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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/33549-0.txt b/33549-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d07067c --- /dev/null +++ b/33549-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2495 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 33549 *** + +UNDERGROUND MAN + +By + +GABRIEL TARDE + +(1843-1904) + +MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE +PROFESSOR AT THE COLLEGE OF FRANCE + +TRANSLATED BY CLOUDESLEY BRERETON +M.A., L. ÈS L. + +WITH A PREFACE BY H.G. WELLS + +LONDON + +DUCKWORTH & CO. + + +1905 + + + +The whole of Tarde is in this little book. + +He has put into it along with a charming fancy his genialness and depth +of spirit, his ideas on the influence of art and the importance of love, +in an exceptional social milieu. + +This agreeable day-dream is vigorously thought out. On reading it we +fancy we are again seeing and hearing Tarde. In order to indulge in a +repetition of the illusion, a pious friendship has desired to clothe +this fascinating work in an appropriate dress. + + A.L. + + + +CONTENTS + + +DEDICATION +PREFACE By H.G. WELLS +INTRODUCTORY +I. PROSPERITY +II. THE CATASTROPHE +III. THE STRUGGLE +IV. SAVED +V. REGENERATION +VI. LOVE +VII. THE ÆSTHETIC LIFE +NOTE ON TARDE By JOSEPH MANCHON + + + +PREFACE + + +It reflects not at all on Mr Cloudesley Brereton's admirable work of +translation to remark how subtly the spirit of such work as this of M. +Tarde's changes in such a process. There are certain things peculiar, I +suppose, to every language in the world, certain distinctive +possibilities in each. To French far more than to English, belong the +intellectual liveliness, the cheerful, ironical note, the professorial +playfulness of this present work. English is a less nimble, more various +and moodier tongue, not only in the sound and form of its sentences but +in its forms of thought. It clots and coagulates, it proliferates and +darkens, one jests in it with difficulty and great danger to a sober +reputation, and one attempts in vain to figure Professor Giddings and Mr +Benjamin Kidd, Doctor Beattie Crozier and Mr Wordsworth Donisthorpe +glittering out into any so cheerful an exploit as this before us. Like +Mr Gilbert's elderly naval man, they "never larks nor plays", and if +indeed they did so far triumph over the turgid intricacies of our speech +and the conscientious gravity of our style of thought, there would still +be the English public to consider, a public easily offended by any lack +of straightforwardness in its humorists, preferring to be amused by +known and recognised specialists in that line, in relation to themes of +recognised humorous tendency, and requiring in its professors as the +concomitant of a certain dignified inaccessibility of thought and +language, an honourable abstinence from the treacheries, as it would +consider them, of irony and satire. Imagine a Story of the Future from +Mr Herbert Spencer! America and the north of England would have swept +him out of all respect.... But M. Tarde being not only a Member of the +Institute and Professor at the College of France, but a Frenchman, was +free to give these fancies that entertained him, public, literary, and +witty expression, without self-destruction, and produce what has, in its +English dress, a curiously unfamiliar effect. Yet the English reader who +can overcome his natural disinclination to this union of intelligence +and jesting will find a vast amount of suggestion in M. Tarde's +fantastic abundance, and bringing his habitual gravity to bear may even +succeed in digesting off the humour altogether, and emerging with +edification of--it must be admitted--a rather miscellaneous sort. + +It is perhaps remarkable that for so many people, so tremendous a theme +as the material future of mankind should only be approachable either +through a method of conscientiously technical, pseudo-scientific +discussion that is in effect scarcely an approach at all or else in this +mood of levity. I know of no book in this direction that can claim to be +a permanent success which combines a tolerable intelligibility with a +simple good faith in the reader. One may speculate how this comes about? +The subject it would seem is so grave and great as to be incompatibly +out of proportion to the affairs and conditions of the individual life +about which our workaday thinking goes on. We are interested indeed, but +at the same time we feel it is outside us and beyond us. To turn one's +attention to it is at once to get an effect of presumption, strain, and +extravagant absurdity. It is like picking up a spade to attack a +mountain, and one's instinct is to put oneself right in the eyes of +one's fellow-men at once, by a few unmistakably facetious flourishes. It +is the same instinct really as that protective "foolery" in which +schoolboys indulge when they embark upon some hopeless undertaking, or +find themselves entirely outclassed at a game. + +The same instinct one finds in the facetious "parley vous Francey" of a +low class Englishman who would in secret like very much to speak French, +but in practice only admits such an idea as a laughable absurdity. To +give a concrete form to your sociological speculations is to strip them +of all their poor pretensions, and leave them shivering in palpable +inadequacy. It is not because the question is unimportant, but because +it is so overwhelmingly important that this jesting about the Future, +this fantastic and "ironical" fiction goes on. It is the only medium to +express the vague, ill-formed, new ideas with which we are all +labouring. It does not give any measure of our real sense of the +proportion of things that the Future should appear in our literature as +a sort of comic rally and harlequinade after the serious drama of the +Present--in which the heroes and heroines of the latter turn up again in +novel and undignified positions; but it seems to be the only method at +present available by which we may talk about our race's material Destiny +at all. + +M. Tarde, in this special case before us, pursues a course of elusive +ironies; sometimes he jests at contemporary ideas by imagining them in +burlesque realisation, sometimes he jests at contemporary facts by +transposing them into strange surroundings, sometimes he broaches +fancies of his own chiefly for their own sake, yet with the well-managed +literary equivalent of the palliating laugh of conversational +diffidence. It is interesting to remark upon the clearness, the French +reasonableness and order of his conceptions throughout. He thinks, as +the French seem always to think, in terms of a humanity at once more +lucid and more limited than the mankind with which we English have to +deal. There are no lapses, no fogs and mysteries, no total inadequacies, +no brutalities and left-handedness--and no dark gleams of the divinity, +about these amused bright people of five hundred years ahead, who are +overtaken by the great solar catastrophe. They have established a world +state and eliminated the ugly and feeble. You imagine the gentlemen in +that Utopia moving gracefully--with beautifully trimmed nails and +beards--about the most elegant and ravishing of ladies, their charm +greatly enhanced by the _pince-nez_, that is in universal wear. They all +speak not Esperanto--but Greek, which strikes one as a little out of the +picture--and all being more or less wealthy and pretty women and +handsome men, "as common as blackberries" and as available, "human +desire rushed with all its might towards the only field that remained +open to it",--politics. From that it was presently turned back again by +a certain philosophical financier, who, most delightfully, secured his +work for ever, as the reader may learn in detail, by erecting a statue +of Louis Philippe in wrought aluminium against any return of the +flood--and then what remained? The most brilliant efflorescence of +poetry and art! + +One does not quite know how far M. Tarde is in this first part of his +story jesting at his common countrymen's precisions and finalities and +unenterprising, exact arrangements, and how far he is sharing them. +Throughout he seems to assume that men can really make finished plans, +and carry them out, and settle things for ever, and so assure us this +state of elegant promenading among the arts, whereas the whole charm and +interest of making plans and carrying out, lies to the more typical kind +of Englishman, in his ineradicable, his innate, instinctive conviction, +that he will, try as he may, never carry them out at all, but something +else adventurously and happily unexpected and different. M. Tarde gives +his world the unexpected, but it comes, not insidiously as a unique +difference in every individual and item concerned, but from without. +Just as Humanity, handsome and charming, has grouped itself pleasantly, +rationally, and in the best of taste for ever in its studios, in its +_salons_, at its little green tables, at its _tables d'hôte_, in its +_cabinets particuliers_--the sun goes out! + +In the idea of that solar extinction there are extraordinary imaginative +possibilities, and M. Tarde must have exercised considerable restraint +to prevent their running away with him and so jarring with the ironical +lightness of his earlier passages. The conception of the sun seized in a +mysterious, chill grip and flickering from hue to hue in the skies of a +darkened, amazed and terrified world, could be presented in images of +stupendous majesty and splendour. There arise visions of darkened cities +and indistinct, multitudinous, fleeing crowds, of wide country-sides of +chill dismay, of beasts silent with the fear of this last eclipse, and +bats and night-birds abroad amidst the lost daylight creatures and +fluttering perplexed on noiseless wings. Then the abrupt sight of the +countless stars made visible by this great abdication, the thickening of +the sky to stormy masses of cloud so that these are hidden again, the +soughing of a world-wide wind, and then first little flakes and then the +drift and driving of the multiplying snow into the dim illumination of +lamps, of windows, of street lights lit untimely. Then again, the shiver +of the cold, the clutching of hands at coats and wraps, the blind +hurrying to shelter and the comfort of a fire--the blaze of fires. One +sees the red-lit faces about the fires, sees the furtive glances at the +wind-tormented windows, hears the furious knocking of those other +strangers barred out, for, "we cannot have everyone in here". The +darkness deepens, the cries without die away, and nothing is left but +the shift and falling of the incessant snow from roof to ground. Every +now and then the disjointed talk would cease altogether, and in the +stillness one would hear the faint yet insistent creeping sound of the +snowfall. "There is a little food downstairs," one would say. "The +servants must not eat it.... We had better lock it upstairs. We may be +here--for days." Grim stuff, indeed, one might make of it all, if one +dealt with it in realistic fashion, and great and increasing toil one +would find to carry on the tale. M. Tarde was well advised to let his +hand pass lightly over this episode, to give us a simply pyrotechnic +effect of red, yellow, green and pale blue, to let his people flee and +die like marionettes beneath the paper snows of a shop window dressed +for Christmas, and to emerge after the change with his urbanity +unimpaired. His apt jest at the endurance of artists' models, his easy +allusion to the hardening effects of fashionable decolletage, is the +measure of his dexterous success; his mention of hotel furniture on the +terminal moraines of the returning Alpine glaciers, just a happy touch +of that flavouring of reality which in abundance would have altogether +overwhelmed his purpose. + +Directly one thinks at all seriously of such a thing as this solar +extinction, one perceives how preposterously hopeless it is to imagine +that mankind would make any head against so swift and absolute a fate. +Our race would behave just as any single man behaves when death takes +him suddenly through some cardiac failure. It would feel very queer, it +would want to sit down and alleviate its strange discomfort, it would +say something stupid or inarticulate, make an odd gesture or so, and +flicker out. But it is compatible with the fantastic and ironical style +for M. Tarde to mock our conceit in our race's capacity and pretend men +did all sorts of organized and wholesale things quite beyond their +capabilities. People flee in "hordes" to Arabia Petræa and the Sahara, +and there perform prodigies of resistance. There arises the heroic +leader and preserver, Miltiades, who preaches Neo-troglodytism and loves +the peerless Lydia, and leads the remnant of humanity underground. So M. +Tarde arrives at the idea he is most concerned in developing, the idea +of an introverted world, and people following the dwindling heat of the +interior, generation after generation, through gallery and tunnel to the +core. About that conception he weaves the finest and richest and most +suggestive of his fantastic filaments. + +Perhaps the best sustained thread in this admirably entertaining tissue +is the entire satisfaction of the imaginary historian at the new +conditions of life. The earth is made into an interminable honeycomb, +all other forms of life than man are eliminated, and our race has +developed into a community sustained at a high level of happiness and +satisfaction by a constant resort to "social tonics". Half mockingly, +half approvingly, M. Tarde here indicates a new conception of human +intercourse and criticises with a richly suggestive detachment, the +social relationships of to-day. He moves indicatively and lightly over +deeps of human possibility; it is in these later passages that our +author is essentially found. One may regret he did not further expand +his happy opportunity of treating all the social types to-day as ice +embedded fossils, his comments on the peasant and artisan are so fine as +to provoke the appetite. He rejects the proposition that "society +consists in an exchange of services" with the confidence of a man who +has thought it finely out. He gives out clearly what so many of us are +beginning dimly perhaps to apprehend, that "society consists in the +exchange of reflections". The passages subsequent to this pronouncement +will be the seed of many interesting developments in any mind +sufficiently attuned to his. They constitute the body, the serious +reality to which all the rest of this little book is so much dress, +adornment and concealment. Very many of us, I believe, are dreaming of +the possibility of human groupings based on interest and a common +creative impulse rather than on justice and a trade in help and +services; and I do not scruple therefore to put my heavy underline and +marginal note to M. Tarde's most intimate moment. A page or so further +on he is back below his ironical mask again, jesting at the "tribe of +sociologists"--the most unsociable of mankind. Thereafter jest, +picturesque suggestion, fantasy, philosophical whim, alternate in a +continuously delightful fashion to the end--but always with the gleam of +a definite intention coming and going within sight of the surface--and +one ends at last a half convinced Neo-troglodyte, invaded by a passion +of intellectual regret for the varied interests of that inaccessible +world and its irradiating love. The description of the development of +science, and particularly of troglodytic astronomy, robbed of its +material, is a delightful freak of intellectual fantasy, and the +philosophical dream of the slow concentration of human life into the +final form of a single culminating omniscient, and therefore a +completely retrospective and anticipatory being, a being that is, that +has cast aside the time garment, is one of these suggestions that have +at once something penetratingly plausible, and a sort of colossal and +absurd monstrosity. If I may be forgiven a personal intrusion at this +point, there is a singular parallelism between this foreshadowed Last +Man of M. Tarde's stalactitic philosopher, and a certain _Grand Lunar_ I +once wrote about in a book called "The First Men in the Moon". And I +remember coming upon the same idea in a book by Merejkowski, the title +of which I am now totally unable to recall.... But I will not write +further on this curiously attractive and deep seated suggestion. My +proper business here is, I think, chiefly to direct the reader past the +lightness and cheerful superficiality of the opening portions of this +book, and its--at the first blush, rather disappointing but critically +justifiable, treatment of the actual catastrophe, to these obscure but +curiously stimulating and interesting caves, and tunnels, and galleries +in which the elusive real thought of M. Tarde lurks--for those who care +to follow it up and seize it and understand. + +H.G. WELLS. + + + + +INTRODUCTORY + + +It was towards the end of the twentieth century of the prehistoric era, +formerly called the Christian, that took place, as is well known, the +unexpected catastrophe with which the present epoch began, that +fortunate disaster which compelled the overflowing flood of civilisation +to disappear for the benefit of mankind. I have briefly to relate this +universal cataclysm and the unhoped-for redemption so rapidly effected +within a few centuries of heroic and triumphant efforts. Of course, I +shall pass over in silence the particular details which are known to +everybody, and shall merely confine myself to the general outlines of +the story. But first of all it may be as well to recall in a few words +the degree of relative progress already attained by mankind, while still +living above ground and on the surface of the earth, on the eve of this +momentous event. + + + +I + +PROSPERITY + + +The zenith of human prosperity seemed to have been reached in the +superficial and frivolous sense of the word. For the last fifty years, +the final establishment of the great Asiatic-American-European +confederacy, and its indisputable supremacy over what was still left, +here and there, in Oceania and central Africa of barbarous tribes +incapable of assimilation, had habituated all the nations, now converted +into provinces, to the delights of universal and henceforth inviolable +peace. It had required not less than 150 years of warfare to arrive at +this wonderful result. But all these horrors were forgotten. True, there +had been many terrific battles between armies of three and four million +men, between trains with armour-clad carriages, flung, at