登陆注册
14831300000043

第43章

The Council never hesitated, never faltered. Means of communication, land, buildings, governments, municipalities, the territorial companies of the tropics, every human enterprise, it gathered greedily. And it drilled and marshalled its men, its railway police, its roadway police, its house guards, and drain and cable guards, its hosts of land-workers. Their unions it did not fight, but it undermined and betrayed and bought them. It bought the world at last. And, finally, its culminating stroke was the introduction of flying.

When the Council, in conflict with the workers in some of its huge monopolies, did something flagrantly illegal and that without even the ordinary civility of bribery, the old Law, alarmed for the profits of its complaisance, looked about it for weapons. But there were no more armies, no fighting navies; the age of Peace had' come. The only possible war ships were the great steam vessels of the Council's Navigation Trust. The police forces they controlled; the police of the railways, of the ships, of their agricultural estates, their time-keepers and order-keepers, outnumbered the neglected little forces of the old country and municipal organisations ten to one. And they produced flying machines. There were men alive still who could remember the last great debate in the London House of Commons--the legal party, the party against the Council was in a minority, but it made a desperate fight--and how the members came crowding out upon the terrace to see these great unfamiliar winged shapes circling quietly overhead. The Council had soared to its power. The last sham of a democracy that had permitted unlimited irresponsible property was at an end.

Within one hundred and fifty years of Graham's falling asleep, his Council had thrown off its disguises and ruled openly, supreme in his name. Elections had become a cheerful formality, a septennial folly, an ancient unmeaning custom; a social Parliament as inefectual as the convocation of the Established Church in Victorian times assembled now and then;and a legitimate King of England, disinherited, drunken and witless, played foolishly in a second-rate music-hall. So the magnificent dream of the nineteenth century, the noble project of universal individual liberty and universal happiness, touched by a disease of honour, crippled by a superstition of absolute property, crippled by the religious feuds that had robbed the common citizens of education, robbed men of standards of conduct, and brought the sanctions of morality to utter contempt, had worked itself out in the face of invention and ignoble enterprise, first to a warring plutocracy, and finally to the rule of a supreme plutocrat. His Council at last had ceased even to trouble to have its decrees endorsed by the constitutional authorities, and he a motionless, sunken, yellow-skinned figure had lain, neither dead nor living, recognisably and immediately Master of the Earth. And awoke at last to find himself--Master of that inheritance! Awoke to stand under the cloudless empty sky and gaze down upon the greatness of his dominion.

To what end had he awakened? Was this city, this hive of hopeless toilers, the final refutation of his ancient hopes? Or was the fire of liberty, the fire that had blazed and waned in the years of his past life, still smouldering below there? He thought of the stir and impulse of the song of the revolution. Was that song merely the trick of a demagogue, to be forgotten when its purpose was served? Was the hope that still stirred within him only the memory of abandoned things, the vestige of a creed outworn? Or had it a wider meaning, an import interwoven with the destiny of man?

To what end had he awakened, what was there for him to do? Humanity was spread below him like a map.

He thought of the millions and millions of humanity following each other unceasingly for ever out of the darkness of non-existence into the darkness of death.

To what end? Aim there must be, but it transcended his power of thought. He saw for the first time clearly his own infinite littleness, saw stark and terrible the tragic contrast of human strength and the craving of the human heart. For that little while he knew himself for the petty accident he was, and knew therewith the greatness of his desire. And suddenly his littleness was intolerable, his aspiration was intolerable, and there came to him an irresistible impulse to pray. And he prayed. He prayed vague, incoherent, contradictory things, his soul strained up through time and space and all the fleeting multitudinous confusion of being, towards something--he scarcely knew what--towards something that could comprehend his striving and endure.

A man and a woman were far below on a roof space to the southward enjoying the freshness of the morning air. The man had brought out a perspective glass to spy upon the Council House and he was showing her how to use it. Presently their curiosity was satisfied, they could see no traces of bloodshed from their position, and after a survey of the empty sky she came round to the crow's nest. And there she saw two little black figures, so small it was hard to believe they were men, one who watched and one who gesticulated with hands outstretched to the silent emptiness of Heaven.

