_The Chronicle_
I B A L K A N E U R O P E
1 The European War and After 21
2 The Anglo-French War 23
3 Europe after the Anglo-French War 31
4 The Russo-German War 37
II E U R O P E ’ S D O W N F A L L
1 Europe and America 42
2 The Origins of a Mystery 46
3 Europe Murdered 51
III A M E R I C A A N D C H I N A
1 The Rivals 55
2 The Conflict 63
3 On an Island in the Pacific 67
IV A N A M E R I C A N I Z E D P L A N E T
1 The Foundation of the First World State 75
2 The Dominance of Science 78
3 Material Achievement 81
4 The Culture of the First World State 84
5 Downfall 93
V T H E F A L L O F T H E F I R S T M E N
1 The First Dark Age 98
2 The Rise of Patagonia 102
3 The Cult of Youth 106
4 The Catastrophe 112
VI T R A N S I T I O N
1 The First Men at Bay 120
2 The Second Dark Age 129
VII T H E R I S E O F T H E S E C O N D M E N
1 The Appearance of a New Species 132
2 The Intercourse of Three Species 138
3 The Zenith of the Second Men 143
VIII T H E M A R T I A N S
1 The First Martian Invasion 151
2 Life on Mars 153
3 The Martian Mind 160
4 Delusions of the Martians 164
IX E A R T H A N D M A R S
1 The Second Men at Bay 169
2 The Ruin of Two Worlds 176
3 The Third Dark Age 184
X T H E T H I R D M E N I N T H E W I L D E R N E S S
1 The Third Human Species 189
2 Digressions of the Third Men 195
3 The Vital Art 200
4 Conflicting Policies 205
XI M A N R E M A K E S H I M S E L F
1 The First of the Great Brains 209
2 The Tragedy of the Fourth Men 214
3 The Fifth Men 221
4 The Culture of the Fifth Men 225
XII T H E L A S T T E R R E S T R I A L S
1 The Cult of Evanescence 233
2 Exploration of Time 238
3 Voyaging in Space 243
4 Preparing a New World 249
XIII H U M A N I T Y O N V E N U S
1 Taking Root Again 255
2 The Flying Men 259
3 A Minor Astronomical Event 269
XIV N E P T U N E
1 Bird’s-Eye View 273
2 Da Capo 275
3 Slow Conquest 279
XV T H E L A S T M E N
1 Introduction to the Last Human Species 284
2 Childhood and Maturity 290
3 A Racial Awakening 294
4 Cosmology 304
XVI T H E L A S T O F M A N
1 Sentence of Death 313
2 Behaviour of the Condemned 315
3 Epilogue 321
_Diagrams_
T I M E S C A L E 1 74
T I M E S C A L E 2 133
T I M E S C A L E 3 190
T I M E S C A L E S 4 A N D 5 285
_Preface_
This is a work of fiction. I have tried to invent a story which may seem
a possible, or at least not wholly impossible, account of the future of
man; and I have tried to make that story relevant to the change that is
taking place today in man’s outlook.
To romance of the future may seem to be indulgence in ungoverned
speculation for the sake of the marvellous. Yet controlled imagination
in this sphere can be a very valuable exercise for minds bewildered
about the present and its potentialities. Today we should welcome, and
even study, every serious attempt to envisage the future of our race;
not merely in order to grasp the very diverse and often tragic
possibilities that confront us, but also that we may familiarize
ourselves with the certainty that many of our most cherished ideals
would seem puerile to more developed minds. To romance of the far
future, then, is to attempt to see the human race in its cosmic setting,
and to mould our hearts to entertain new values.
But if such imaginative construction of possible futures is to be at all
potent, our imagination must be strictly disciplined. We must endeavour
not to go beyond the bounds of possibility set by the particular state
of culture within which we live. The merely fantastic has only minor
power. Not that we should seek actually to prophesy what will as a
matter of fact occur; for in our present state such prophecy is
certainly futile, save in the simplest matters. We are not set up as
historians attempting to look ahead instead of backwards. We can only
select a certain thread out of the tangle of many equally valid
possibilities. But we must select with a purpose. The activity that we
are undertaking is not science, but art; and the effect that it should
have on the reader is the effect that art should have.