full speed, +against one another, and opening fire on every side; engagements between +squadrons of sub-marines which blew one another up with electric +discharges; between fleets of iron-clad balloons, harpooned and ripped +up by aerial torpedoes, hurled headlong from the clouds, with thousands +of parachutes which violently opened and enveloped each other in a storm +of grape-shot as they fell together to earth. Yet of all this warlike +mania there only remained a vague poetic remembrance. Forgetfulness is +the beginning of happiness, as fear is the beginning of wisdom. + +As a solitary exception to the general rule, the nations, after this +gigantic blood-letting, did not experience the lethargy that follows +from exhaustion, but the calm that the accession of strength produces. +The explanation is easy. For about a hundred years the military +selection committees had broken with the blind routine of the past and +made it a practice to pick out carefully the strongest and best made +among the young men, in order to exempt them from the burden of military +service which had become purely mechanical, and to send to the depot all +the weaklings who were good enough to fulfil the sorely diminished +functions of the soldier and even of the non-commissioned officer. That +was really a piece of intelligent selection; and the historian cannot +conscientiously refuse gratefully to praise this innovation, thanks to +which the incomparable beauty of the human race to-day has been +gradually developed. In fact, when we now look through the glass cases +of our museums of antiquities at those singular collections of +caricatures which our ancestors used to call their photographic albums, +we can confirm the vastness of the progress thus accomplished, if it is +really true that we are actually descended from these dwarfs and +scare-crows, as an otherwise trustworthy tradition attests. + +From this epoch dates the discovery of the last microbes, which had not +yet been analysed by the neo-Pasteurian school. Once the cause of every +disease was known, the remedy was not long in becoming known as well, +and from that moment, a consumptive or rheumatic patient, or an invalid +of any kind became as rare a phenomenon as a double-headed monster +formerly was, or an honest publican. Ever since that epoch we have +dropped the ridiculous employment of those inquiries about health with +which the conversations of our ancestors were needlessly interlarded, +such as "How are you?" or "How do you do?" Short-sightedness alone +continued its lamentable progress, being stimulated by the extraordinary +spread of journalism. There was not a woman or a child, who did not wear +a _pince-nez_. This drawback, which besides was only momentary, was +largely compensated for by the progress it caused in the optician's art. + +Alongside of the political unity which did away with the enmities of +nations, there appeared a linguistic unity which rapidly blotted out the +last differences between them. Already since the twentieth century the +need of a single common language, similar to Latin in the Middle Ages, +had become sufficiently intense among the learned throughout the whole +world to induce them to make use of an international idiom in all their +writings. At the end of a long struggle for supremacy with English and +Spanish, Greek finally established its claims, after the break-up of the +British Empire and the recapture of Constantinople by the Græco-Russian +Empire. Gradually, or rather with the rapidity characteristic of all +modern progress, its usage descended from strata to strata till it +reached the lowest layers of society, and from the middle of the +twenty-second century there was not a little child between the Loire and +the River Amour who could not express itself with ease in the language +of Demosthenes. Here and there a few isolated villages in the hollows of +the mountains still persisted, in spite of the protests of their +schoolmasters, to mangle the old dialect formerly called French, German, +or Italian, but the sound of this gibberish in the towns would have +raised a hearty laugh. + +All contemporary documents agree in bearing witness to the rapidity, the +depth, and the universality of the change which took place in the +customs, ideas, and needs, and in all the forms of social life, thus +reduced to a common level from one pole to the other, as a result of +this unification of language. It seemed as if the course of civilisation +had been hitherto confined within high banks and that now, when for the +first time all the banks had burst, it readily spread over the whole +globe. It was no longer millions but thousands of millions that the +least newly discovered improvement in industry brought in to its +inventor; for henceforth there was no barrier to stop in its star-like +radiation the expansion of any idea, no matter where it originated. For +the same reason it was no longer by hundreds but by thousands, that were +reckoned the editions of any book, which appealed but moderately to the +public taste, or the performance of a play which was ever so little +applauded. The rivalry between authors had therefore risen to its +fullest diapason. Their fancy, moreover, could find full scope, for the +first effect of this deluge of universalised neo-Hellenism had been to +overwhelm for ever all the pretended literatures of our rude ancestors. +They became unintelligible, even to the very titles of what they were +pleased to call their classical masterpieces, even to the barbarous +names of Shakespeare, Goethe, and Hugo, who are now forgotten, and whose +rugged verses are deciphered with such difficulty by our scholars. To +plagiarise these folks whom hardly anyone could henceforth read, was to +render them service, nay, to pay them too much honour. One did not fail +to do so; and prodigious was the success of these audacious imitations +which were offered as original works. The material thus to turn to +account was abundant, and indeed inexhaustible. + +Unfortunately for the young writers the ancient poets who had been dead +for centuries, Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, had returned to life, a +hundred times more hale and hearty than at the time of Pericles himself; +and this unexpected competition proved a singular thorn in the side of +the new-comers. It was in fact in vain that original geniuses produced +on the stage such sensational novelties as _Athalias, Hernanias, +Macbethès_; the public often turned its back on them to rush off to +performances of _Oedipus Rex_ or the _Birds_ (of Aristophanes). And +_Nanais_, though a vigorous sketch of a novelist of the new school, was +a complete failure owing to the frenzied success of a popular edition of +the Odyssey. The ears of the people were saturated with Alexandrines +classical, romantic, and the rest. They were bored by the childish +tricks of cæsura and rhyme which sometimes attempted a see-saw effect by +producing now a poor and now a full rhyme, or again made a pretence of +hiding away and keeping out of sight in order to induce the hearer to +hunt it out. The splendid, untrammelled, and exuberant hexameters of +Homer, the stanzas of Sappho, the iambics of Sophocles, furnished them +with unspeakable pleasure, which did the greatest harm to the music of a +certain Wagner. Music in general fell to the secondary position to which +it really belongs in the hierarchy of the fine arts. To make up for it, +in the midst of this scholarly renaissance of the human spirit, there +arose an occasion for an unexpected literary outburst which allowed +poetry to regain its legitimate rank, that is to say, the foremost. In +fact it never fails to flower again when language takes a new lease of +life, and all the more so when the latter undergoes a complete +metamorphosis, and the pleasure arises of expressing anew the eternal +truisms. + +It was not merely a simple means of diversion for the cultured. The +masses took their share in it with enthusiasm. Certainly they now had +leisure to read and appreciate the masterpieces of art. The transmission +of force at a distance by electricity, and its enlistment under a +thousand forms, for instance, in that of cylinders of compressed air, +which could be easily carried from place to place, had reduced manual +labour to a mere nothing. The waterfalls, the winds and the tides had +become the slaves of man, as steam had once been in the remote ages and +in an infinitely less degree. Intelligently distributed and turned to +account by means of improved machines, as simple as they were ingenious, +this enormous energy freely furnished by nature had long rendered +superfluous every kind of domestic servant and the greater number of +artisans. The voluntary workmen, who still existed, spent barely three +hours a day in the international factories, magnificent co-operative +workshops, in which the productivity of human energy, multiplied +tenfold, and even a hundredfold, surpassed the expectations of their +founders. + +This does not mean that the social problem had been thereby solved. In +default of want, it is true, there were no longer any quarrels; wealth +or a competence had become the lot of every man, with the result that +hardly anyone henceforth set any store by them. In default of ugliness, +also, love was scarcely an object of either appreciation or jealousy, +owing to the abundance of pretty women and handsome men who were as +common as blackberries and not difficult to please, in appearance at +least. Thus expelled from its two former principal paths, human desire +rushed with all its might towards the only field which remained open to +it, the conquest of political power, which grew vaster every day owing +to the progress of socialistic centralisation. Overflowing ambition, +swollen all at once with all the evil passions pouring into it alone, +with the covetousness, lust, envious hunger, and hungry envy of +preceding ages, reached at that time an appalling height. It was a +struggle as to who should make himself master of that _summum bonum_, +the State; as to who should make the omnipotence and omniscience of the +Universal State minister to the realisation of his personal programme or +his humanitarian dreams. The result was not, as had been prophesied, a +vast democratic republic. Such an immense outburst of pride could not +fail to set up a new throne, the highest, the mightiest, the most +glorious that has ever been. Besides, inasmuch as the population of the +Single State was reckoned by thousands of millions, universal suffrage +had become impracticable and illusory. To obviate the greater +inconvenience of deliberative assemblies, ten or a hundred times too +numerous, it had been found necessary so to increase the electoral +districts that each deputy represented at least ten million electors. +That is not surprising if one reflects that it was the first time that +the very simple idea had won acceptance of extending to women and +children the right of voting exercised in their name, naturally enough, +by their father or by their lawful or natural husband. Incidentally one +may note that this salutary and necessary reform, as much in accordance +with common sense as with logic, required alike by the principle of +national sovereignty and by the needs of social stability, nearly failed +to pass, incredible as it may seem, in the face of a coalition of +celibate electors. + +Tradition informs us that the bill relating to this indispensable +extension of the franchise would have been infallibly rejected, if, +luckily, the recent election of a multi-millionaire suspected of +imperialistic tendencies had not scared the assembly. It fancied it +would injure the popularity of this ambitious pretender by hastening to +welcome this proposal in which it only saw one thing, that is, that the +fathers and husbands, outraged or alarmed by the gallantries of the new +Cæsar, would be all the stronger for impeding his triumphant march. But +this expectation was, it appears, unrealised. + +Whatever may be the truth of this legend, it is certain that, owing to +the enlargement of the electoral districts, combined with the +suppression of the electoral privileges, the election of a deputy was a +veritable coronation, and ordinarily produced in the elect a species of +megalomania. This reconstituted feudalism was bound to end in a +reconstitution of monarchy. For a moment the learned wore this cosmic +crown, following the prophecy of an ancient philosopher, but they did +not keep it. The popularisation of knowledge through innumerable schools +had made science as common an object as a charming woman or an elegant +suite of furniture. It had been extraordinarily simplified by the +thorough way in which it had been worked out, complete as regards its +general outlines, in which no change could be expected, and its +henceforth rigid classification abundantly garnished with data. Only +advancing at an imperceptible pace, it held, in short, but an +insignificant place in the background of the brain, in which it simply +replaced the catechism of former days. The bulk of intellectual energy +was therefore to be found in another direction, as were also its glory +and prestige. Already the scientific bodies, venerable in their +antiquity, began, alas! to acquire a slight tinge and veneer of +ridicule, which raised a smile and recalled the synods of bonzes or +ecclesiastical conferences, such as are represented in very ancient +pictures. It is, therefore, not surprising that this first dynasty of +imperial physicists and geometricians, genial copies of the Antonines, +were promptly succeeded by a dynasty of artists who had deserted art to +wield the sceptre, as they lately had wielded the bow, the roughing +chisel, and the brush. The most famous of all, a man possessed of an +overflowing imagination which was yet well under control, and ministered +to by an unparalleled energy, was an architect who among other gigantic +projects formed the idea of rasing to the ground his capital, +Constantinople, in order to rebuild it elsewhere, on the site of ancient +Babylon, which for three thousand years had been a desert--a truly +luminous idea. In this incomparable plain of Chaldea watered by a second +Nile there was another still more beautiful and fertile Egypt awaiting +resurrection and metamorphosis, an infinite expanse extending as far as +the eye could see, to be covered with striking public buildings +constructed with magical speed, with a teeming and throbbing population, +with golden harvests beneath a sky of changeless blue, with an iron +net-work of railways radiating from the town of Nebuchadnesor to the +furthest ends of Europe, Africa and Asia, and crossing the Himalayas, +the Caucasus, and the Sahara. The stored energy, electrically conveyed, +of a hundred Abyssinian waterfalls, and of, I do not know, how many +cyclones, hardly sufficed to transport from the mountains of Armenia the +necessary stone, wood and iron for these numerous constructions. One day +an excursion train, composed of a thousand and one carriages, having +passed too close to the electric cable at the moment when the current +was at its maximum, was destroyed and reduced to ashes in the twinkling +of an eye. None the less Babylon, the proud city of muddy clay, with its +paltry splendours of unbaked and painted brick, found itself rebuilt in +marble and granite, to the utmost confusion of the Nabopolassars, the +Belshazzars, the Cyruses, and the Alexanders. It is needless to add that +the archæologists made on this occasion the most priceless discoveries, +in the several successive strata, of Babylonian and Assyrian +antiquities. The mania for Assyriology went so far that every sculptor's +studio, the palaces, and even the King's armorial bearings were invaded +by winged bulls with human heads, just as formerly the museums were full +of cupids or cherubims, "with their cravat-like wings". Certain school +books for primary schools were actually printed in cuneiform characters +in order to enhance their authority over the youthful imagination. + +This imperial orgy in bricks and mortar having unhappily occasioned the +seventh, eighth, and ninth bankruptcy of the State and several +consecutive inundations of paper-money, the people in general rejoiced +to see after this brilliant reign the crown borne by a philosophical +financier. Order had hardly been re-established in the finances, when he +made his preparation for applying on a grand scale his ideal of +government, which was of a highly remarkable nature. One was not long in +noticing, in fact, after his accession, that all the newly chosen ladies +of honour, who were otherwise very intelligent but entirely lacking in +wit, were chiefly conspicuous for their striking ugliness; that the +liveries of the court were of a grey and lifeless colour; that the court +balls reproduced by instantaneous cinematography to the tune of millions +of copies furnished a collection of the most honest and insignificant +faces and unappetising forms that one could possibly see; that the +candidates recently appointed, after a preliminary despatch of their +portraits, to the highest dignities of the Empire, were pre-eminently +distinguished by the commonness of their bearing; in short, that the +races and the public holidays (the date of which were notified in +advance by secret telegrams announcing the arrival of a cyclone from +America), happened nine times out of ten to take place on a day of thick +fog, or of pelting rain, which transformed them into an immense array of +waterproofs and umbrellas. Alike in his legislative proposals, as in his +appointments, the choice of the prince was always the following: the +most useful and the best among the most unattractive. An insufferable +sameness of colour, a depressing monotony, a sickening insipidity were +the distinctive note of all the acts of the government. People laughed, +grew excited, waxed indignant, and got used to it. The result was that +at the end of a certain time it was impossible to meet an office-seeker +or a politician, that is to say, an artist or literary man, out of his +element and in search of the beautiful in an alien sphere, who did not +turn his back on the pursuit of a government appointment in order to +return to rhyming, sculpture and painting. And from that moment the +following aphorism has won general acceptance, that the superiority of +the politician is only mediocrity raised to its highest power. + +This is the great benefit that we owe to this eminent monarch. The lofty +purpose of his reign has been revealed by the posthumous publication of +his memoirs. Of these writings with which we can so ill