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diff --git a/22704.txt b/22704.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6bcb9e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/22704.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1017 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of To Whom This May Come, by Edward Bellamy + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: To Whom This May Come + 1898 + +Author: Edward Bellamy + +Release Date: September 21, 2007 [EBook #22704] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TO WHOM THIS MAY COME *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +TO WHOM THIS MAY COME + +By Edward Bellamy + +1898 + + +It is now about a year since I took passage at Calcutta in the ship +Adelaide for New York. We had baffling weather till New Amsterdam Island +was sighted, where we took a new point of departure. Three days later, +a terrible gale struck us Four days we flew before it, whither, no one +knew, for neither sun, moon, nor stars were at any time visible, and we +could take no observation. Toward midnight of the fourth day, the glare +of lightning revealed the Adelaide in a hopeless position, close in upon +a low-lying shore, and driving straight toward it. All around and astern +far out to sea was such a maze of rocks and shoals that it was a miracle +we had come so far. Presently the ship struck, and almost instantly went +to pieces, so great was the violence of the sea. I gave myself up for +lost, and was indeed already past the worst of drowning, when I was +recalled to consciousness by being thrown with a tremendous shock upon +the beach. I had just strength enough to drag myself above the reach of +the waves, and then I fell down and knew no more. + +When I awoke, the storm was over. The sun, already halfway up the sky, +had dried my clothing, and renewed the vigor of my bruised and aching +limbs. On sea or shore I saw no vestige of my ship or my companions, of +whom I appeared the sole survivor. I was not, however, alone. A group +of persons, apparently the inhabitants of the country, stood near, +observing me with looks of friendliness which at once freed me from +apprehension as to my treatment at their hands. They were a white and +handsome people, evidently of a high order of civilization, though I +recognized in them the traits of no race with which I was familiar. + +Seeing that it was evidently their idea of etiquette to leave it to +strangers to open conversation, I addressed them in English, but failed +to elicit any response beyond deprecating smiles. I then accosted +them successively in the French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, and +Portuguese tongues, but with no better results. I began to be very much +puzzled as to what could possibly be the nationality of a white and +evidently civilized race to which no one of the tongues of the great +seafaring nations was intelligible. The oddest thing of all was the +unbroken silence with which they contemplated my efforts to open +communication with them. It was as if they were agreed not to give me +a clue to their language by even a whisper; for while they regarded one +another with looks of smiling intelligence, they did not once open their +lips. But if this behavior suggested that they were amusing themselves +at my expense, that presumption was negatived by the unmistakable +friendliness and sympathy which their whole bearing expressed. + +A most extraordinary conjecture occurred to me. Could it be that these +strange people were dumb? Such a freak of nature as an entire race thus +afflicted had never indeed been heard of, but who could say what wonders +the unexplored vasts of the great Southern Ocean might thus far have +hid from human ken? Now, among the scraps of useless information which +lumbered my mind was an acquaintance with the deaf-and-dumb alphabet, +and forthwith I began to spell out with my fingers some of the phrases I +had already uttered to so little effect. My resort to the sign language +overcame the last remnant of gravity in the already profusely smiling +group. The small boys now rolled on the ground in convulsions of mirth, +while the grave and reverend seniors, who had hitherto kept them in +check, were fain momentarily to avert their faces, and I could see their +bodies shaking with laughter. The greatest clown in the world never +received a more flattering tribute to his powers to amuse than had been +called forth by mine to make myself understood. Naturally, however, I +was not flattered, but on the contrary entirely discomfited. Angry I +could not well be, for the deprecating manner in which all, excepting of +course the boys, yielded to their perception of the ridiculous, and the +distress they showed at their failure in self-control, made me seem the +aggressor. It was as if they were very sorry for me, and ready to put +themselves wholly at my service, if I would only refrain from reducing +them to a state of disability by being so exquisitely absurd. Certainly +this evidently amiable race had a very embarrassing way of receiving +strangers. + +Just at this moment, when my bewilderment was fast verging on +exasperation, relief came. The circle opened, and a little elderly +man, who had evidently come in haste, confronted me, and, bowing very +politely, addressed me in English. His voice was the most pitiable +abortion of a voice I had ever heard. While having all the defects in +articulation of a child's who is just beginning to talk, it was not +even a child's in strength of tone, being in fact a mere alternation of +squeaks and whispers inaudible