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H.G. Wells: The Time Machine (1895)
Chapter 10
"About eight or nine in the morning I came to the same seat of
yellow metal from which I had viewed the world upon the evening of my arrival.
I thought of my hasty conclusions upon that evening and could not refrain from
laughing bitterly at my confidence. Here was the same beautiful scene, the same
abundant foliage, the same splendid palaces and magnificent ruins, the same
silver river running between its fertile banks. The gay robes of the beautiful
people moved hither and thither among the trees. Some were bathing in exactly
the place where I had saved Weena, and that suddenly gave me a keen stab of
pain. And like blots upon the landscape rose the cupolas above the ways to the
Under-world. I understood now what all the beauty of the Overworld people
covered. Very pleasant was their day, as pleasant as the day of the cattle in
the field. Like the cattle, they knew of no enemies and provided against no
needs. And their end was the same.
"I grieved to think how brief the dream
of the human intellect had been. It had committed suicide. It had set itself
steadfastly towards comfort and ease, a balanced society with security and
permanency as its watchword, it had attained its hopes - to come to this at
last. Once, life and property must have reached almost absolute safety. The
rich had been assured of his wealth and comfort, the toiler assured of his life
and work. No doubt in that perfect world there had been no unemployed problem,
no social question left unsolved. And a great quiet had followed.
"It is a law of nature we overlook, that intellectual versatility is the
compensation for change, danger, and trouble.
An animal perfectly in harmony with its environment is a perfect mechanism.
Nature never appeals to intelligence until habit and instinct are useless.
There is no intelligence where there is no change and no need of change. Only
those animals partake of intelligence that have to meet a huge variety of needs
and dangers.
"So, as I see it, the Upper-world man had drifted towards his feeble
prettiness, and the Under-world to mere mechanical industry. But that perfect
state had lacked one thing even for mechanical perfection - absolute
permanency. Apparently as time went on, the feeding of the Under-world, however
it was effected, had become disjointed. Mother Necessity, who had been staved
off for a few thousand years, came back again, and she began below.
The Under-world being in contact with machinery, which, however perfect,
still needs some little thought outside habit, had probably retained perforce
rather more initiative, if less of every other human character, than the Upper.
And when other meat failed them, they turned to what old habit had hitherto
forbidden. So I say I saw it in my last view of the world of Eight Hundred and
Two Thousand Seven Hundred and One. It may be as wrong an explanation as mortal
wit could invent. It is how the thing shaped itself to me, and as that I give
it to you.
"After the fatigues, excitements, and terrors of the past days, and in
spite of my grief, this seat and the tranquil view and the warm sunlight were
very pleasant. I was very tired and sleepy, and soon my theorizing passed into
dozing. Catching myself at that, I took my own hint, and spreading myself out
upon the turf I had a long and refreshing sleep.
"I awoke a little before sunsetting. I now felt safe against being caught
napping by the Morlocks, and, stretching myself, I came on down the hill
towards the White Sphinx. I had my crowbar in one hand, and the other hand
played with the matches in my pocket.
"And now came a most unexpected thing. As I approached the pedestal of the
sphinx I found the bronze valves were open. They had slid down into grooves.
"At that I stopped short before them, hesitating to enter.
"Within was a small apartment, and on a raised place in the corner of this
was the Time Machine. I had the small levers in my pocket. So here, after all
my elaborate preparations for the siege of the White Sphinx, was a meek
surrender. I threw my iron bar away, almost sorry not to use it.
"A sudden thought came into my head as I stooped towards the portal. For
once, at least, I grasped the mental operations of the Morlocks. Suppressing a
strong inclination to laugh, I stepped through the bronze frame and up to the
Time Machine. I was surprised to find it had been carefully oiled and cleaned.
I have suspected since that the Morlocks had even partially taken it to pieces
while trying in their dim way to grasp its purpose.
"Now as I stood and examined it, finding a pleasure in the mere touch of
the contrivance, the thing I had expected happened.
The bronze panels suddenly slid up and struck the frame with a clang. I was
in the dark - trapped. So the Morlocks thought. At that I chuckled gleefully.
"I could already hear their murmuring laughter as they came towards me.
Very calmly I tried to strike the match. I had only to fix on the levers and
depart then like a ghost. But I had overlooked one little thing. The matches
were of that abominable kind that light only on the box.
"You may imagine how all my calm vanished. The little brutes were close
upon me. One touched me. I made a sweeping blow in the dark at them with the
levers, and began to scramble into the saddle of the machine. Then came one
hand upon me and then another. Then I had simply to fight against their
persistent fingers for my levers, and at the same time feel for the studs over
which these fitted. One, indeed, they almost got away from me. As it slipped
from my hand, I had to butt in the dark with my head - I could hear the
Morlock"s skull ring - to recover it.
It was a nearer thing than the fight in the forest, I think, this last
scramble.
"But at last the lever was fitted and pulled over. The clinging hands
slipped from me. The darkness presently fell from my eyes. I found myself in
the same grey light and tumult I have already described.
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