dispense, we +have only left this fragment which is well calculated to make us regret +the loss of the remainder: "Who is the true founder of Sociology? +Auguste Comte? No, Menenius Agrippa. This great man understood that +government is the stomach, not the head of the social organism. Now, the +merit of a stomach is to be good and ugly, useful and repulsive to the +eye, for if this indispensable organ were agreeable to look upon, it +would be much to be feared that people would meddle with it and nature +would not have taken such care to conceal and defend it. What sensible +person prides himself on having a beautiful digestive apparatus, a +lovely liver or elegant lungs? Such a pretension would, however, not be +more ridiculous than the foible of cutting a great dash in politics. +What wants cultivating is the substantial and the commonplace. My poor +predecessors." ... Here follows a blank; a little further on, we read: +"The best government is that which holds to being so perfectly humdrum, +regular, neuter, and even emasculated, that no one can henceforth get up +any enthusiasm either for or against it." + +Such was the last successor of Semiramis. On the re-discovered site of +the Hanging-gardens he caused to be erected, at the expense of the +State, a statue of Louis Philippe in wrought aluminium, in the middle of +a public garden planted with common laurels and cauliflowers. + +The Universe breathed again. It yawned a little no doubt, but it +revelled for the first time in the fulness of peace, in the almost +gratuitous abundance of every kind of wealth. It burst into the most +brilliant efflorescence, or rather display of poetry and art, but +especially of luxury, that the world had as yet seen. It was just at +that moment an extraordinary alarm of a novel kind, justly provoked by +the astronomical observations made on the tower of Babel, which had been +rebuilt as an Eiffel Tower on an enlarged scale, began to spread among +the terrified populations. + + + + +II + +THE CATASTROPHE + + +On several occasions already the sun had given evident signs of +weakness. From year to year his spots increased in size and number, and +his heat sensibly diminished. People were lost in conjecture. Was his +fuel giving out? Had he just traversed in his journey through space an +exceptionally cold region? No one knew. Whatever the reason was, the +public concerned itself little about the matter, as in all that is +gradual and not sudden. The "solar anæmia," which moreover restored some +degree of animation to neglected astronomy, had merely become the +subject of several rather smart articles in the reviews. In general, the +_savants_, in their well-warmed studies, affected to disbelieve in the +fall of temperature, and, in spite of the formal indications of the +thermometer, they did not cease to repeat that the dogma of slow +evolution, and of the conservation of energy combined with the classical +nebular hypothesis, forbade the admission of a sufficiently rapid +cooling of the solar mass to make itself felt during the short duration +of a century, much more so during that of five years or a year. A few +unorthodox persons of heretical and pessimistic temperament remarked, it +is true, that at different epochs, if one believed the astronomers of +the remote past, certain stars had gradually burnt out in the heavens, +or had passed from the most dazzling brilliance to an almost complete +obscurity, during the course of barely a single year. They therefore +concluded that the case of our sun had nothing exceptional about it; +that the theory of slow-footed evolution was not perhaps universally +applicable; and that, sometimes, as an old visionary mystic called +Cuvier had ventured to put forward in legendary times, veritable +revolutions took place in the heavens as well as on earth. But orthodox +science combated with indignation these audacious theories. + +However, the winter of 2489 was so disastrous, it was actually necessary +to take the threatening predictions of the alarmists seriously. One +reached the point of fearing at any moment a "solar apoplexy." That was +the title of a sensational pamphlet which went through twenty thousand +editions. The return of the spring was anxiously awaited. + +The spring returned at last, and the starry monarch reappeared, but his +golden crown was gone, and he himself well-nigh unrecognisable. He was +entirely red. The meadows were no longer green, the sky was no longer +blue, the Chinese were no longer yellow, all had suddenly changed colour +as in a transformation scene. Then, by degrees, from the red that he was +he became orange. He might then have been compared to a golden apple in +the sky, and so during several years he was seen to pass, and all nature +with him, through a thousand magnificent or terrible tints--from orange +to yellow, from yellow to green, and from green at length to indigo and +pale blue. The meteorologists then recalled the fact, in the year 1883, +on the second of September, the sun had appeared in Venezuela the whole +day long as blue as the moon. So many colours, so many new decorations +of the chameleon-like universe which dazzled the terrified eye, which +revived and restored to its primitive sharpness the rejuvenated +sensation of the beauties of nature, and strongly stirred the depths of +men's souls by renewing the former aspect of things. + +At the same time disaster succeeded disaster. The entire population of +Norway, Northern Russia, and Siberia perished, frozen to death in a +single night; the temperate zone was decimated, and what was left of its +inhabitants fled before the enormous drifts of snow and ice, and +emigrated by hundreds of millions towards the tropics, crowding into the +panting trains, several of which, overtaken by tornadoes of snow, +disappeared for ever. + +The telegraph successively informed the capital, now that there was no +longer any news of immense trains caught in the tunnels under the +Pyrenees, the Alps, the Caucasus, or Himalayas, in which they were +imprisoned by enormous avalanches, which blocked simultaneously the two +issues; now that some of the largest rivers of the world--the Rhine, for +instance, and the Danube--had ceased to flow, completely frozen to the +bottom, from which resulted a drought, followed by an indescribable +famine, which obliged thousands of mothers to devour their own children. +From time to time a country or continent broke off suddenly its +communication with the central agency, the reason being that an entire +telegraphic section was buried under the snow, from which at intervals +emerged the uneven tops of their posts, with their little cups of +porcelain. Of this immense network of electricity which enveloped in its +close meshes the entire globe, as of that prodigious coat of mail with +which the complicated system of railways clothed the earth, there was +only left some scattered fragments, like the remnant of the Grand Army +of Napoleon during the retreat from Russia. + +Meanwhile, the glaciers of the Alps, the Andes, and of all the mountains +of the world hitherto vanquished by the sun, which for several thousand +centuries had been thrust back into their last entrenchments, resumed +their triumphant march. All the glaciers that had been dead since the +geological ages came to life again, more colossal than ever. From all +the valleys in the Alps or Pyrenees, that were lately green and peopled +with delightful health resorts, there issued these snowy hordes, these +streams of icy lava, with their frontal moraine advancing as it spread +over the plain, a moving cliff composed of rocks and overturned engines, +of the wreckage of bridges, stations, hotels and public edifices, +whirled along in the wildest confusion, a heart-breaking welter of +gigantic bric-à -brac, with which the triumphant invasion decked itself +out as with the loot of victory. Slowly, step by step, in spite of +sundry transient intervals of light and warmth, in spite of occasionally +scorching days which bore witness to the supreme convulsions of the sun +in its battle against death, which revived in men's souls misleading +hopes, athwart and even by means of these unexpected changes the pale +invaders advanced. They retook and recovered one by one all their +ancient realms in the glacial period, and if they found on the road some +gigantic vagrant block lying in sullen solitude, near some famous city, +a hundred leagues from its native hills, mysterious witness of the +immense catastrophe of former times, they raised it and bore it onward, +cradling it on their unyielding waves, as an advancing army recaptures +and enfurls its ancient flags, all covered with dust, which it has found +again in its enemies' sanctuaries. + +But what was the glacial period compared with this new crisis of the +globe and the sky? Doubtless it had been due to a similar attack of +weakness, to a similar failure of the sun, and many species of animals +had necessarily perished at the time, from being insufficiently clad. +That had been, however, but a warning bell, so to say, a simple +notification of the final and fatal attack. The glacial periods--for we +know there have been several--now explained themselves by their +reappearance on a large scale. But this clearing up of an obscure point +in geology was, one must admit, an insufficient compensation for the +public disasters which were its price. + +What calamities! What horrors! My pen confesses its impotence to retrace +them. Besides how can we tell the story of disasters which were so +complete they often simultaneously overwhelmed under snow-drifts a +hundred yards deep all that witnessed them, to the very last man. All +that we know for certain is what took place at the time towards the end +of the twenty-fifth century in a little district of Arabia Petræa. + +Thither had flocked for refuge, in one horde after another, wave after +wave, with host upon host frozen one on the top of another, as they +advanced, the few millions of human creatures who survived of the +hundreds of millions that had disappeared. Arabia Petræa had, therefore, +along with the Sahara, become the most populous country of the globe. +They transported hither by reason of the relative warmth of its climate, +I will not say the seat of Government--for, alas! Terror alone +reigned--but an immense stove which took its place, and whatever +remained of Babylon now covered over by a glacier. A new town was +constructed in a few months on the plans of an entirely new system of +architecture, marvellously adapted for the struggle against the cold. By +the most happy of chances some rich and unworked coal mines were +discovered on the spot. There was enough fuel there, it seems, to +provide warmth for many years to come. And as for food, it was not as +yet too pressing a question. The granaries contained several sacks of +corn, while waiting for the sun to revive and the corn to sprout again. +The sun had certainly revived after the glacial periods; why should it +not do so again? asked the optimists. + +It was but the hope of a day. The sun assumed a violet hue. The frozen +corn ceased to be eatable. The cold became so intense that the walls of +the houses as they contracted cracked and admitted blasts of air which +killed the inhabitants on the spot. A physicist affirmed that he saw +crystals of solid nitrogen and oxygen fall from the sky which gave rise +to the fear that the atmosphere would shortly become decomposed. The +seas were already frozen solid. A hundred thousand human creatures +huddling around the huge government stove, which was no longer equal to +restoring their circulation, were turned into icicles in a single night; +and the night following, a second hundred thousand perished likewise. Of +the beautiful human race, so strong and noble, formed by so many +centuries of effort and genius by such an intelligent and extended +selection, there would soon have been only left a few thousands, a few +hundreds of haggard and trembling specimens, unique trustees of the last +ruins of what had once been civilisation. + + + + +III + +THE STRUGGLE + + +In this extremity a man arose who did not despair of humanity. His name +has been preserved for us. By a singular coincidence he was called +Miltiades, like another saviour of Hellenism. He was not, however, of +Hellenic race. A cross between a Slave and a Breton he had only half +sympathised with the prosperity of the Neo-Græcian world with its +levelling and enervating tendencies, and amid this wholesale +obliteration of previous civilisation, and universal triumph of a kind +of Byzantine renaissance brought up to date, he belonged to those who +reverently guarded in the depths of their heart the germs of recusancy. +But, like the barbarian stilicho, the last defender of the foundering +Roman world against the barbaric hordes, it was precisely this +disbeliever in civilisation who alone undertook to arrest it on the +brink of its vast downfall. Eloquent and handsome, but nearly always +taciturn, he was not without certain resemblances in pose and features, +so it was said, to Chateaubriand and Napoleon (two celebrities, as one +knows, who in their time were famous throughout an entire continent). +Worshipped by the women of whom he was the hope, and by the men who +stood greatly in awe of him, he had early kept the crowd at arm's +length, and a singular accident had doubled his natural shyness. Finding +the sea less monotonously dull at any rate than terra firma, and in any +case more unconfined, he had passed his youth on board the last +iron-clad of State of which he was captain, in patrolling the coasts of +continents, in dreaming of impossible adventures, and of conquests when +all was conquered, of discoveries of America when all was discovered, +and in cursing all former travellers, discoverers and conquerors, +fortunate reapers in all the fields of glory in which there was nothing +more left to glean. One day, however, he believed he had discovered a +new island--it was a mistake--and he had the joy of engaging in a fight, +the last of which ancient history makes mention, with an apparently +highly primitive tribe of savages, who spoke English and read the Bible. +In this fight he displayed such valour that he was unanimously +pronounced to be mad by his crew, and was in great danger of losing his +rank after a specialist in insanity, who had been called in, was on the +point of publicly confirming popular opinion by declaring he was +suffering from suicidal mono-mania of a novel kind. Luckily an +archæologist protested and showed by actual documents that this +phenomenon, which had become so unusual but was frequent in past ages +under the name of bravery, was a simple case of ancestral reversion +sufficiently serious to merit examination. As luck would have it, the +unfortunate Miltiades had been wounded in the face in the same +encounter; and the scar which all the art of the best surgeons never +succeeded in removing, drew down upon him the annoying and almost +insulting nick-name of "scarred face". It may be readily understood how +from this time forward, soured by the consciousness of his partial +disfigurement, as the ancient bard Byron had formerly been for a nearly +similar reason, he avoided appearing in public, and thereby giving the +crowd an opportunity of pointing the finger of scorn at the visible +traces of his former attack of madness. He was never seen again till the +day when, his vessel being hemmed in by the icebergs of the Gulf Stream, +he was obliged with his companions to finish the crossing on foot over +the solidly frozen Atlantic. + +In the middle of the central state shelter, a huge vaulted hall with +walls ten yards thick, without windows, surrounded with a hundred +gigantic furnaces, and perpetually lit up by their hundred flaming maws, +Miltiades one day appeared. The remnant of the flower of humanity, of +both sexes, splendid even in its misery, was huddled together there. +They did not consist of the great men of science with their bald pates, +nor even the great actresses, nor the great writers, whose inspiration +had deserted them, nor the consequential ones now past their prime, nor +of prim old ladies--broncho-pneumonia, alas! had made a clean sweep of +them all at the very first frost--but the enthusiastic heirs of their +traditions, their secrets, and also of their vacant chairs, that is to +say, their pupils, full of talent and promise. Not a single university +professor was there, but a crowd of deputies and assistants; not a +single minister, but a crowd of young secretaries of state. Not a single +mother of a family, but a bevy of artists' models, admirably formed, and +inured against the cold by the practice of posing for the nude; above +all, a number of fashionable beauties, who had been likewise saved by +the excellent hygienic effect of daily wearing low dresses, without +taking into account the warmth of their temperament. Among them it was +impossible not to notice the Princess Lydia, owing to her tall and +exquisite figure, the brilliancy of her dress and her wit, of her dark +eyes and fair complexion, owing in fact to the radiance of her whole +person. She had carried off the prize at the last grand international +beauty competition, and was accounted the reigning beauty of the +drawing-rooms of Babylon. What a different set of individuals from that +which the spectator formerly surveyed through his opera-glass from the +top of the galleries of the so-called Chamber of Deputies! Youth, +beauty, genius, love, infinite treasures of science and art, writers +whose pens were of pure gold, artists with marvellous technique, singers +one raved about, all that was left of refinement and culture on the +earth, was concentrated in this last knot of human beings, which +blossomed under the snow like a tuft of rhododendrons, or of Alpine +roses at the foot of some mountain summit. But what dejection had fallen +on these fair flowers! How sadly drooped these manifold graces! + +At the sudden apparition of Miltiades every brow was lifted, every eye +was fastened upon him. He was tall, lean, and wizened, in spite of the +false plumpness of his thick white furs. When he threw back his big +white hood, which recalled the Dominican cowl of antiquity, they caught +sight of his huge scar athwart the icicles on his beard and eyebrows. At +the sight of it first a smile and then a shudder, which was not due to +cold alone, ran through the ranks of the women. For must we confess it, +in spite of the efforts of a rational education, the inclination to +applaud bravery and its indications could not be entirely uprooted from +their hearts. Lydia, notably, remained imbued with this sentiment of +another age, by a kind of moral ancestral reversion which served as a +pendant to her physical atavism. She concealed so little her feelings of +admiration, that Miltiades himself was struck by it. Her admiration was +combined with astonishment, for he was believed to have been dead for +years. They asked one another by what accumulation of miracles he had +been able to escape the fate of his companions. He requested leave to +speak. It was granted him. He mounted a platform, and such a profound +silence ensued, one might have heard the snow falling outside, in spite +of the thickness of the walls. But let us at this point allow an +eye-witness to speak; let us copy an extract of the account that he +phonographed of this memorable scene. I pass over the part of Miltiades' +discourse in which he related the thrilling story of the dangers he had +encountered from the time he left his vessel. (_Continuous applause_.) +After stating that in passing by Paris on a sledge drawn by +reindeer--thanks to it being the season of the dog-days--he had +recognised the site of this buried city by the double-pointed mound of +snow which had formed over the spires of Notre-Dame--(_excitement in the +audience_)--the speaker continued:-- + +"The situation is serious," said he, "nothing like it has been seen +since the geological epochs. Is it irretrievable? No! (_Hear! hear!