a rod away. With some difficulty I was, +however, able to follow him pretty nearly. + +"As the official interpreter," he said, "I extend you a cordial welcome +to these islands. I was sent for as soon as you were discovered, but +being at some distance, I was unable to arrive until this moment. I +regret this, as my presence would have saved you embarrassment. +My countrymen desire me to intercede with you to pardon the wholly +involuntary and uncontrollable mirth provoked by your attempts to +communicate with them. You see, they understood you perfectly well, but +could not answer you." + +"Merciful heavens!" I exclaimed, horrified to find my surmise correct; +"can it be that they are all thus afflicted? Is it possible that you are +the only man among them who has the power of speech?" + +Again it appeared that, quite unintentionally, I had said something +excruciatingly funny; for at my speech there arose a sound of gentle +laughter from the group, now augmented to quite an assemblage, which +drowned the plashing of the waves on the beach at our feet. Even the +interpreter smiled. + +"Do they think it so amusing to be dumb?" I asked. + +"They find it very amusing," replied the interpreter, "that their +inability to speak should be regarded by any one as an affliction; for +it is by the voluntary disuse of the organs of articulation that they +have lost the power of speech, and, as a consequence, the ability even +to understand speech." + +"But," said I, somewhat puzzled by this statement, "did n't you just +tell me that they understood me, though they could not reply, and are +they not laughing now at what I just said?" + +"It is you they understood, not your words," answered the interpreter. +"Our speech now is gibberish to them, as unintelligible in itself as the +growling of animals; but they know what we are saying, because they +know our thoughts. You must know that these are the islands of the +mind-readers." + +Such were the circumstances of my introduction to this extraordinary +people. The official interpreter being charged by virtue of his office +with the first entertainment of shipwrecked members of the talking +nations, I became his guest, and passed a number of days under his roof +before going out to any considerable extent among the people. My first +impression had been the somewhat oppressive one that the power to read +the thoughts of others could be possessed only by beings of a superior +order to man. It was the first effort of the interpreter to disabuse me +of this notion. It appeared from his account that the experience of the +mind-readers was a case simply of a slight acceleration, from special +causes, of the course of universal human evolution, which in time was +destined to lead to the disuse of speech and the substitution of direct +mental vision on the part of all races. This rapid evolution of these +islanders was accounted for by their peculiar origin and circumstances. + +Some three centuries before Christ, one of the Parthian kings of +Persia, of the dynasty of the Arsacid, undertook a persecution of the +soothsayers and magicians in his realms. These people were credited +with supernatural powers by popular prejudice, but in fact were merely +persons of special gifts in the way of hypnotizing, mind-reading, +thought transference, and such arts, which they exercised for their own +gain. + +Too much in awe of the soothsayers to do them outright violence, the +king resolved to banish them, and to this end put them, with their +families, on ships and sent them to Ceylon. When, however, the fleet was +in the neighborhood of that island, a great storm scattered it, and one +of the ships, after being driven for many days before the tempest, was +wrecked upon one of an archipelago of uninhabited islands far to the +south, where the survivors settled. Naturally, the posterity of the +parents possessed of such peculiar gifts had developed extraordinary +psychical powers. + +Having set before them the end of evolving a new and advanced order +of humanity, they had aided the development of these powers by a rigid +system of stirpiculture. The result was that, after a few centuries, +mind-reading became so general that language fell into disuse as a means +of communicating ideas. For many generations the power of speech still +remained voluntary, but gradually the vocal organs had become atrophied, +and for several hundred years the power of articulation had been wholly +lost. Infants for a few months after birth did, indeed, still emit +inarticulate cries, but at an age when in less advanced races these +cries began to be articulate, the children of the mind-readers developed +the power of direct vision, and ceased to attempt to use the voice. + +The fact that the existence of the mind-readers had never been found +out by the rest of the world was explained by two considerations. In the +first place, the group of islands was small, and occupied a corner of +the Indian Ocean quite out of the ordinary track of ships. In the second +place, the approach to the islands was rendered so desperately perilous +by terrible currents, and the maze of outlying rocks and shoals, that +it was next to impossible for any ship to touch their shores save as a +wreck. No ship at least had ever done so in the two thousand years since +the mind-readers' own arrival, and the Adelaide had made the one hundred +and twenty-third such wreck. + +Apart from motives of humanity, the mind-readers made strenuous +efforts to rescue shipwrecked persons, for from them alone, through the +interpreters, could they obtain information of the outside world. Little +enough this proved when, as often happened, the sole survivor of the +shipwreck was some ignorant sailor, who had no news to communicate +beyond the latest varieties of forecastle blasphemy. My hosts gratefully +assured me that, as a person of some little education, they considered +me a veritable godsend. No less a task was mine than to relate to them +the history of the world for the past two centuries, and often did I +wish, for their sakes, that I had made a more exact study of it. + +It is solely for the purpose of communicating with shipwrecked strangers +of the talking nations that the office of the interpreters exists. +When, as from time to time happens, a child is born with some powers of +articulation, he is set apart, and trained to talk in the interpreters' +college. Of course the partial atrophy of the vocal organs, from +which even the best interpreters suffer, renders many of the sounds of +language impossible for them. None, for instance, can pronounce _v, f_, +or _s_; and as to the sound represented by _th_, it is five generations +since the last interpreter lived who could utter it. But for the +occasional inter-marriage of shipwrecked strangers with the island-ers, +it is probable that the supply of interpreters would have long ere this +quite failed. + +I imagine that the very unpleasant sensations which followed the +realization that I was among people who, while inscrutable to me, knew +my every thought, were very much what any one would have experienced in +the same case. They were very comparable to the panic which accidental +nudity causes a person among races whose custom it is to conceal the +figure with drapery. I wanted to run away and hide myself. If I analyzed +my feeling, it did not seem to arise so much from the consciousness of +any particularly heinous secrets, as from the knowledge of a swarm of +fatuous, ill-natured, and unseemly thoughts and half thoughts concerning +those around me, and concerning myself, which it was insufferable that +any person should peruse in however benevolent a spirit. But while my +chagrin and distress on this account were at first intense, they were +also very shortlived, for almost immediately I discovered that the +very knowledge that my mind was overlooked by others operated to check +thoughts that might be painful to them, and that, too, without more +effort of the will than a kindly person exerts to check the utterance of +disagreeable remarks. As a very few lessons in the elements of courtesy +cures a decent person of inconsiderate speaking, so a brief experience +among the mind-readers went far in my case to check inconsiderate +thinking. It must not be supposed, however, that courtesy among the +mind-readers prevents them from thinking pointedly and freely concerning +one another upon serious occasions, any more than the finest courtesy +among the talking races restrains them from speaking to one another +with entire plainness when it it desirable to do so. Indeed, among the +mind-readers, politeness never can extend to the point of insincerity, +as among talking nations, seeing that it is always one another's real +and inmost thought that they read. I may fitly mention here, though it +was not till later that I fully understood why it must necessarily be +so, that one need feel far less chagrin at the complete revelation of +his weaknesses to a mind-reader than at the slightest betrayal of them +to one of another race. For the very reason that the mind-reader reads +all your thoughts, particular thoughts are judged with reference to the +general tenor of thought. Your characteristic and habitual frame of +mind is what he takes account of. No one need fear being misjudged by +a mind-reader on account of sentiments or emotions which are not +representative of the real character or general attitude. Justice may, +indeed, be said to be a necessary consequence of mind-reading. + +As regards the interpreter himself, the instinct of courtesy was not +long needed to check wanton or offensive thoughts. In all my life +before, I had been very slow to form friendships, but before I had been +three days in the company of this stranger of a strange race, I had +become enthusiastically devoted to him. It was impossible not to be. +The peculiar joy of friendship is the sense of being understood by our +friend as we are not by others, and yet of being loved in spite of +the understanding. Now here was one whose every word testified to a +knowledge of my secret thoughts and motives which the oldest and nearest +of my former friends had never, and could never, have approximated. +Had such a knowledge bred in him contempt of me, I should neither have +blamed him nor been at all surprised. Judge, then, whether the cordial +friendliness which he showed was likely to leave me indifferent. + +Imagine my incredulity when he informed me that our friendship was not +based upon more than ordinary mutual suitability of temperaments. The +faculty of mind-reading, he explained, brought minds so close together, +and so heightened sympathy, that the lowest order of friendship between +mind-readers implied a mutual delight such as only rare friends enjoyed +among other races. He assured me that later on, when I came to know +others of his race, I should find, by the far greater intensity of +sympathy and affection I should conceive for some of them, how true this +saying was. + +It may be inquired how, on beginning to mingle with the mind-readers +in general, I managed to communicate with them, seeing that, while they +could read my thoughts, they could not, like the interpreter, respond to +them by speech. I