She handed the glass to the man. He looked and exclaimed:

同类推荐
  • 普照禅师修心诀

    普照禅师修心诀

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • My Lady Ludlow

    My Lady Ludlow

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 东山存稿

    东山存稿

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 郑板桥年谱

    郑板桥年谱

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 辽小史

    辽小史

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 铁血枭雄

    铁血枭雄

    重生于都市游走于各色美女之间,以一人之力挑灭各路势力双耳不闻题外事,只知唯武识英雄!他要做枭雄,何人敢阻!
  • 终归是爱

    终归是爱

    小时候他的第一个生日愿望就是要一个妹妹,可没想到这个愿望却以另一种方式实现了。于是他发誓一辈子要保护她。她听到他的话,也暗暗的下定了决心,要一辈子和他在一起.....长大了,亲密无间的两个人,却不知道之间的情愫早已慢慢的生根发芽。到底是哥哥与妹妹之间的喜欢,还是爱。谁也不愿意直面这个问题,直到那个当年的那个事实再次浮出水面,才发现“终归是爱”
  • 寻剑歌

    寻剑歌

    四鼎降,人间劫,自作孽。踏歌寻剑……编不下去了……
  • 第二天体

    第二天体

    军用T系列型号的机器人正仔细检修着一台蓝白色机甲,而斩风则坐靠在这台机甲的不远处,看着眼前的全息影像陷入沉思,他记得自己是一名退役的特种战队长官,但作为特种兵来说他是不合格的存在,因为特种战队守则的第一条就是不可以忘记一切,但此时的他似乎忘记了很多东西。他记得的自己的名字叫斩风,还记得在他灵魂深处飘荡的一句话:他是罪恶的源泉,杀死他!一定要杀死他……新人混的不容易,希望喜欢的朋友别忘记支持一票哇!!!冲榜了!冲榜了!冲榜了!冲榜了!冲榜了!冲榜了!新人榜最后一周,再次冲刺,拜托各位朋友支持一下了!!
  • 重生之洛神甄宓传

    重生之洛神甄宓传

    文帝曹丕:大汉王朝三百年的终结者,大魏王朝的缔造者。甄宓:一个在他身后左右他一生的女人。~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~为了江山,我只能放弃你!下一世,妾不想和你成为仇人,也不想再和你成为恋人,就让我们互相忘记对方,落个清静。但尘世间的纷纷扰扰,又有谁能认得透摸得清呢?月老的红线依旧把他们紧紧地缠在一起。两世纠葛,这是孽缘还是深恋?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~《洛神赋》有曰洛神:仿佛兮若轻云之蔽月,飘摇兮若流风之回雪。~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~这是洛水之神的故事,也是一个叫甄宓的女子的传奇!
  • 浮动人生

    浮动人生

    平凡背后的非凡,有着显赫背景的她为何要珠若蒙尘,掩盖风华?身处骑士中却仍邂逅王子。当一切谜底揭开,将是怎样的的繁华?一场闹剧,她何去何从?
  • 刺客隐荒

    刺客隐荒

    一个伴随着不详长大的孩子,一心想成为历代最强的刺客,继承圣隐之名,不为权利,只为被人认可,守护最宝贵的东西。刺客从来不是为了杀戮,而是为了守护,以杀止杀,以暴制暴。
  • 神级作死系统
  • 茶还未凉,你人能走多远

    茶还未凉,你人能走多远

    北宋年间,辽国侵略不断,西夏虎视耽耽,女真人于黑山白水间横空杀出。在汴梁偏安一隅之地,我只想握你的手,逃离这盛世繁华,不管这天下乱世。寻一处世外桃源,过布衣粗茶的生活。
  • 宁海将军固山贝子功绩录

    宁海将军固山贝子功绩录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。