_) +Desperate diseases require desperate remedies. An idea, a glimmer of +hope has flashed upon me, but it is so strange, I shall never dare to +reveal it to you. (_Speak! speak!_) No, I dare not, I shall never dare +to formulate this project. You would believe me to be still insane. You +desire it, you promise me to listen to the end to my absurd and +extravagant project? (_Yes! yes!_) Even to give it a fair trial? (_Yes! +yes!_) Well! I will speak. (_Silence!_) + +"The hour has come to ascertain to what extent it is true to say and to +keep on repeating, as has been the practice for the last three centuries +since the time of a certain Stephenson, that all our energy, all our +strength, whether physical or moral, comes to us from the sun.... +(_Numerous voices: 'That is so'_). The calculation has been made: in two +years, three months, and six days, if there still remains a morsel of +coal there will not remain a morsel of bread! (_Prolonged sensation_.) +Therefore, if the source of all force, of all motion, and all life is in +the sun, and in the sun alone, there is no ground for self-delusion: in +two years, three months, and six days, the genius of man will be +quenched, and through the gloomy heavens the corpse of mankind, like a +Siberian mammoth, will roll for everlasting, incapable for ever of +resurrection. (_Excitement_.) + +"But is that the case? No, it is not, it cannot be the case. With all +the energy of my heart, which does not come from the sun--that energy +which comes from the earth, from our mother earth buried there below, +far, far away, for ever hidden from our eyes--I protest against this +vain theory, and against so many articles of faith and religion which I +have been obliged hitherto to endure in silence. (_Slight murmurs from +the centre_.) The earth is the contemporary of the sun, and not its +daughter; the earth was formerly a luminous star like the sun, only +sooner extinct. It is only on the surface that the earth is devoid of +movement, frozen and paralysed. Its bosom is ever warm and burning. It +has only concentrated its fire within itself in order to preserve it +better. (_Signs of interest in the audience_.) There lies a virgin force +that is unexploited, a force superior to all that the sun has been able +to generate for our industry by waterfalls which to-day are frozen, by +cyclones which now have ceased, by tides which to-day are suspended; a +force in which our engineers, with a little initiative, will find a +hundredfold the equivalent of the motive power they have lost. It is no +more by this gesture (_the speaker raises his finger to heaven_), that +the hope of salvation should henceforth be expressed, it is by this one. +(_He lowers his right hand towards the earth.... Signs of astonishment: +a few murmurs of dissent which are immediately repressed by the women_.) +We must say no more: 'Up there!' but, 'below!' There, below, far below, +lies the promised Eden, the abode of deliverance and of bliss: there, +and there alone, there are still innumerable conquests and discoveries +to be made! (_Bravos on the left_.) Ought I to draw my conclusion? +(_Yes! yes!_) Let us descend into these depths; let us make these +abysses our sure retreat. The mystics had a sublime presentiment when +they said in their Latin: 'From the outward to the inward.' The earth +calls us to its inner self. For many centuries it has lived separated, +so to say, from its children, the living creatures it produced outside +during its period of fecundity before the cooling of its crust! After +its crust cooled, the rays of a distant star alone, it is true, have +maintained on this dead epidermis their artificial and superficial life +which has been a stranger to her own. + +"But this schism has lasted too long. It is imperative that it should +cease. It is time to follow Empedocles, Ulysses, Æneas, Dante, to the +gloomy abodes of the underworld, to plunge mankind again in the fountain +from which it sprang, to effect the complete restoration of the exiled +soul to the land of its birth! (_Applause here and there_.) Besides, +there is but this alternative: life underground or death. The sun is +failing us: let us dispense with the sun. The plan, which it remains for +me to propose, has been worked out for several months past by the most +eminent men. To-day it is finished; it is final. It is complete in all +its details. Does it interest you? (_On all sides: 'Read it, read it.'_) +You will see that with discipline, patience, and courage--yes, courage, +I risk this evil-sounding word (_'Risk it, risk it.'_)--and above all, +with the aid of that splendid heritage of science and art which comes to +us from the past, for which we are accountable to the most distant of +our descendants, to the boundless universe, and I was going to say, to +God (_signs of surprise_), we can be saved if we will." (_Thunder of +applause_.) + +The speaker next entered into lengthy details, which it is useless to +reproduce here, on the Neo-troglodytism which he pretended to inaugurate +as the acme of civilisation, "which had," said he, "began with caves, +and was destined to return to these subterranean retreats, but at a far +deeper level." He displayed designs, quantities and drawings. He had no +trouble in proving that, on condition of burrowing sufficiently deep +into the ground below, they would find a deliciously gentle warmth, an +Elysian temperature. It would be enough to excavate, enlarge, heighten, +and extend the galleries of already existing mines in order to render +them habitable and comfortable into the bargain. The electric light, +supplied entirely without expense by the scattered centres of the fire +within, would provide for the magnificent illumination both by day and +night of these colossal crypts, these marvellous cloisters, indefinitely +extended and embellished by successive generations. With a good system +of ventilation, all danger of suffocation or of foulness of air would be +avoided. In short, after a more or less long period of settling in, +civilised life could unfold anew in all its intellectual, artistic, and +fashionable splendour, as freely as it did in the capricious and +intermittent light or natural day, and even perhaps more surely. At +these last words, the Princess Lydia broke her fan, by dint of +applauding. An objection then came from the right, "With what shall we +be fed?" Miltiades smiled disdainfully and replied: "Nothing is simpler. +For ordinary drinking purposes we first of all shall have melted ice. +Every day we shall transport enormous blocks of it in order to keep the +orifices of the crypts free from obstruction, and to supply the public +fountains. I may add that chemists undertake to manufacture alcohol from +anything, even from mineralised rocks, and that it is the A.B.C. of the +grocer's trade to manufacture wine from alcohol and water. (_'Hear! +hear!' from all the benches_). As for food, is not chemistry also +capable of manufacturing butter, albumen, and milk from no matter what? +Besides, has the last word been said on the subject? Is it not highly +probable that before long, if it takes up the matter, it will succeed in +satisfying, both on the score of quantity and expense, the desires of +the most refined gastronomy? And, meanwhile.... (_a voice timidly: +'Meanwhile?'_) Meanwhile does not our disaster itself, by a kind of +providential occurrence, place within our reach the best stocked, the +most abundant, the most inexhaustible larder that the human race has +ever had? Immense stores, the most admirable which have hitherto been +laid down, are lying for us under the ice or the snow. Myriads of +domestic or wild animals--I dare not add, of men and women (_a general +shudder of horror_)--but at least of bullocks, sheep and poultry, frozen +instantaneously in a single mass, are lying here and there in the public +markets a few steps away. Let us collect, as long as such work is still +possible out of doors, this boundless quarry which was destined to feed +for years several hundreds of millions, and which will well suffice, in +consequence, to feed a few thousands only for ages, even should they +multiply unduly, in despite of Malthus. If stacked in the neighbourhood +of the orifice of the chief cavern, they will be easy to get at and will +provide a delightful fare for our fraternal love-feasts." + +Still further objections were formulated from different quarters. They +were forcibly disposed of with the same irresistible easy assurance. The +conclusion is worthy of a verbatim quotation: "However extraordinary the +catastrophe which has befallen us and the means of escape which is left +us may seem in appearance, a little reflection will suffice to prove to +us that the predicament in which we are, must have been repeated a +thousand times already in the immensity of the universe, and must have +been cleared up in the same fashion, being inevitably and normally the +final phase in the life-drama of every star. The astronomers know that +every sun is bound to become extinct; they know, therefore, that in +addition to the luminous and visible stars, there are in the heavens an +infinitely greater number of extinct and rayless stars which continue +endlessly to revolve with their train of planets, doomed to an eternity +of night and cold. Well, if this is the case, I ask you: Can we suppose +that life, thought, and love, are the exclusive privilege of an infinite +minority of solar systems still possessed of light and heat, and deny to +the immense majority of gloomy stars every manifestation of life and +animation, the very highest reason for their existence? Thus +lifelessness, death, the void in movement would be the rule; and life +the exception! Thus the nine-tenths, the ninety-nine hundredths, +perhaps, of the solar systems, would idly revolve like senseless and +gigantic mill-wheels, a useless encumbrance of space. That is impossible +and idiotic, that is blasphemous. Let us have more faith in the unknown! +Truth, here as everywhere else, is without doubt the antipodes of +appearance. All that glitters is not gold. These splendid constellations +which attempt to dazzle us are themselves relatively barren. Their +light, what is it? A transient glory, a ruinous luxury, an ostentatious +squandering of energy, born of illimitable senselessness. But when the +stars have sown their wild oats, then the serious task of their life +begins, they develop their inner resources. For frozen and sunless +without, they literally preserve in their inviolate centres their +unquenchable fire, defended by the very layers of ice. There, finally, +is to be relit the lamp of life, banished from the surface above. For a +last time, therefore, let us look upwards in order there to find hope. +Up there innumerable races of mankind under ground, buried, to their +supreme joy, in the catacombs of invisible stars, encourage us by their +example. Let us act like them, let us like them withdraw to the interior +of our planet. Like them, let us bury ourselves in order to rise again, +and like them let us carry with us into our tomb, all that is worthy to +survive of our previous existence. It is not merely bread alone that man +has need of. He must live to think, and not merely think to live. + +"Recall the legend of Noah: to escape from a disaster almost equal to +our own, and to dispute with it all that the earth had most precious in +his eyes; what did he do, though he was but a simple-minded fellow and +addicted to drink? He turned his ark into a museum, containing a +complete collection of plants and animals, even of poisonous plants, of +wild beasts, boa-constrictors, and scorpions, and by reason of this +picturesque but incongruous cargo of creatures mutually harmful and +seeking one and all to devour each other, of this miscellany of living +contradictions which for so long was so foolishly worshipped under the +name of Nature, he believed in good faith to have deserved well of the +future. + +"But we, in our new ark, mysterious, impenetrable, indestructible, shall +carry with us neither plants nor animals. These types of existence are +annihilated; these rough drafts in creation, these fumbling experiments +of Earth in quest of the human form are for ever blotted out. Let us not +regret it. In place of so many pairs of animals which take up so much +room, of so many useless seeds, we will carry with us into our retreat +the harmonious garland of all the truths in perfect accord with one +another; of all artistic and poetic beauties, which are all members one +of another, united like sisters, which human genius has brought to light +in the course of ages and multiplied thereafter in millions of copies: +all of which will be destroyed save a single one, which it will be our +task to guarantee against all danger of destruction. We shall establish +a vast library containing all the principal works, enriched with +cinematographic albums. We shall set up a vast museum composed of single +specimens of all the schools, of all the styles of the masters in +architecture, sculpture, painting, and even music. These are our real +treasures, our real seed for future harvests, our gods for whom we will +do battle till our latest breath." + +The speaker stepped down from the platform in the midst of indescribable +enthusiasm: the ladies crowded round him. They deputed Lydia to bestow +on him a kiss in the name of them all. Blushing with modesty the latter +obeyed--a further sign of moral atavism on her part--and the applause +redoubled. The thermometers of the shelter rose several degrees in a few +minutes. + +It is well to recall to the younger generation these resolute words, +between the lines of which they will read the gratitude they owe to the +heroic "Scarred face," who so nearly died with the reputation of a +mono-maniac. They, too, are beginning to grow enervated and accustomed +to the delights of their underground Elysium, to the luxurious +spaciousness of these endless catacombs, the legacy of gigantic toil on +the part of their fathers, they too, are, inclined to think that all +this happened of its own accord, or at least was inevitable, that after +all there was no other way of escaping from the cold above ground, and +that this simple expedient did not require a great outlay of +imagination. Profound error! At its first appearance, the idea of +Miltiades had been hailed, and rightly enough, as a flash of genius. But +for him, but for his energy, and his eloquence, which was placed at the +service of his imagination, but for his forcefulness, his charm, and his +perseverance, which seconded his energy, let us add, but for the +profound passion that Lydia, the noblest and most valiant of women, had +been able to inspire in him, and which increased his heroism tenfold, +humanity would have suffered the fate of all the other animal or +vegetable species. What strikes us to-day in his discourse is the +extraordinary and truly prophetic lucidity with which he sketched in +general terms the conditions of existence in the new world. Without +doubt, these expectations have been immensely surpassed. He did not +foresee, he could not foresee, the prodigious accessions which his +original idea has received owing to its development by thousands of +auxiliary geniuses. He was far more right than he fancied, like the +majority of reformers--who are generally wrongly accused, of being too +much wrapt up in their own ideas. But on the whole, never was so +magnificent a plan so promptly carried out. + +From that very day all these exquisite and delicate hands set to work, +aided, it is true, by incomparable machines. Everywhere, at the head of +all the workings, were to be found Lydia and Miltiades. Henceforth +inseparable, they vied with one another in ardour; and before a year was +out the galleries of the mines had become sufficiently large and +comfortable, sufficiently decorated even and brilliantly lighted, to +receive the vast and priceless collections of all kinds, which it was +their object to place in safety there, in view of the future. + +With infinite precautions they were lowered one after another, bale by +bale, into the bowels of the earth. This salvage of the goods and +chattels of humanity was methodically carried out. It included all the +quintessence of the ancient grand libraries of Paris, Berlin, and +London, which had been brought together at Babylon, and then carried for +safety into the desert with the rest. The cream of all former museums, +of all previous exhibitions of industry and art, was concentrated there +with considerable additions. There were manuscripts, books, bronzes, and +pictures. What an expenditure of energy and incessant toil, in spite of +the assistance of inter-terrestrial forces, had been necessary for +packing, transporting, and housing it all! And yet, for the greater +part, it was useless to those who voluntarily this task imposed upon +themselves. They all knew it. They were well aware that they were +probably condemned for the rest of their days to a hard and +matter-of-fact existence, for which their lives as artists, +philosophers, and men of letters, had scarcely prepared them. But--for +the first time--the idea of duty to be done found its way into these +hearts, the beauty of self-sacrifice subdued these dilettanti. They +sacrificed