must here explain that, while these people have no +use for a spoken language, a written language is needful for purposes +of record. They consequently all know how to write. Do they, then, write +Persian? Luckily for me, no. It appears that, for a long period after +mind-reading was fully developed, not only was spoken language disused, +but also written, no records whatever having been kept during this +period. The delight of the people in the newly found power of direct +mind-to-mind vision, whereby pictures of the total mental state were +communicated, instead of the imperfect descriptions of single thoughts +which words at best could give, induced an invincible distaste for the +laborious impotence of language. + +When, however, the first intellectual intoxication had, after several +generations, somewhat sobered down, it was recognized that records +of the past were desirable, and that the despised medium of words was +needful to preserve it. Persian had meanwhile been wholly forgotten. In +order to avoid the prodigious task of inventing a complete new language, +the institution of the interpreters was now set up, with the idea of +acquiring through them a knowledge of some of the languages of the +outside world from the mariners wrecked on the islands. + +Owing to the fact that most of the castaway ships were English, a better +knowledge of that tongue was acquired than of any other, and it +was adopted as the written language of the people. As a rule, my +acquaintances wrote slowly and laboriously, and yet the fact that they +knew exactly what was in my mind rendered their responses so apt +that, in my conversations with the slowest speller of them all, the +interchange of thought was as rapid and incomparably more accurate and +satisfactory than the fastest talkers attain to. + +It was but a very short time after I had begun to extend my acquaintance +among the mind-readers before I discovered how truly the interpreter had +told me that I should find others to whom, on account of greater natural +congeniality, I should become more strongly attached than I had been to +him. This was in no wise, however, because I loved him less, but them +more. I would fain write particularly of some of these beloved friends, +comrades of my heart, from whom I first learned the undreamed-of +possibilities of human friendship, and how ravishing the satisfactions +of sympathy may be. Who, among those who may read this, has not known +that sense of a gulf fixed between soul and soul which mocks love I Who +has not felt that loneliness which oppresses the heart that loves it +best! Think no longer that this gulf is eternally fixed, or is any +necessity of human nature. It has no existence for the race of our +fellow-men which I describe, and by that fact we may be assured that +eventually it will be bridged also for us. Like the touch of shoulder to +shoulder, like the clasping of hands, is the contact of their minds and +their sensation of sympathy. + +I say that I would fain speak more particularly of some of my friends, +but waning strength forbids, and moreover, now that I think of it, +another consideration would render any comparison of their characters +rather confusing than instructive to a reader. This is the fact that, in +common with the rest of the mind-readers, they had no names. Every one +had, indeed, an arbitrary sign for his designation in records, but it +has no sound value. A register of these names is kept, so they can at +any time be ascertained, but it is very common to meet persons who have +forgotten titles which are used solely for biographical and official +purposes. For social intercourse names are of course superfluous, for +these people accost one another merely by a mental act of attention, +and refer to third persons by transferring their mental pictures,-- +something as dumb persons might by means of photographs. Something so, +I say, for in the pictures of one another's personalities which the +mind-readers conceive, the physical aspect, as might be expected with +people who directly contemplate each other's minds and hearts, is a +subordinate element. + +I have already told how my first qualms of morbid self-consciousness at +knowing that my mind was an open book to all around me disappeared as I +learned that the very completeness of the disclosure of my thoughts and +motives was a guarantee that I would be judged with a fairness and a +sympathy such as even self-judgment cannot pretend to, affected as that +is by so many subtle reactions. The assurance of being so judged by +every one might well seem an inestimable privilege to one accustomed +to a world in which not even the tenderest love is any pledge of +comprehension, and yet I soon discovered that open-mindedness had a +still greater profit than this. How shall I describe the delightful +exhilaration of moral health and cleanness, the breezy oxygenated mental +condition, which resulted from the consciousness that I had absolutely +nothing concealed! Truly I may say that I enjoyed myself. I think surely +that no one needs to have had my marvelous experience to sympathize with +this portion of it. Are we not all ready to agree that this having a +curtained chamber where we may go to grovel, out of the sight of our +fellows, troubled only by a vague apprehension that God may look over +the top, is the most demoralizing incident in the human condition? It +is the existence within the soul of this secure refuge of lies which has +always been the despair of the saint and the exultation of the knave. +It is the foul cellar which taints the whole house above, be it never so +fine. + +What stronger testimony could there be to the instinctive consciousness +that concealment is debauching, and openness our only cure, than the +world-old conviction of the virtue of confession for the soul, and that +the uttermost exposing of one's worst and foulest is the first step +toward moral health? The wickedest man, if he could but somehow attain +to writhe himself inside out as to his soul, so that its full sickness +could be seen, would feel ready for a new life. Nevertheless, owing to +the utter impotence of the words to convey mental conditions in their +totality, or to give other than mere distortions of them, confession is, +we must needs admit, but a mockery of that longing for self-revelation +to which it testifies. But think what health and soundness there must +be for souls among a people who see in every face a conscience which, +unlike their own, they cannot sophisticate, who confess one another +with a glance, and shrive with a smile! Ah, friends, let me now predict, +though ages may elapse before the slow event shall justify me, that +in no way will the mutual vision of minds, when at last it shall be +perfected, so enhance the blessedness of mankind as by rending the veil +of self, and leaving no spot of darkness in the mind for lies to hide +in. Then shall the soul no longer be a coal smoking among ashes, but a +star in a crystal sphere. + +From what I have said of the delights which friendship among the +mind-readers derives from the perfection of the mental rapport, it may +be imagined how intoxicating must be the experience when one of the +friends is a woman, and the subtle attractions and correspondences +of sex touch with passion the intellectual sympathy. With my first +venturing into society I had begun, to their extreme amusement, to fall +in love with the women right and left. In the perfect frankness which is +the condition of all intercourse among this people, these adorable women +told me that what I felt was only friendship, which was a very good +thing, but wholly different from love, as I should well know if I were +beloved. It was difficult to believe that the melting emotions which I +had experienced in their company were the result merely of the friendly +and kindly attitude of their minds toward mine; but when I found that +I was affected in the same way by every gracious woman I met, I had to +make up my mind that they must be right about it, and that I should have +to adapt myself to a world in which, friendship being a passion, love +must needs be nothing less than rapture. + +The homely proverb, "Every Jack has his Gill," may, I suppose, be taken +to mean that for all men there are certain women expressly suited by +mental and moral as well as by physical constitution. It is a thought +painful, rather than cheering, that this may be the truth, so altogether +do the chances preponderate against the ability of these elect ones +to recognize each other even if they meet, seeing that speech is so +inadequate and so misleading a medium of self-revelation. But among the +mind-readers, the search for one's ideal mate is a quest reasonably sure +of being crowned with success, and no one dreams of wedding unless it +be; for so to do, they consider, would be to throw away the choicest +blessing of life, and not alone to wrong themselves and their unfound +mates, but likewise those whom they themselves and those undiscovered +mates might wed. Therefore, passionate pilgrims, they go from isle to +isle till they find each other, and, as the population of the islands is +but small, the pilgrimage is not often long. + +When I met her first we were in company, and I was struck by the sudden +stir and the looks and smiling interest with which all around turned and +regarded us, the women with moistened eyes. They had read her thought +when she saw me, but this I did not know, neither what was the custom +in these matters, till afterward. But I knew, from the moment she first +fixed her eyes on me, and I felt her mind brooding upon mine, how truly +I had been told by those other women that the feeling with which they +had inspired me was not love. + +With people who become acquainted at a glance, and old friends in an +hour, wooing is naturally not a long process. Indeed, it may be said +that between lovers among mind-readers there is no wooing, but merely +recognition. The day after we met, she became mine. + +Perhaps I cannot better illustrate how subordinate the merely physical +element is in the impression which mind-readers form of their friends +than by mentioning an incident that occurred some months after our +union. This was my discovery, wholly by accident, that my love, in whose +society I had almost constantly been, had not the least idea what was +the color of my eyes, or whether my hair and complexion were light +or dark. Of course, as soon as I asked her the question, she read the +answer in my mind, but she admitted that she had previously had no +distinct impression on those points. On the other hand, if in the +blackest midnight I should come to her, she would not need to ask who +the comer was. It is by the mind, not the eye, that these people know +one another. It is really only in their relations to soulless and +inanimate things that they need eyes at all. + +It must not be supposed that their disregard of one another's bodily +aspect grows out of any ascetic sentiment. It is merely a necessary +consequence of their power of directly apprehending mind, that whenever +mind is closely associated with matter the latter is comparatively +neglected on account of the greater interest of the former, suffering