Yet our aim is not merely to create aesthetically admirable fiction. We
must achieve neither mere history, nor mere fiction, but myth. A true
myth is one which, within the universe of a certain culture (living or
dead), expresses richly, and often perhaps tragically, the highest
admirations possible within that culture. A false myth is one which
either violently transgresses the limits of credibility set by its own
cultural matrix, or expresses admirations less developed than those of
its culture’s best vision. This book can no more claim to be true myth
than true prophecy. But it is an essay in myth creation.
The kind of future which is here imagined, should not, I think, seem
wholly fantastic, or at any rate not so fantastic as to be without
significance, to modern western individuals who are familiar with the
outlines of contemporary thought. Had I chosen matter in which there was
nothing whatever of the fantastic, its very plausibility would have
rendered it implausible. For one thing at least is almost certain about
the future, namely, that very much of it will be such as we should call
incredible. In one important respect, indeed, I may perhaps seem to have
strayed into barren extravagance. I have supposed an inhabitant of the
remote future to be communicating with us of today. I have pretended
that he has the power of partially controlling the operations of minds
now living, and that this book is the product of such influence. Yet
even this fiction is perhaps not wholly excluded by our thought. I
might, of course, easily have omitted it without more than superficial
alteration of the theme. But its introduction was more than a
convenience. Only by some such radical and bewildering device could I
embody the possibility that there may be more in time’s nature than is
revealed to us. Indeed, only by some such trick could I do justice to
the conviction that our whole present mentality is but a confused and
halting first experiment.
If ever this book should happen to be discovered by some future
individual, for instance by a member of the next generation sorting out
the rubbish of his predecessors, it will certainly raise a smile; for
very much is bound to happen of which no hint is yet discoverable. And
indeed even in our generation circumstances may well change so
unexpectedly and so radically that this book may very soon look
ridiculous. But no matter. We of today must conceive our relation to the
rest of the universe as best we can; and even if our images must seem
fantastic to future men, they may none the less serve their purpose
today.
Some readers, taking my story to be an attempt at prophecy, may deem it
unwarrantably pessimistic. But it is not prophecy; it is myth, or an
essay in myth. We all desire the future to turn out more happily than I
have figured it. In particular we desire our present civilization to
advance steadily toward some kind of Utopia. The thought that it may
decay and collapse, and that all its spiritual treasure may be lost
irrevocably, is repugnant to us. Yet this must be faced as at least a
possibility. And this kind of tragedy, the tragedy of a race, must, I
think, be admitted in any adequate myth.
And so, while gladly recognizing that in our time there are strong seeds
of hope as well as of despair, I have imagined for aesthetic purposes
that our race will destroy itself. There is today a very earnest
movement for peace and international unity; and surely with good fortune
and intelligent management it may triumph. Most earnestly we must hope
that it will. But I have figured things out in this book in such a
manner that this great movement fails. I suppose it incapable of
preventing a succession of national wars; and I permit it only to
achieve the goal of unity and peace after the mentality of the race has
been undermined. May this not happen! May the League of Nations, or some
more strictly cosmopolitan authority, win through before it is too late!
Yet let us find room in our minds and in our hearts for the thought that
the whole enterprise of our race may be after all but a minor and
unsuccessful episode in a vaster drama, which also perhaps may be
tragic.
American readers, if ever there are any, may feel that their great
nation is given a somewhat unattractive part in the story. I have
imagined the triumph of the cruder sort of Americanism over all that is
best and most promising in American culture. May this not occur in the
real world! Americans themselves, however, admit the possibility of such
an issue, and will, I hope, forgive me for emphasizing it, and using it
as an early turning-point in the long drama of Man.
Any attempt to conceive such a drama must take into account whatever
contemporary science has to say about man’s own nature and his physical
environment. I have tried to supplement my own slight knowledge of
natural science by pestering my scientific friends. In particular, I
have been very greatly helped by conversation with Professors P. G. H.
Boswell, J. Johnstone, and J. Rice, of Liverpool. But they must not be
held responsible for the many deliberate extravagances which, though
they serve a purpose in the design, may jar upon the scientific ear.
To Dr L. A. Reid I am much indebted for general comments, and to Mr E.
V. Rieu for many very valuable suggestions. To Professor and Mrs L. C.
Martin, who read the whole book in manuscript, I cannot properly express
my gratitude for constant encouragement and criticism. To my wife’s
devastating sanity I owe far more than she supposes.
Before closing this preface I would remind the reader that throughout
the following pages the speaker, the first person singular, is supposed
to be, not the actual writer, but an individual living in the extremely
distant future.