themselves to the Unknown, to that which is not yet, to the +posterity towards which were turned all the desires of their electrified +spirits, as all the atoms of the magnetised iron turn towards the pole. +It was thus that, at the time when there were still countries, in the +midst of some great national peril, a wave of heroism swept over the +most frivolous cities. However admirable may have been, at the epoch of +which I speak, this collective need of individual self-sacrifice, ought +we to be astonished at it, when we know from the treatises on natural +history that have been preserved, that mere insects giving the same +example of foresight and self-renunciation, used before their death to +employ their latest energies to collect provisions useless to +themselves, and only useful in the future to their larvæ at their birth. + + + + +IV + +SAVED! + + +The day at length arrived on which, all the intellectual inheritance of +the past, all the real capital of humanity having been rescued from the +general shipwreck, the castaways were able to go down in their turn, +having henceforth only to think of their own preservation. That day +which forms, as everyone knows, the starting point of our new era, +called the era of salvation, was a solemn holiday. The sun, however, as +if to arouse regret, indulged in a few last bursts of sunshine. On +casting a final glance on this brightness, which they were never to +behold again, the survivors of mankind could not, we are told, restrain +their tears. A young poet on the brink of the pit that yawned to swallow +them up, repeated in the musical language of Euripides, the farewell to +the light of the dying Iphigenia. But that was a short-lived moment of +very natural emotion which speedily changed into an outburst of +unspeakable delight. + +How great in fact was their amazement and their ecstasy! They expected a +tomb; they opened their eyes in the most brilliant and interminable +galleries of art they could possibly see, in _salons_ more beautiful +than those of Versailles, in enchanted palaces, in which all extremes of +climate, rain, and wind, cold and torrid heat were unknown; where +innumerable lamps, veritable suns in brilliancy and moons in softness, +shed unceasingly through the blue depths their daylight that knew no +night. Assuredly the sight was far from what it has since become; we +need an effort of imagination in order to represent the psychological +condition of our poor ancestors, hitherto accustomed to the perpetual +and insufferable discomforts and inconveniences of life on the surface +of the globe, in order to realise their enthusiasm, at a moment, when +only counting on escaping from the most appalling of deaths by means of +the gloomiest of dungeons, they felt themselves delivered of all their +troubles, and of all their apprehensions at the same time! Have you +noticed in the retrospective museum that quaint bit of apparatus of our +fathers, which is called an umbrella? Look at it and reflect on the +heart-breaking element, in a situation, which condemned man to make use +of this ridiculous piece of furniture. Imagine yourself obliged to +protect yourselves against those gigantic downpours which would +unexpectedly arrive on the scene and drench you for three or four days +running. Think likewise of sailors caught in a whirling cyclone, of the +victims of sunstroke, of the 20,000 Indians annually devoured by tigers +or killed by the bite of venomous serpents; think of those struck by +lightning. I do not speak of the legions of parasites and insects, of +the acarus, the phylloxera, and the microscopic beings which drained the +blood, the sweat, and the life of man, inoculating him with typhus, +plague, and cholera. In truth, if our change of condition has demanded +some sacrifices, it is not an illusion to declare that the balance of +advantage is immensely greater. What in comparison with this +unparalleled revolution is the most renowned of the petty revolutions of +the past which to-day are treated so lightly, and rightly so, by our +historians. One wonders how the first inhabitants of these underground +dwellings could, even for a moment, regret the sun, a mode of lighting +that bristled with so many inconveniences. The sun was a capricious +luminary which went out and was relit at variable hours, shone when it +felt disposed, sometimes was eclipsed, or hid itself behind the clouds +when one had most need of it, or pitilessly blinded one at the very +moment one yearned for shade! Every night,--do we really realise the +full force of the inconvenience?--every night the sun commanded social +life to desist and social life desisted. Humanity was actually to that +extent the slave of nature! To think it never succeeded in, never even +dreamed of, freeing itself from this slavery which weighed so heavily +and unconsciously on its destinies, on the course of its progress thus +straitened and confined! Ah! Let us once more bless our fortunate +disaster! + +What excuses or explains the weakness of the first immigrants of the +inner world is the fact that their life was necessarily rough and full +of hardships, in spite of a notable improvement after their descent into +the caverns. They had perpetually to enlarge them, to adjust them to the +requirements of the two civilisations, ancient and modern. That was not +the work of a single day. I am well aware how happily fortune favoured +them; how they again and again had the good luck when driving their +tunnels to discover natural grottoes of the utmost beauty, in which it +was enough to illuminate with the usual methods of lighting (which was +absolutely cost-free, as Miltiades had foreseen) in order to render them +almost habitable: delightful squares, as it were, enshrined and sparsely +disseminated throughout the labyrinth of our brilliantly lighted +streets; mines of sparkling diamonds, lakes of quicksilver, mounds of +golden ingots. I am well aware that they had at their disposition a sum +of natural forces very superior to all that the preceding ages had been +acquainted with. That is very easy to understand. In fact, if they +lacked waterfalls, they replaced them very advantageously by the finest +falls in temperature that physicists have ever dreamed of. The central +heat of the globe could not, it is true, by itself alone be a mechanical +force, any more than formerly a large mass of water falling by +hypothesis to the greatest possible depth. It is in its passage from a +higher to a lower level that the mass of water becomes (or rather +became) available energy: it is in its descent from a higher to a lower +degree of the thermometer that heat likewise becomes so. The greater +distance between any two degrees the greater amount of surplus energy. +Now, the mining physicists had hardly descended into the bowels of the +earth ere they at once perceived that thus placed between the furnaces +of the central fire, as it were, a forge of the Cyclops, hot enough to +liquefy granite, and the outer cold, which was sufficient to solidify +oxygen and nitrogen, they had at their disposal the most enormous +extremes in temperature, and consequently thermic cataracts by the side +of which all the cataracts of Abyssinia and Niagara were only toys. What +caldrons did they own in the ancient volcanoes! What condensers in the +glaciers! At first sight they must have seen that if a few distributing +agencies of this prodigious energy were provided, they had power enough +there to perform the whole work of mankind--excavation, air supply, +water supply, sanitation, locomotion, descent and transport of +provisions, etc. + +I am well aware of that. I am further aware that ever favoured by +fortune, the inseparable friend of daring, the new Troglodytes have +never suffered from famine, nor from shortness of supplies. When one of +their snow-covered deposits of carcasses threatened to give out, they +used to make several trial borings, drive several shafts in an upward +direction. They never failed presently to meet with rich finds of food +reserves, extensive enough to close the mouths of the alarmists, whereby +there resulted on each occasion, according to the law of Malthus, a +sudden increase in the population, coupled with the excavation of new +underground cities, more flourishing than their older sisters. But, in +spite of all this, we remain overwhelmed with wonder when we consider +the incalculable degree of courage and intelligence lavished on such a +work, and solely called into being by an idea which, starting one day +from one individual brain, has leavened the whole globe. What giant +falls of earth, what murderous explosions, what a death-roll there must +have been at the outset of the enterprise! We shall never know what +bloodthirsty duels, what rapes, what doleful tragedies, took place in +this lawless society, which had not yet been reorganised. The history of +the early conquerors and colonists of America, if it could be told in +detail, would pale entirely beside it. Let us draw a veil over the +proceedings. But this pitch of horrors was perhaps necessary to teach us +that in the forced intimacy of a cave there is no mean between warfare +and love, between mutual slaughter or mutual embraces. We began by +fighting; to-day we fall on each other's necks. And in fact, what human +ear, nose, or stomach could have longer withstood the deafening roar and +smoke of melanite explosions beneath our crypts; the sight and stench of +mangled bodies piled up within our narrow confines? Hideous and odious, +revolting beyond all expression, the underground war finished by +becoming impossible. + +It is, however, painful to think that it lasted right up to the death of +our glorious preserver. Everyone is acquainted with the heroic adventure +in which Miltiades and his companion lost their lives. It has been so +often painted, sculptured, sung, and immortalised by the great masters, +that it is not allowable to pass it over in silence. The famous struggle +between the centralist and federalist cities, that is to say, at bottom, +between the industrial and artist cities, having ended in the triumph of +the latter, a still more bloodthirsty conflict sprang up between the +free thinking and the cellular cities. The former fought to assert the +freedom of love with its uncertain fecundity; the second, for its +prudent regulation. Miltiades, misled by his passion, committed the +fault of siding with the former, a pardonable error which posterity has +forgiven him. Besieged in his last grotto--a perfect marvel in +strongholds--and at the end of his provisions, the besiegers having +intercepted the arrival of all his convoys, he essayed a final effort: +he prepared a formidable explosion intended to blow up the vault of his +cavern, and forcibly to open a way upwards by which he might have the +chance of reaching a deposit of provisions. His hope was deceived. The +vault blew up, it is true, and disclosed a cavern above it, the most +colossal one had hitherto seen, that dimly resembled a Hindoo temple. +But the hero himself perished miserably, buried with Lydia beneath +enormous rocks on the very spot on which now stands their double statue +in marble, the masterpiece of our new Phidias, which is now the crowded +meeting-place of our national pilgrimages. + +From these fruitful though troublous times, and from this beneficial +disorder, an advantage has accrued to us which we shall never +sufficiently appreciate. Our race, already so beautiful, has been +further strengthened and purified by these numerous trials. +Short-sightedness itself has disappeared under the prolonged influence +of a light that is pleasing to the eye, and of the habit of reading +books which are written in very large characters. For, from lack of +paper, we are obliged to write on slates, on pillars, obelisks, on the +broad panels of marble, and this necessity, in addition to compelling us +to adopt a sober style and contributing to the formation of taste, +prevents the daily newspapers from reappearing, to the great benefit of +the optic nerves and the lobes of the brain. It was, by the way, an +immense misfortune for "pre-salvationist" man to possess textile plants +which allowed him to stereotype without the slightest trouble on rags of +paper without the slightest value, all his ideas, idle or serious, piled +indiscriminately one on the other. Now, before graving our thoughts on a +panel of rock, we take time to reflect on our subject. Yet another bane +among our primitive forefathers was tobacco. At present we no longer +smoke, we can no longer smoke. The public health is accordingly +magnificent. + + + + +V + +REGENERATION + + +It does not fall within the scope of my rapid sketch to relate date by +date the laborious vicissitudes of humanity since its settlement within +the planet from the year 1 of the era of Salvation to the year 596, in +which I write these lines in chalk on slabs of schist. I should only +like to bring out for my contemporaries, who might very well fail to +notice them (for we barely observe what we have always before our eyes), +the distinctive and original features of this modern civilisation of +which we are so justly proud. Now that after many abortive trials and +agonizing convulsions it has succeeded in taking its final shape, we can +clearly establish its essential characteristics. It consists in the +complete elimination of living nature, whether animal or vegetable, man +only excepted. That has produced, so to say, a purification of society. +Secluded thus from every influence of the natural milieu into which it +was hitherto plunged and confined, the social milieu was for the first +time able to reveal and display its true virtues, and the real social +bond appeared in all its vigour and purity. It might be said that +destiny had desired to make in our case an extended sociological +experiment for its own edification by placing us in such extraordinarily +unique conditions.[1] The problem, in a way, was to learn, what would +social man become if committed to his own keeping, yet left to +himself--furnished with all the intellectual acquisitions accumulated +through a remote past by human geniuses, but deprived of the assistance +of all other living beings, nay, even of those beings half endowed with +life, that we call rivers and seas and stars, and thrown back on the +conquered, yet passive forces of chemical, inorganic and lifeless +Nature, which is separated from man by too deep a chasm to exercise on +him any action from the social point of view. The problem was to learn +what this humanity would do when restricted to man, and obliged to +extract from its own resources, if not its food supplies, yet at least +all its pleasures, all its occupations, all its creative inspirations. +The answer has been given, and we have realised at the same time what an +unsuspected drag the terrestrial fauna and flora had hitherto been on +the progress of humanity. + +[1] In appearance only: we must not forget that in accordance +with all probability many extinct stars must have served as the scene of +this normal and necessary phase of social life. + +At first human pride and the faith of man in himself hitherto held in +check by the constant presence, by the profound sense of the superiority +of the forces round it, rebounded with a force of elasticity really +appalling. We are a race of Titans. But, at the same time, whatever +enervating element there might have been in the air of our grottoes has +been thereby victoriously combated. Otherwise our air is the purest that +man has ever breathed; all the bad germs with which the atmosphere was +loaded were killed by the cold. Far from being attacked by anæmia as +some predicted, we live in a state of habitual excitement maintained by +the multiplicity of our relations and of our "social tonics" (friendly +shakes of the hand, talks, meetings with charming women, etc.). With a +certain number among us it passes into a state of unintermittent +delirium under the name of Troglodytic fever. This new malady, whose +microbe has not yet been discovered, was unknown to our forefathers, +thanks perhaps to the stupefying (or soothing, if you prefer it) +influence of natural and rural distractions. Rural! what a strange +anachronism! Fishermen, hunters, ploughmen, and shepherds--do we really +understand to-day the meaning of these words? Have we for a moment +reflected on the life of that fossil creature who is so frequently +mentioned in books of ancient history and who was called the peasant? +The habitual society of this curious creature which comprised half or +three-quarters of the population was not man, but four-footed beasts, +pot herbs and green crops, which, owing to the conditions necessary for +their production in the country (yet another word which has become +meaningless) condemned him to live a wild, solitary life, far from his +fellows. As for his herds, they were acquainted with the charms of +social life, but he had not the slightest inkling of what it meant. + +The towns, to which people were so astonished that there should be a +desire to emigrate, were the only centres, rare and widely scattered as +they were, in which life in society was then known. But to what extent +does it not appear to have been adulterated, and attenuated by animal +and vegetable life? Another fossil peculiar to these regions is the +artisan. Was the relation of the worker to his employer, of the artisan +class to the other classes of the population, of these classes between +themselves a really social relation? Not the least in the world! Certain +sophists, who were called economists, and who were to our sociologists +of to-day what the alchemists formerly were to the chemists or the +astrologers to the astronomers, had given credit, it is true, to this +error--that society essentially consists in an exchange of services. +From this point of view, which, moreover, is quite out of date, the +social bond could never be closer than that between the ass and the ass +driver, the ox and drover, the sheep and the shepherd. Society, we now +know, consists in the exchange of reflections. Mutually to ape one +another, and by dint of accumulated apings diversely combined to create +an originality is the important thing. Reciprocal service is only an +accessory. That is why the urban life of former days being principally +founded on the organic and natural, rather than on the social relation +of producer to consumer, or of workman to employer, was itself only a +very imperfect kind of social life, and accordingly the source of +endless disagreements. + +If it has been possible for us to realise the most perfect and the most +intense social life that has ever