as +lesser things always do when placed in immediate contrast with greater. +Art is with them confined to the inanimate, the human form having, for +the reason mentioned, ceased to inspire the artist. It will be naturally +and quite correctly inferred that among such a race physical beauty is +not the important factor in human fortune and felicity that it elsewhere +is. The absolute openness of their minds and hearts to one another makes +their happiness far more dependent on the moral and mental qualities +of their companions than upon their physical. A genial temperament, a +wide-grasping, godlike intellect, a poet soul, are incomparably more +fascinating to them than the most dazzling combination conceivable of +mere bodily graces. + +A woman of mind and heart has no more need of beauty to win love in +these islands than a beauty elsewhere of mind or heart. I should mention +here, perhaps, that this race, which makes so little account of physical +beauty, is itself a singularly handsome one. This is owing doubtless in +part to the absolute compatibility of temperaments in all the marriages, +and partly also to the reaction upon the body of a state of ideal mental +and moral health and placidity. + +Not being myself a mind-reader, the fact that my love was rarely +beautiful in form and face had doubtless no little part in attracting my +devotion. This, of course, she knew, as she knew all my thoughts, +and, knowing my limitations, tolerated and forgave the element of +sensuousness in my passion. But if it must have seemed to her so little +worthy in comparison with the high spiritual communion which her race +know as love, to me it became, by virtue of her almost superhuman +relation to me, an ecstasy more ravishing surely than any lover of my +race tasted before. The ache at the heart of the intensest love is the +impotence of words to make it perfectly understood to its object. But my +passion was without this pang, for my heart was absolutely open to her I +loved. Lovers may imagine, but I cannot describe, the ecstatic thrill +of communion into which this consciousness transformed every tender +emotion. As I considered what mutual love must be where both parties are +mind-readers, I realized the high communion which my sweet companion had +sacrificed for me. + +She might indeed comprehend her lover and his love for her, but the +higher satisfaction of knowing that she was comprehended by him and her +love understood, she had foregone. For that I should ever attain the +power of mind-reading was out of the question, the faculty never having +been developed in a single lifetime. + +Why my inability should move my dear companion to such depths of pity +I was not able fully to understand until I learned that mind-reading is +chiefly held desirable, not for the knowledge of others which it gives +its possessors, but for the self-knowledge which is its reflex effect. +Of all they see in the minds of others, that which concerns them most is +the reflection of themselves, the photographs of their own characters. +The most obvious consequence of the self-knowledge thus forced upon them +is to render them alike incapable of self-conceit or self-depreciation. +Every one must needs always think of himself as he is, being no more +able to do otherwise than is a man in a hall of mirrors to cherish +delusions as to his personal appearance. + +But self-knowledge means to the mind-readers much more than this,-- +nothing less, indeed, than a shifting of the sense of identity. When a +man sees himself in a mirror, he is compelled to distinguish between the +bodily self he sees and his real self, which is within and unseen. When +in turn the mind-reader comes to see the mental and moral self reflected +in other minds as in mirrors, the same thing happens. He is compelled +to distinguish between this mental and moral self which has been made +objective to him, and can be contemplated by him as impartially as if +it were another's, from the inner ego which still remains subjective, +unseen, and indefinable. In this inner ego the mind-readers recognize +the essential identity and being, the noumenal self, the core of the +soul, and the true hiding of its eternal life, to which the mind as well +as the body is but the garment of a day. + +The effect of such a philosophy as this--which, indeed, with the +mind-readers is rather an instinctive consciousness than a philosophy +--must obviously be to impart a sense of wonderful superiority to the +vicissitudes of this earthly state, and a singular serenity in the midst +of the haps and mishaps which threaten or befall the personality. They +did indeed appear to me, as I never dreamed men could attain to be, +lords of themselves. + +It was because I might not hope to attain this enfranchisement from the +false ego of the apparent self, without which life seemed to her race +scarcely worth living, that my love so pitied me. + +But I must hasten on, leaving a thousand things unsaid, to relate the +lamentable catastrophe to which it is owing that, instead of being +still a resident of those blessed islands, in the full enjoyment of that +intimate and ravishing companionship which by contrast would forever dim +the pleasures of all other human society, I recall the bright picture as +a memory under other skies. + +Among a people who are compelled by the very constitution of their minds +to put themselves in the places of others, the sympathy which is the +inevitable consequence of perfect comprehension renders envy, hatred, +and uncharitableness impossible. But of course there are people less +genially constituted than