pencil.
"You are writing a book on this subject?" I asked him one day.
"I am. That is my duty."
"And when will it be printed and published?"
"Upon the defeat of the democracy and the establishment of first-class
and second-class beings, the extremely wise course was taken of breaking
up all printing-machines and destroying all books, except those copies,
mostly manuscript, which were especially selected for the library of the
Central Office. We neither print nor publish."
"Why do you call this a wise course? It seems to me the wildest folly.
It is to cheap printing and cheap books that the spread of education in
my own country has been largely due."
"Undoubtedly. The question of course is whether the spread of
education--or rather what you mean by education--is in any way
desirable. It seemed to us that one might as well admit children and
fools under no supervision to a menagerie of wild beasts and provide
them with the keys of the cages. We respect letters. We consider it a
dishonour to letters that books should be cheap or easily obtainable.
Here it costs a first-class being more to read one manuscript from the
library of the Central Office than it would cost you in your own country
for a year's subscription to King Mudie."
I informed him that Mudie was not a king and that I did not know how he
had got the idea. He accepted the correction as he always accepted every
correction, with considerable irritation.
"It seems to me," he continued, "that you use the word education in a
very narrow sense. I myself should say that the whole of our
second-class beings were educated. Each is trained to the work that he
has to do. We have for instance a group of them who are familiar with
the ordinary process of plant culture. They can dig, they can prune,
they can plant. They have the education for which they are fitted. They
are not versed in those extraordinary modifications which can be
produced in plants by chemical changes caused artificially in the nature
of the sap. That branch is naturally reserved for beings of the first
class. They are taught how to weave and how to make the garments which
we all wear. They are taught how to clean our houses in the quickest,
most silent and most effective manner. Briefly, they do any work which
their intelligence and judgment entitle them to do. Beyond that we do
not go. We do not give them knowledge which would be dangerous to them
and to us. When you return home, my friend, if ever you do return home,
preach to your poor benighted people the inequality of man and the
advisability of restricting all really important knowledge to the higher
grade."
One day while we were chatting about indifferent subjects he mentioned
quite casually that he had been cross-speaking the Central Office and
that he found that MZ04 had died that morning.
"I am sorry to hear it," I said. "For after all he received me
kindly--fed me and clothed me. When is the funeral?"
"Funeral?" said the Professor. "We have no funerals. The body of MZ04
went into the refuse-destructor hours ago. Death is a confession of
failure, a sure proof of a blunder somewhere, and therefore ordinary
politeness tells us that we should take as little notice of it as
possible."
"Who will take his place?" I asked.
"That has already been decided by the Inner Office."
"You had no ambitions in that direction?"
"None whatever. There is no reason why in addition to my present
appointment I should not now be holding a post--and a highly placed
post--in the Inner Office. It is merely a want of appreciation and, I am
afraid I must add, a certain meanness in the minds of some first-class
beings which keeps me a humble professor. However, merit will tell; I
can trust to that."
The boasted civilisation of Thule had at any rate not extirpated human
vanity. The vanity of the Professor was colossal. No compliment was too
gross for him to accept with avidity. His nature was indeed very curious
and difficult for a simple man like myself to comprehend. In spite of
the casual way in which he spoke of death, I was convinced that he lived
in hourly dread of it. In spite of the fact that he spoke of every known
form of religion as an idle superstition, and professed the most
absolute materialism, I think he was unable to disbelieve entirely in
the future life. His nerves were not good. Sometimes in the middle of
the night he would tap at the door of the cupboard where I slept and ask
me to come out and speak to him. There was always some excuse, and I
think the excuse was never the true one. The fact of the case is that
the extreme solitude in which most of these first-class beings lived had
its inevitable effect upon them. They had, as the Professor observed, no
entertainments. They had really no social gatherings. Occasionally one
friend would pay a brief and formal visit to another friend, but there
was nothing beyond that, When they went abroad for exercise or to bask
in the sun, they as a rule passed one another unnoticed.
I was myself the reason why for a time the number of visitors to the
Professor's house increased considerably. People came to see me, and he
produced me and lectured upon me in terms which were sufficiently
humiliating.
"Observe," he would say, "the ludicrous smallness of the head and the
short and attenuated forelegs. In this respect one might almost believe
him to be a second-class being. He is probably, however, a still lower
type. The skin is whiter from deficient pigmentation, and the size of
the body is smaller than in a second-class male. In the land from which
he comes I find that they learn nothing by experience. The child born
into the world there naturally adopts the safe quadrupedal position and
has the use of its toes. The creature that we have here can do
absolutely nothing with his toes and is uncomfortable in the quadrupedal
position. In fact, the deformity of his body prevents him from adopting
it easily."
At this point in his lecture he would change to a different language and
continue. This second language was used by first-class beings among
themselves when they wished to say anything without being understood by
those whom they considered their inferiors. In the presence of a
second-class being it was that language which the first class always
adopted. Among themselves and in my presence they spoke English, except
on the occasions when they did not wish me to understand them.
I began to rebel against the kind of life which I was leading. I
disliked to be made a curiosity and a show of. The monotony affected me.
The horrible familiarities of those two plants in my sleeping-room got
on my nerves. I began to hint to the Professor that I must have change
and more freedom or that the source of his information would possibly be
dried up.
"If you became useless to me," he said carelessly, "you would be killed,
of course. You would have failed and your body would go into the
refuse-destructor."
"Very likely," I said. "But you would not get the information which you
want. And you do want it, you know."
That was my trump card. He really did want to acquire all possible
information about what he called the old world. In return for this I was
always able to obtain concessions, and I did not fail in this case. I
told him that I wished to explore the island, to go right over to the
other side of it and see the places where the second class lived and the
work they did. At first he tried to dissuade me. He pointed out that the
distance to the other side of the island was not less than eight miles,
and refused to believe that this would not be beyond my strength. He
painted in lurid colours the dangers of the mountain which I should have
to cross and of the forests which I should find on the other side. I,
however, remained obstinate in my purposes and at last obtained his
permission to go, on condition that I returned in ten days and that I
never spoke with any second-class being whom I might encounter, lest I
should inadvertently betray important knowledge to them. This promise I
gave readily enough, but, I must confess, with no intention of keeping
it. He gave me some further instructions and a pass written with the ink
pencil, which he said would entitle me to protection and help from any
first-class being whom I might encounter.
Thus then on a fine sunny morning I started out with no more equipment
than I could easily carry on my back. The prospect of adventure lured
me. For the first time for days I felt in good temper and spirits.