been seen, it is thanks to the extreme +simplicity of our strictly so-called wants. At a time when man was +"panivorous" and omnivorous, the craving for food was broken up into an +infinity of petty ramifications. To-day it is confined to eating meat +which has been preserved in the best of refrigerators. Within the space +of an hour each morning, a single member of society by the employment of +our ingenious transport machinery feeds a thousand of his kind. The need +of clothing has been pretty nearly abolished by the softness of an ever +constant climate, and, we must also admit it, by the absence of +silkworms and of textile plants. That would perhaps be a disadvantage +were it not for the incomparable beauty of our bodies, which lends a +real charm to this grand simplicity of costume. Let us observe, however, +that it is fairly customary to wear coats of asbestos spangled with +mica, of silver interwoven and enriched with gold, in which the refined +and delicate charms of our women appear as though moulded in metal, +rather than completely screened from view. This metallic iridescence +with its infinite tints has a most delightful effect. These are, +however, costumes that never wear out. How many clothiers, milliners, +tailors, and drapery establishments are thereby abolished at a single +stroke! The need of shelter remains, it is true, but it has been greatly +reduced. One is no longer obliged to sleep at "starlight-hotel". When a +young man grows weary of the life in common which has hitherto sufficed +him in the spacious working-drawing-room of his fellows, and desires for +matrimonial reasons to have a dwelling to himself, he has only to apply +the boring-machine somewhere against the rocky wall and his cell is +excavated in a few days. There is no rent and few articles of furniture. +The joint-stock furniture, which is magnificent, is almost the only one +of which the pair of lovers make use. + +The quota of absolute necessities being thus reduced to almost nothing, +the quota of superfluities has been able to be extended to almost +everything. Since we live on so little, there remains abundant time for +thought. A minimum of utilitarian work and a maximum of æsthetic, is +surely civilisation itself in its most essential element. The room left +vacant in the heart by the reduction of our wants is taken up by the +talents--those artistic, poetic, and scientific talents which, as they +day by day multiply and take deeper root, become really and truly +acquired wants. They really spring, however, from a necessity to +produce, and not from a necessity to consume. I underline this +difference. The manufacturer is ever toiling, not for his own pleasure +nor for that of the world about him, of his fellow-men or his natural +rivals, but for a society different from his own--on mutual terms, but +that is immaterial. His work, therefore, constitutes a non-social, an +almost anti-social relationship with those who are not of his kind, to +the great hurt and hindrance of his relations with those who are. The +increasing intensity of his work tends to accentuate and not to +attenuate the dissimilarities between the different grades of society, +which act as an obstacle to the general reunion. We have clearly seen +the truth of this in the course of the twentieth century of the ancient +era, when the whole population was divided into trades-unions of the +different professions, which waged desperate warfare on one another, and +whose members in the bosom of each union hated one another as only +brothers can. + +But for the scientist, the artist, the lover of beauty in all its forms, +to produce is a passion, to consume is only a taste. For every artist +has a dilettante double. But his dilettantism in respect to arts other +than his own only plays by comparison a secondary part in his life. The +artist creates through sheer delight, and he alone creates for such +motives. + +We can now comprehend the depth of the truly social revolution which was +accomplished from the days when the æsthetic activity, by dint of ever +growing, ended by vanquishing utilitarian activity. Henceforth in place +of the relation of producer to consumer has been substituted, as +preponderating element in human dealings, the relation of the artist to +the art-lover. The ancient social ideal was to seek amusement or +self-satisfaction apart and to render mutual service. For this we +substitute the following: to be one's own servant and mutually to +delight one another. Henceforward, to insist once more, society reposes, +not on the exchange of services, but on the exchange of admiration or +criticism, of favourable or unfavourable judgments. The anarchical +regime of greed in all its forms has been succeeded by the autocratic +government of enlightened opinion which has become supreme. For our +worthy ancestors deceived themselves finely when they persuaded +themselves that social progress led to what they termed freedom of +thought. We have something better; we possess the joy and the strength +of the mind which attains a certainty of its own, founded, as it is, on +its only sure basis, the unanimity of other minds on certain essential +matters. On this rock we can rear the highest constructions of thought, +nay, the most gigantic systems of philosophy. + +The error, at present recognised, of those ancient visionaries called +socialists was their failure to see that this life in common, this +intense social life, they dreamt of so ardently, had for its +indispensable condition the æsthetic life and the universal propagation +of the religion of truth and beauty. The latter assumes the drastic +lopping off of numerous personal wants. Consequently in rushing, as they +did, into an exaggerated development of commercial life, they were +marching in the opposite direction to their own goal. + +They must have begun, I am well aware, by uprooting the fatal habit of +eating bread, which made man a slave to the tyrannical whims of a plant, +of beasts which were necessary for the manuring of this plant, and of +other plants which served as fodder for their beasts.... But as long as +this unhappy craving was rampant and they refrained from combating it, +it was obligatory to abstain from arousing others which were not less +anti-social, that is to say, not less natural. It was far better to +leave men at the ploughtail than to attract them to the factory, for the +dispersion and isolation of individualist types are more preferable to +bringing them together, which can only result in setting them by the +ears. But let us hurry on. All the advantages for which we are indebted +to our anti-natural position are now clear. We alone have realised all +the quintessence of refinement and reality, of strength and of +sweetness, that the social life contains. Formerly, here and there, in a +few rare cases in the midst of deserts an individual had certainly had a +distant foretaste of this ineffable thing, not to mention three or four +salons in the eighteenth century under the ancient regime, two or three +painters' studios, one or two green-rooms. They represented, in a way, +imperceptible cores of social protoplasm lost amid a mass of foreign +matter. But this marrow has become the entire bone at present. Our +cities, all in all, are one vast workshop, household and reception hall. +And this has happened in the simplest and most inevitable manner in the +world. Following the law of separation of the old Herbert Spencer, the +selection of heterogeneous talents and vocations was bound to take place +of its own accord. In fact, at the end of a century there was already +underground in course of development and continuous excavation a city of +painters, a city of sculptors, a city of musicians, of poets, of +geometricians, of physicists, of chemists, even of naturalists, of +psychologists, of scientific or æsthetic specialists of every kind, +except, strictly speaking, in philosophy. For we were obliged after +several attempts to give up the idea of founding or maintaining a city +of philosophers, notably owing to the incessant trouble caused by the +tribe of sociologists who are the most unsociable of mankind. + +Let us not forget, by the way, to mention the city of "sappers" (we no +longer speak of architects), whose speciality is to work out the plans +for excavating and repairing all our crypts and to direct the carrying +out of the work by our machines. Quitting the hackneyed paths of former +architecture, they have created in every detail our modern architecture +so profoundly original of which nothing could give an idea to our +forefathers. The public building of the ancient architect was a kind of +massive and voluminous work of art. It was entirely a thing by itself. +Its exterior, and especially its front, occupied his attention far more +than the inside. For the modern architect the interior alone exists, and +each work is linked on to those which have gone before. None stands by +itself. They are only an extension and ramification, one of another, an +endless continuation like the epics of the East. The work of the ancient +architect with its misplaced individuality, with its symmetry, which +gave it a mock air of being a living thing, yet only rendered it more +out of keeping with the surrounding landscape, the more symmetrical and +more skilfully designed it was, produced the effect of a verse in prose, +or of a hackneyed theme in a fantasia. Its special function was to +represent correctness, coldness, and stiffness amid the luxuriant +disorder of nature and the freedom of the other arts. But to-day, +instead of being the most tight-laced of the arts, architecture is the +freest and most wanton of them all. It is the chief element of +picturesqueness in our life, its artificial and veritably artistic +scenery lends to all the masterpieces of our painters and sculptors the +horizon of its perspective, the sky of its vaults, the tangled +vegetation of its innumerable colonnades, whose shafts are a copy of the +idealised trunk of all the antique essence of tree-life, whose capitals +imitate the idealised form of all the antique flowers. Here is nature +winnowed and perfected, which has become human in order to delight +humanity, and which humanity has deified in order to shelter love +beneath its shade. This perfection has only been, however, attained +after much groping in the dark. Many falls of rock, occasioned by +foolhardy excavations, which unduly reduced the number of supports, +swallowed up whole towns during the first two centuries. They will serve +for our descendants as Pompeii to rediscover. At the least shock +produced by earthquakes (the only natural plague which engages our +attention), a few cases of crushing to death still occur here and there, +but such accidents are very rare. + +To return to our subject. Each of our cities in founding colonies in the +region round it, has become the mother of cities similar to itself, in +which its own peculiar colour has been multiplied in different tints +which reflect and render it more beautiful. It is thus with us that +nations are formed whose differences no longer correspond to +geographical accidents but to the diversity of the social aptitudes of +human nature and of nothing else. Nay, more, in each of them the +division of cities is founded on that of schools, the most flourishing +of which, at any given moment, raises its particular town to the rank of +capital, thanks to the all-powerful favour of the public. + +The beginnings and devolution of power, questions which have so deeply +agitated humanity of yore, arise with us in the most natural way in the +world. There is always amid the crowd of our genius, a superior genius +who is hailed as such by the almost unanimous acclamation of his pupils +at first, and next of his comrades. A man is judged in fact by his peers +and according to his productions, not by the incompetent or according to +his electoral exploits. In the light of the intimate sense of corporate +life which binds and cements us one to another, the elevation of such a +dictator to the supreme magistracy has nothing humiliating about it for +the pride of the senators who have elected him, and who are the chiefs +of all the leading schools they themselves have created. The elector who +is a pupil, the elector who is an intelligent and sympathetic admirer +identifies himself with the object of his choice. Now it is the +particular characteristic of a "Geniocratic" Republic to be based on +admiration, not on envy, on sympathy, and not on dislike--on +enlightenment, not on illusion. + +Nothing is more delightful than a tour through our domains. Our towns, +which are quite close to one another are severally connected by broad +roads which are always illuminated and dotted with light and graceful +monocycles, with trains without smoke or whistle, with pretty electric +carriages which glide silently along, like gondolas between walls +covered with admirable bas-reliefs, with charming inscriptions, with +immortal fancies, the outpourings and accumulations of ten generations +of wandering artists. Similarly one might have seen in the olden times +the scanty remains of some convent where, in the course of ages the +monks had translated their weariness of spirit into grinning figures, +with hooded heads, into beasts from the Apocalypse, clumsily sculptured +on the capitals of the little pilasters or around the stone chair of the +Abbot. But what a distance lies between this monkish nightmare and this +artistic revelation! At the very most the pretty little gallery which +joined across the Arno, the museum of the Pitti Palace, with that of the +Uffizi at Florence, could give our ancestors a faint idea of what we +see. + +If the corridors of our abode possess this wealth and splendour, what +shall we say of the dwelling-places, or of the cities? They are filled +with heaps of artistic marvels, of frescoes, enamels, gold and silver +plate, bronzes and pictures, the acme and quintessence of musical +emotions, of philosophic conceptions, of poetic dreams, enough to baffle +all description, and weary all admiration. We have difficulty in +believing that the labyrinth of galleries, subterranean palaces and +marble catacombs, all named and numbered, whose manifold nomenclature +recalls all the geography and history of the past, have been excavated +in so few centuries. That is what perseverance can do! However +accustomed we may be to this extraordinary sight, it still at times +happens when wandering alone, during the hours of the siesta, in this +sort of infinite cathedral, with its irregular and endless architecture, +through this forest of lofty columns, massive or in close formation, +displaying in turn the most diversified and grandiose styles, Egyptian, +Greek, Byzantine, Arab, Gothic, and reminiscent of all the vanished and +venerated floras and faunas, when it is not above all profoundly +original ... it happens, I repeat, that panting, and beside ourselves +with ecstasy, we come to a standstill, like the traveller of yore when +he entered the twilight of a virgin forest, or of the pillared hall of +Karnak. + +To those who on reading the ancient accounts of travels might perchance +have regretted the wanderings of caravans across the deserts or the +discoveries of new worlds, our universe can offer boundless excursions +under the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans frozen to their very lowest +depths. Venturesome explorers, I was going to say discoverers, have in +every direction and in the easiest imaginable fashion honeycombed these +immense ice-caps with endless passages much in the same way as the +termites, according to our palæontologists, bored through the floors of +our fathers. We extend at will these fantastic galleries of crystal, +which, wherever they cross one another, form so many crystal palaces, by +casting on the walls a ray of intense heat which makes them melt. We +take good care to drain the water due to the liquefaction into one of +those bottomless pits which here and there yawn hideously beneath our +feet. Thanks to this method and the improvements it has undergone we +have succeeded in cutting, hewing and carving the solidified sea-water. +We are able to glide through it, to manoeuvre in it, to course through +it on skates or velocipedes with an ease and agility that are always +admired in spite of our being accustomed to it. The severe cold of these +regions is scarcely tempered by millions of electric lamps which are +mirrored in these emerald-green icicles with their velvet-like tints and +renders a permanent stay impossible. It would even prevent us crossing +them if, by good luck, the earliest pioneers had not discovered in them +crowds of seals which had been caught while still alive by the freezing +of the waters in which they remain imprisoned. Their carefully prepared +skins have furnished us with warm clothing. Nothing is more curious than +thus suddenly to catch sight of, as it were through a mysterious glass +case, one of these huge marine animals, sometimes a whale, a shark or a +devil fish, and that star-like flora which carpets the seas. Though +appearing crystallized in its transparent prison, in its Elysium of pure +brine, it has lost none of its secret charm, that was quite unknown to +our ancestors. Idealised by its very lack of motion, immortalised by its +death, it dimly shines here and there with gleams of pearl and mother of +pearl in the twilight of the depths below, to the right, the left, +beneath the feet or above the head of the solitary skater who roams with +his lamp on his forehead in pursuit of the unknown. There is always +something new to look forward to from these miraculous soundings, so +different from the soundings of former time. Never a tourist has come +home without having discovered some interesting object--a piece of +wreckage, the steeple of some sunken town, a human skeleton to enrich +our prehistoric museums, sometimes a shoal of sardines or cod. These +splendid and timely reserves come in very handy for replenishing our +bill of fare. But the chief fascination of such adventurous exploration +is the sense of the boundless and the everlasting, of the unfathomable +and the changeless by which one is arrested and overwhelmed in these +bottomless depths. The savour of this silence and solitude, of this +profound peace, the sequel to so many tempests, of this almost starless +gloaming and twilight with its fleeting gleams, reposes the eye after +our underground illuminations. I will not speak of the surprises which +the hand of man has lavished there. At the moment when one least expects +it one sees the submarine tunnel along which one is gliding, enlarged +beyond all measure and transformed into a vast hall in which the fancy +of our sculptors has found full play, a temple of vast dimensions with +transparent pillars, with walls of enthralling beauty that the eye in +ecstasy attempts to fathom. That is often the trysting place of friends +and lovers, and the excursion begun in dreamy loneliness is continued in +loving companionship. + +But we have wandered long enough in these halls of mysteries. Let us +return to our cities. One would look, by the bye, in vain for a city of +lawyers there, or even, for a court of justice. There is no more arable +land and therefore no more lawsuits about property or ancient rights. +There are no more walls, and therefore no more lawsuits about party +walls. As for felonies and misdemeanours, we do not know exactly why, +but it is an obvious fact that with the spread of the cult of art they +have disappeared as by enchantment, while formerly the progress of +industrial life had tripled their numbers in half a century. + +Man in becoming a town dweller has become really human. From the time +that all sorts of trees and beasts, of flowers and insects no longer +interpose between men, and all sorts of vulgar wants no longer hinder +the progress of the truly human faculties, every one seems to be born +well-bred, just as every one is born a sculptor or musician, philosopher +or poet, and speaks the most correct language with the purest accent. An +indescribable courtesy, skilled to charm without falsehood, to please +without obsequiousness, the most free from fawning one has ever seen, is +united to a politeness which has at heart the feeling, not of a social +hierarchy to be respected, but of a social harmony to be maintained. It +is composed not of more or less degenerate airs of the court, but of +more or less faithful reflections of the heart. Its refinement is such +as the race who lived on the surface of earth never even dreamed of. It +permeates like a fragrant oil all the complicated and delicate machinery +of our existence. No unsociableness, no misanthropy can resist it. The +charm is too profound. The single threat of ostracism, I do not say of +expulsion to the realms above, which would be a death sentence, but of +banishment beyond the limits of the usual corporate life, is sufficient +to arrest the most criminal natures on the slope of crime. There is in +the slightest inflexion of voice, in the least inclination of the head +of our women a special charm, which is not only the charm of former +times, whether roguish kindness or kindly roguishness, but a refinement +at once more exquisite and more healthful in which the constant practice +of seeing and doing beautiful things or loving and being loved is +expressed in an ineffable fashion. + + + + +VI + +LOVE + + +Love, in fact, is the unseen and perennial source of this novel +courtesy. The capital importance it has assumed, the strange forms it +has worn, the unexpected heights to which it has risen, are perhaps the +most significant characteristics of our civilisation. In the glittering +and superficial epochs, age of paper and electro-plating, which +immediately preceded our present era, love was held in check by a +thousand childish needs, by the contagious mono-mania of unsightly and +cumbersome luxury or of ceaseless globe-trotting, and by that other form +of madness which has now disappeared, the so-called political ambition. +It suffered accordingly an immense decline, relatively speaking. To-day +it benefits from the destruction or gradual diminution of all the other +principal impulses of the heart which have taken refuge and concentrated +themselves in it as banished mankind has done in the warm bosom of the +earth. Patriotism is dead, since there is no longer any native land, but +only a native grot. Moreover the guilds which we enter as we please +according to our vocations have taken the place of Fatherlands. +Corporate spirit has exterminated patriotism. In the same fashion the +school is on the road not to exterminate but to transform the family, +which is only right and proper. The best that can be said for the +parents of old was that they were compulsory and not always cost-free +friends. One was not wrong in preferring in general to them friends who +are a species of optional and unselfish relations. Maternal love itself +has undergone a good many transformations among our women artists, and +one must admit, sundry partial set backs. + +But love is left to us. Or rather, be it said without vanity, it is we +who discovered and introduced it. Its name has preceded it by a good +many centuries. Our ancestors gave it its name, but they spoke of it as +the Hebrews spoke of the Messiah. It has revealed itself in our day. In +our day it has become incarnate, it has founded the true religion, +universal and enduring, that pure and austere moral which is +indistinguishable from art. It has been favoured at the outset, beyond +all doubt and beyond all expectation by the charm and beauty of our +women, who are all differently yet almost equally accomplished. There is +nothing _natural_ left in our world below if it be not they. But it +appears they have always been the most beautiful thing in nature even in +the most unfavourable and ill-favoured ages. For we are assured that +never was the graceful curve of hill or stream, of wave or rippling +cornfield, that never was the hue of the dawn or of the Mediterranean +equal in sweetness, in strength, in richness of visible music and +harmony to the female form. There must therefore have been a special +instinct which is quite incomprehensible which formerly retained the +poor beside their natal river or rock and prevented their emigrating to +the big towns, where they might well have hoped to admire at their ease +tints and outlines of beauty assuredly far superior to the charm of the +locality to whose attractions they fell a victim. At present there is no +other country than the woman of one's affections; there is no other +home-sickness than that caused by her absence. + +But the foregoing is insufficient to explain the unparalleled power and +persistence of our love which time intensifies more than it wears out, +and consummates as it consumes it. Love, we now at last know, is like +air, essential to life; we must look to it for health and not for mere +nourishment. It is as the sun once was, we must use it to give us light, +not allow it to dazzle us. It resembles that imposing temple that the +fervour of our fathers raised in its honour when they worshipped it, +unwittingly, at the Paris Opera-house. The most beautiful part of it is +the staircase--when one mounts it. We have therefore attempted to make +the staircase monopolise the whole edifice without leaving the tiniest +room for the hall. The wise man, an ancient writer has said, is to the +woman what the asymptote is to the curve, it draws ever nearer but never +touches. It was a half crazy fellow named Rousseau who uttered this +splendid aphorism and our society flatters itself that it has practised +it far better than he. All the same the ideal thus outlined, we are +compelled to confess, is rarely attained in all its entity. This degree +of perfection is reserved for the most saintly souls, the ascetics, men +and women, who wander together, two and two, in the most marvellous +cloisters, in the most Raphaelesque cells in the city of painters, in a +sort of artificial dusk produced by a coloured twilight in the midst of +a throng of similar couples, and on the banks of a stream so to say of +audacious and splendid revelations of the nude. They pass their life in +feasting their eyes on these waves of beauty, the living bank of which +is their own passion. Together they climb the fiery steps of the +heavenly staircase to the very summit on which they halt. Then supremely +inspired they set to work and produce masterpieces. Heroic lovers are +they whose whole pleasure in love consists in the sublime joy of feeling +their love growing within them, blissful because it is shared, inspiring +because it is chaste. + +But for the greater number of us it has been necessary to come down to +the level of the insurmountable weakness of the old Adam. None the less +the inelastic limits of our food supplies have made it a duty for us +rigorously to guard against a possible excess in our population which +has reached to-day fifty millions, a figure it can never exceed without +danger. We have been obliged to forbid in general under the most severe +penalties a practice which apparently was very common and indulged in +_ad libitum_ by our forefathers. Is it possible that after manufacturing +the rubbish heaps of law with which our libraries are lumbered up, they +precisely omitted to regulate the only matter considered worthy to-day +of regulation? Can we conceive that it could ever have been permissible +to the first comer without due authorisation to expose society to the +arrival of a new hungry and wailing member--above all at a time when it +was not possible to kill a partridge without a game licence, or to +import a sack of corn without paying duty? Wiser and more far-sighted, +we degrade, and in case of a second offence we condemn to be thrown into +a lake of petroleum, whoever allows himself to infringe our +constitutional law on this point, or rather we should say, should allow +himself, for the force of public opinion has got the better of the crime +and has rendered our penalties unnecessary. We sometimes, nay very +often, see lovers who go mad from love and die in consequence. Others +courageously get themselves hoisted by a lift to the gaping mouth of an +extinct volcano and reach the outer air which in a moment freezes them +to death. They have scarcely time to regard the azure sky--a magnificent +spectacle, so they say--and the twilight hues of the still dying sun or +the vast and unstudied disorder of the stars; then locked in each +other's arms they fall dead upon the ice! The summit of their favourite +volcano is completely crowned with their corpses which are admirably +preserved always in twos, stark and livid, a living image still of love +and agony, of despair and frenzy, but more often of ecstatic repose. +They recently made an indelible impression on a celebrated traveller who +was bold enough to make the ascent in order to get a glimpse of them. We +all know how he has since died from the effects. + +But what is unheard of and unexampled in our day is for a woman in love +to abandon herself to her lover before the latter has under her +inspiration produced a masterpiece which is adjudged and proclaimed as +such by his rivals. For here we have the indispensable condition to +which legitimate marriage is subordinated. The right to have children is +the monopoly and supreme recompense of genius. It is besides a powerful +lever for the uplifting and exaltation of the race. Futhermore a man can +only exercise it exactly the same number of times as he produces works +worthy of a master. But in this respect some indulgence is shown. It +even happens pretty frequently that touched by pity for some grand +passion that disposes only of a mediocre talent, the affected admiration +of the public partly from sympathy and partly from condescension accords +a favourable verdict to works of no intrinsic value. Perhaps there are +also (in fact there is no doubt about it) for common use other methods +of getting round the law. + +Ancient society reposed on the fear of punishment, on a penal system +which has had its day. Ours, it is clear, is based on the expectation of +happiness. The enthusiasm and creative fire aroused by such a +perspective are attested by our exhibitions, and borne witness to by the +rich luxuriance of our annual art harvests. When we think of the +precisely opposite effects of ancient marriage, that institution of our +ancestors, more ridiculous still than their umbrellas, one can measure +the distance between this excessive and pretended exclusive _debitum +conjugale_ and our mode of union, at once free and regulated, energetic +and intermittent, passionate and restrained, the true corner-stone of +our regenerated humanity. The sufferings it imposes on those who are +sacrificed, the unsuccessful artists, is not for the latter a cause of +complaint. Their despair itself is dear to the desperate; for if they do +not die of it, they draw life and immortality from it and from the +bottomless pit of their inner depth of woe, they gather deathless +flowers, flowers of art or poesy for some, mystic roses for others. To +the latter perhaps is given at that moment, as they grope in their +inward darkness to touch most nearly the essence of things, and these +delights are so vivid that our artists and our metaphysical mystics +wonder whether art and philosophy were made to console love or if the +sole reason for love's existence is not to inspire art and the pursuit +of ultimate truth. This last opinion has generally prevailed. + +The extent to which love has refined our habits, and to which our +civilisation based on love is superior in morality to the former +civilisation based on ambition and covetousness, was proved at the time +of the great discovery which took place in the Year of Salvation 194. +Guided by some mysterious inkling, some electric sense of direction, a +bold sapper by dint of forcing his way through the flanks of the earth +beyond the ordinary galleries suddenly penetrated into a strange open +space buzzing with human voices and swarming with human faces. But what +squeaky voices! What sallow complexions! What an impossible language +with no connection with our Greek! It was, without doubt, a veritable +underground America, quite as vast and still more curious. It was the +work of a little tribe of burrowing Chinese who had had, one imagines, +the same idea as our Miltiades. Much more practical than he, they had +hastily crawled underground without encumbering themselves with museums +and libraries, and there they had multiplied enormously. Instead of +confining themselves as we to turning to account the deposits of animal +carcasses, they had shamelessly given themselves up to ancestral +cannibalism. They were thus enabled, seeing the thousand of millions of +Chinese destroyed and buried beneath the snow, to give full vent to +their prolific instincts. Alas! who knows if our own descendants will +not one day be reduced to this extremity? In what promiscuity, in what a +slough of greed, falsehood and robbery were these unfortunates living! +The words of our language refuse to depict their filth and coarseness. +With infinite pains they raised underground diminutive vegetables in +diminutive beds of soil they had brought thither together with +diminutive pigs and dogs.... These ancient servants of mankind appeared +very disgusting to our new Christopher Columbus. These degraded beings +(I speak of the masters and not of the animals, for the latter belong to +a breed that has been much improved by those who raised them) had lost +all recollection of the Middle Empire and even of the surface of the +earth. They heartily laughed when some of our _savants_ sent on a +mission to them spoke to them of the firmament, the sun, the moon and +the stars.... They listened, however, to the end of these accounts, then +in an ironical tone they asked our envoys: "Have you seen all that?" And +the latter unfortunately could not reply to the question, since no one +among us has seen the sky except the lovers who go to die together. + +Now, what did our settlers do at the sight of such cerebral atrophy? +Several proposed, it is true, to exterminate these savages who might +well become dangerous owing to their cunning and to their numbers, and +to appropriate their dwelling-place after a certain amount of cleaning +and painting and the removal of numerous little bells. Others proposed +to reduce them to the status of slaves or servants in order to shift on +to them all our menial work. But these two proposals were rejected. An +attempt was made to civilize and to render less savage these poor +cousins, and once the impossibility of any success in that direction had +been ascertained the partition was carefully blocked up. + + + + +VII + +THE ÆSTHETIC LIFE + + +Such is the moral miracle wrought by our excellence which itself is +begotten of love and beauty. But the intellectual marvels which have +issued from the same source, merit a still more extended notice. It will +be enough for me to indicate them as I go along. + +Let us first speak of the sciences. One might have thought that from the +day that the stars and celestial bodies, the faunas and floras, ceased +to play a certain part in our lives or that the manifold sources of +observation and experience ceased to flow, astronomy and meteorology +would henceforth be brought to a standstill while zoology and botany +would have become palæontology pure and simple, without speaking of +their application to the navy, army and agriculture, which are all +to-day entirely obsolete; in fact, that they would have ceased to make a +step forward and would have fallen into complete oblivion. Luckily these +apprehensions proved groundless. Let us admire the extent to which the +sciences which the past has bequeathed to us, formerly eminently useful +and inductive, have for the first time had the advantage of passionately +interesting and exciting the general public since they have acquired +this double characteristic of being an object of luxury and a deductive +subject. The past has accumulated such undigested masses of astronomical +tables, papers and proceedings dealing with measurements, vivisections, +and innumerable experiments, that the human mind can live on this +capital till the end of time. It was high time that it began at last to +arrange and utilize these materials. Now, for the sciences of which I am +speaking, the advantage is great from the point of view of their success +that they are entirely based on written testimony, and in no way on +sense perception, and that they on all occasions invoke the authority of +books (for we talk to-day of whole bibliographies when formerly people +spoke of a single Bible--evidently an immense difference). This great +and inestimable advantage consists in the extraordinary riches of our +libraries in documents of the most diverse kinds which never leaves an +ingenious theorist in the lurch, and is equal to supporting in a plenary +and authoritative fashion the most contradictory opinions at one and the +same symposium. Its abundance recalls the admirable wealth of antique +legislation and jurisprudence in texts and decisions of every hue which +rendered the lawsuits so interesting, almost as much as the battles