others, and these are necessarily the objects +of a certain distaste on the part of associates. Now, owing to the +unhindered impact of minds upon one another, the anguish of persons so +regarded, despite the tenderest consideration of those about them, is +so great that they beg the grace of exile, that, being out of the way, +people may think less frequently upon them. There are numerous small +islets, scarcely more than rocks, lying to the north of the archipelago, +and on these the unfortunates are permitted to live. Only one lives on +each islet, as they cannot endure each other even as well as the more +happily constituted can endure them. From time to time supplies of food +are taken to them, and of course, any time they wish to take the risk, +they are permitted to return to society. + +Now, as I have said, the fact which, even more than their out-of-the-way +location, makes the islands of the mind-readers unapproachable, is the +violence with which the great antarctic current, owing probably to some +configuration of the ocean bed, together with the innumerable rocks and +shoals, flows through and about the archipelago. + +Ships making the islands from the southward are caught by this current +and drawn among the rocks, to their almost certain destruction; while, +owing to the violence with which the current sets to the north, it is +not possible to approach at all from that direction, or at least it has +never been accomplished. Indeed, so powerful are the currents that even +the boats which cross the narrow straits between the main islands and +the islets of the unfortunate, to carry the latter their supplies, are +ferried over by cables, not trusting to oar or sail. + +The brother of my love had charge of one of the boats engaged in this +transportation, and, being desirous of visiting the islets, I accepted +an invitation to accompany him on one of his trips. I know nothing of +how the accident happened, but in the fiercest part of the current of +one of the straits we parted from the cable and were swept out to +sea. There was no question of stemming the boiling current, our utmost +endeavors barely sufficing to avoid being dashed to pieces on the rocks. +From the first, there was no hope of our winning back to the land, and +so swiftly did we drift that by noon--the accident having befallen in +the morning--the islands, which are low-lying, had sunk beneath the +southwestern horizon. + +Among these mind-readers, distance is not an insuperable obstacle to the +transfer of thought. My companion was in communication with our friends, +and from time to time conveyed to me messages of anguish from my dear +love; for, being well aware of the nature of the currents and the +unapproachableness of the islands, those we had left behind, as well +as we ourselves, knew well we should see each other's faces no more. +For five days we continued to drift to the northwest, in no danger +of starvation, owing to our lading of provisions, but constrained to +unintermitting watch and ward by the roughness of the weather. On the +fifth day my companion died from exposure and exhaustion. He died very +quietly,--indeed, with great appearance of relief. The life of the +mind-readers while yet they are in the body is so largely spiritual that +the idea of an existence wholly so, which seems vague and chill to us, +suggests to them a state only slightly more refined than they already +know on earth. + +After that I suppose I must have fallen into an unconscious state, from +which I roused to find myself on an American ship bound for New York, +surrounded by people whose only means of communicating with one another +is to keep up while together a constant clatter of hissing, guttural, +and explosive noises, eked out by all manner of facial contortions and +bodily gestures. I frequently find myself staring open-mouthed at those +who address me, too much struck by their grotesque appearance to bethink +myself of replying. + +I find that I shall not live out the voyage, and I do not care to. From +my experience of the people on the ship, I can judge how I should fare +on land amid the stunning Babel of a nation of talkers. And my friends, +--God bless them! how lonely I should feel in their very presence! Nay, +what satisfaction or consolation, what but bitter mockery, could I ever +more find in such human sympathy and companionship as suffice others +and once sufficed me,--I who have seen and known what I have seen +and known! Ah, yes, doubtless it is far better I should die; but the +knowledge of the things that I have seen I feel should not perish with +me. For hope's sake, men should not miss the glimpse of the higher, +sun-bathed reaches of the upward path they plod. So thinking, I have +written out some account of my wonderful experience, though briefer far, +by reason of my weakness, than fits the greatness of the matter. The +captain seems an honest, well-meaning man, and to him I shall confide +the narrative, charging him, on touching shore, to see it safely in the +hands of some one who will bring it to the world's ear. + +Note.--The extent of my own connection with the foregoing document is +sufficiently indicated by the author himself in the final paragraph.-- +E.B. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of To Whom This May Come, by Edward Bellamy + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TO WHOM THIS MAY COME *** + +***** This file should be named 22704.txt or 22704.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/7/0/22704/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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