of +the populace of Alexandria on the subject of a theological iota. The +debates of our _savants_, their polemics relative to the Vitellin yolk +of the egg of the Arachneida, or the digestive apparatus of the +Infusoria, constitute the burning questions which distress us, and which +if we had the misfortune to possess a regular press, would not fail to +drench our streets in gore. For the questions which are useless and even +harmful have always the knack of rousing the passions, provided they are +insoluble. + +These are our religious quarrels. In fact the sum total of the sciences +bequeathed to us by the past has become definitely and inevitably a +religion. Our _savants_ to-day who work deductively on these data from +henceforth changeless and inviolate, exactly recall on a much larger +scale the theologians of the ancient world. This new encyclopædic +theology, not less fertile than others in schisms and heresies, is the +unique but inexhaustible source of divisions in the bosom of our Church +which is otherwise so compact. It is perhaps the most profound and +fascinating charm of our intellectual leaders. + +"All the same, they are dead sciences!" say certain malcontents. Let us +accept the epithet. They are dead, if one likes, but after the fashion +of those languages in which a whole people chanted its hymns although no +one speaks them any longer. This is also the case with certain faces +whose beauty only appears in its fulness when their last sleep has come. +Let none therefore be surprised if our love fastens on these majestic +dogmas, by which we are more and more overshadowed, on these higher +inutilities which are our vocation. Above all, mathematics, as being the +most perfect type of the new sciences, has progressed with giant steps. +Descending to fabulous depths, analysis has allowed the astronomers at +length to attack and to solve problems whose mere statement would have +provoked an incredulous smile in their predecessors. And so they +discover every day, chalk in hand, not with the telescope to the eye, I +know not how many intra-mercurial or extra-neptunian planets, and begin +to distinguish the planets of the nearer stars. There are in this +department, in the comparative anatomy and physiology of numerous solar +systems, the most novel and profound views. Our Leverriers are reckoned +by hundreds. Being all the better acquainted with the sky because they +no longer see it, they resemble Beethoven, who only wrote his finest +symphonies when he had lost his hearing. Our Claude Bernards and +Pasteurs are almost as numerous. Although we are careful as a matter of +fact not to accord to the natural sciences the exaggerated and +fundamentally anti-social importance they formerly usurped during two or +three centuries, we do not completely neglect them. Even the applied +sciences have their votaries. Recently one of the latter has at last +discovered--such is the irony of destiny--the practical means of +steering balloons. These discoveries are useless, I admit, yet are ever +beautiful and fertile, fertile in new, if superfluous, beauties. They +are welcomed with transports of feverish enthusiasm and win for their +originators something better than glory,--the happiness that we know so +well. + +But among the sciences there are two which are still experimental and +inductive and in addition pre-eminently useful. It is to this +exceptional standing that they perhaps owe, we must admit, the +unparalled rapidity with which they have grown. These two sciences which +were formerly the antipodes of one another, are to-day on the high road +to becoming identical by dint of pushing their joint researches ever +deeper and crushing to atoms the last problems left. Their names are +chemistry and psychology. + +Our chemists, inspired perhaps by love and better instructed in the +nature of affinities, force their way into the inner life of the +molecules and reveal to us their desires, their ideas, and under a +fallacious air of conformity, their individual physiognomy. While they +thus construct for us the psychology of the atom, our psychologists +explain to us the atomic theory of self, I was going to say the +sociology of self. They enable us to perceive, even in its most minute +detail, the most admirable of all societies, this hierarchy of +consciousness, this feudal system of vassal souls, of which our +personality is the summit. We are indebted to them both for priceless +benefits. Thanks to the former we are no longer alone in a frozen world. +We are conscious that these rocks are alive and animated, we are +conscious that these hard metals which protect and warm us are likewise +a prolific brotherhood. Through their mediation these living stones have +some message for our heart, something at once alien and intimate, which +neither the stars nor the flowers of the field ever told to our +forefathers. And by their mediation also, and the service is not to be +despised--we have learnt certain processes which allow us (in a scanty +measure, it is true, for the moment) to supplement the insufficiency of +our ordinary food supplies, or to vary their monotony by several +substances agreeable to the taste and entirely compounded by artificial +means. But if our chemists have thus reassured us against the danger of +dying of hunger, our psychologists have acquired still further claims on +our gratitude in freeing us from the fear of death. Permeated by their +doctrines we have followed their consequences to their final conclusion +with the deductive vigour that is second nature with us. Death appears +to us as a dethronement that leads to freedom. It restores to itself the +fallen or abdicated self that retires anew into its inner consciousness, +where it finds in depths more than the equivalent of the outward empire +it has lost. In thinking of the terrors of former man, face to face with +the tomb, we compare them with the dread experienced by the comrades of +Miltiades when they were compelled to bid adieu to the fields of ice, to +the snowy horizons, in order to enter for ever the gloomy abysses in +which such a myriad of glittering and marvellous surprises awaited them. + +That is a well-established doctrine and one on which no discussion would +be tolerated. It is, with our devotion to beauty and our faith in the +divine omnipotence of love, the foundation of our peace of mind and the +starting point of our enthusiasms. Our philosophers themselves avoid +touching on it, as on all which is fundamental in our institutions. To +this perhaps may be traced an agreeable air of harmlessness which adds +to the charm of their refinement and contributes to their success in +public. With such certainties as ballast we can spring with a light +heart into the æther of systems, and so we do not fail to do so. One may +be surprised, however, that I made a distinction between our +philosophers and those deductive _savants_ of whom I have spoken above. +Their subject-matter and their methods are identical. They chew the +cud--if I may be allowed the expression--in the same fashion at the same +mangers. But the one group, I mean the _savants_, are ordinary +ruminants, that is, slow and clumsy. The others have the peculiar +quality of being at once ruminants and nimble, like the antelope. And +this difference of temperament is indelible. + +There is not, I have already said, a city, but there is a grotto of +philosophers, a natural one to which they come, and sit apart from one +another or in groups, according to their schools, on chairs formed of +granite blocks beside a petrifying well. This spacious grotto contains +astounding stalactites, the slow product of continuous droppings which +vaguely imitate, in the eyes of those who are not too critical, all +kinds of beautiful objects, cups and chandeliers, cathedrals and +mirrors--cups which quench no man's thirst, chandeliers which give no +light, cathedrals in which no one prays, but mirrors in which one sees +oneself more or less faithfully and pleasantly portrayed. There also is +to be seen a gloomy and bottomless lake over which hang like so many +question-marks, the pendants in the sombre roof and the beards of the +thinkers. Such is the ample cave which is exactly identical to the +philosophy it shelters, with its crystals sparkling amid its uncertain +shadows--full of precipices, it is true. It recalls better than anything +else to the new race of men, but with a still greater portion of +mirage-like fascination, that diurnal miracle of our forefathers--the +starry night. Now the crowd of systematic ideas which slowly form and +crystallise there in each brain like mental stalactites is indescribably +enormous. While all the former stalactites of thought are for ever +ramifying and changing their shape, turning as it were from a table into +an altar, or from an eagle into a griffin, new ideas appear here and +there still more surprising. There are always, of course, +Neo-Aristotelians, Neo-Kantians, Neo-Cartesians, and Neo-Pythagoricians. +Let us not forget the commentators of Empedocles to whom his passion for +the volcanic underworld has procured an unexpected rejuvenation of his +antique authority on the minds of men, above all since an archæologist +has maintained he has found the skeleton of this grand man in pushing an +exploring gallery to the very foot of Ætna which to-day is completely +extinct. But there is ever arising some great reformer with an +unpublished gospel that each attempts to enrich with a new version +destined to take its place. I will cite for example the greatest +intellect of our time, the chief of the fashionable school in sociology. +According to this profound thinker the social development of humanity, +starting on the outer rind of the earth and continuing to-day beneath +its crust, at no great distance from the surface, is destined in +proportion to the growing solar and planetary cooling, to pursue its +course from strata to strata down to the very centre of the earth, while +the population forcibly contracts and civilisation on the contrary +expands at each new descent. It is worth seeing the vigour and +Dante-like precision with which he characterises the social type +peculiar to each of these humanities, immured within its own circle, +growing ever nobler and richer, happier and better balanced. One should +read the portrait which he has limned with a bold brush of the last man, +sole survivor and heir of a hundred successive civilisations, left to +himself yet self-sufficient in the midst of his immense stores of +science and art. He is happy as a god because he is omniscient and +omnipotent, because he has just discovered the true answer of the Great +Enigma, yet dying because he cannot survive humanity. By means of an +explosive substance of extraordinary potency he blows up the globe with +himself in order to sow the immensity of space with the last remnants of +mankind. This system very naturally has a good many adherents. The +graceful Hypatias, however, who form his female followers, idly lying +round the master's stone, are agreed it would be proper to associate +with the last man, the last woman, not less ideal than he. + +But what shall I say of art and poetry? Here to be just, praise must +become panegyric. Let us limit ourselves to indicating the general +tendency of the transformations that have taken place. I have related +what has become of our architecture which has been turned "outside in", +so to say, and brought into keeping with its surroundings, the idealised +image in stone, the essence and consummation of former Nature. I shall +not return to the subject. But I must still say a word about this +immortal and overflowing population of statues, this wealth of frescoes, +enamels, and bronzes which in concert with our poetry celebrate in this +architectural transfiguration of the nether world the apotheosis of +love. There would be an interesting study to make on the gradual +metamorphoses that the genius of our painters and sculptors has imposed +for the last three centuries on these traditional types of lions, +horses, tigers, birds, trees and flowers, with which it is never weary +of disporting itself, without being either helped or hindered by the +sight of any animal or any plant. Never, in fact, have our artists, who +protest strongly against being taken for photographers, depicted so many +plants, animals and landscapes, than since these were no more. +Similarly, they have never painted or sculptured so many draperies, +since everyone goes about almost naked, while formerly at the time when +humanity wore clothes the nude abounded in art. Does it mean that +nature, now dead and formerly alive, from which our great masters drew +their subjects and themes, has become a simple hieroglyphic and coldly +conventional alphabet? No. Daughter to-day of tradition and no longer of +productive nature, humanised and harmonised, she has a still firmer hold +on the heart. If she recalls to each his day-dreams rather than his +recollections, his imaginings rather than his impressions, his +admiration as an artist rather than his terror as a child, she is only +the better calculated to fascinate and subdue. She has for us the +profound and intimate charm of an old legend, but it is a legend in +which one believes. + +Nothing is more inspiring. Such must have been the mythology of the +worthy Homer when his hearers in the Cyclades still believed in +Aphrodite and Pallas, in the Dioscuri and the Centaurs, of whom he spoke +to them and wrung from them tears of sheer delight. Thus our poets make +us weep, when they speak to us now of azure skies, of the sea-girt +horizon, of the perfume of roses, of the song of birds, of all those +objects that our eye has never seen, our ear has never heard, of which +all our senses are ignorant, yet our mind conjures them up within us by +a strange instinct at the least suggestion of love. + +And when our painters show us these horses whose legs grow ever slimmer, +these swans whose necks become ever rounder and longer, these vines +whose leaves and branches grow ever more intricate with their lace-like +edges and arabesques interwoven round still more exquisite birds, a +matchless emotion rises within us such as a young Greek might have felt +before a bas-relief crowded with fauns and nymphs or with Argonautes +bearing off the Golden Fleece, or with Nereids sporting around the cup +of Amphitrite. + +If our architecture in spite of all its splendours seems but a simple +foil of our other fine arts, they in their turn, however admirable, have +the air of being barely worthy to illustrate our poetry and literature +graven on stone. But in our poetry and even in our literature there are +glories which in comparison with less obvious beauty are as the corona +is to the ovary, or the frame to the picture. Read our romantic dramas +and epics in which all ancient history is magically unrolled down to the +heroic struggle and love story of Miltiades. You will decide that +nothing more sublime could ever be written. Read also our idylls, our +elegies, our epigrams inspired by antiquity, and our poetry of every +kind written in a dozen dead languages which when desired revive in +order to vivify with their clear notes and their manifold harmonies, the +pleasure of our ear, to accompany, so to say, with their rich +orchestration in English, German, Swedish, Arabic, Italian and French, +the music of our pure Attic. You will imagine nothing more fascinating +than this renaissance and transfiguration of forgotten idioms, once the +glory of antiquity. As for our dramas and our poems which are often at +once the collective and individual work of a school, incarnate in its +chief and animated with a single idea like the sculptures of the +Parthenon, there is nothing comparable in the masterpieces of Sophocles +or Homer. What the extinct species of nature formerly alive are to our +painters and sculptors, the no less extinct sentiments of former human +nature are to our dramatists. Jealousy, ambition, patriotism, +fanaticism, the mad lust of battle, the exalted love of family, the +pride of an illustrious name, all the vanished passions of the heart +when called up upon the stage, no longer cause tears or terror in a +single soul, any more than the heraldic tigers and lions painted up on +our public squares frighten our children. But in a new accent with quite +a different ring, they speak to us their ancient language; and to tell +the truth, they are only a grand piano on which our new passions play. +Now there is but a single passion for all its thousand names, as there +is above but a single sun. It is love, the soul of our soul and source +of our art. That is the true sun which will never fail us, which is +never weary of touching and reanimating with the light of its +countenance its lower creations of yore, the first-born incarnations of +the heart, in order to make them young once more, in order to re-gild +them with its dawns, and reincarnadine them with its setting splendours; +almost in the same fashion as it sufficed the other sun to compass with +a single ray that august summons to deck the earth, addressed to every +ancient plant of the field, awakening it to bloom anew, that grand +yearly transformation scene, so deceptive and entrancing, which they +named the Spring, when there was still a Spring to name! + +And so for our highly refined writers, all that I have just praised a +moment ago has no value if their heart is left untouched. They would +give for one true and personal note all these feats of skill and sleight +of hand. What they look for under the most grandiose conceptions and +stage effects, and under the most audacious novelties in rhyme; what +they adore on bended knee when they have found it, is a short passage, a +line, half a line, on which an imperceptible hint of profound passion, +or the most fleeting phase, though unexpressed, of love in joy, in +suffering or in death has left its impress. Thus at the beginning of +humanity each tint of the dawn or the dusk, each hour of the day was, +for the first man who gave it a name, a new solar god who soon possessed +worshippers, priests and temples of his own. But to analyse sensations +after the manner of the old-fashioned erotic writers gives us no +trouble. The real difficulty and merit lie in gathering along with our +mystics, from the lowest depths of sorrow, its flowers of ecstasy, the +pearls and coral that lie at the bottom of its sea, and to enrich the +soul in its own eyes. Our purest poetry thus joins hands with our most +profound psychology. One is the oracle, the other the dogma of one and +the same religion. + +And yet is it credible? In spite of its beauty, harmony and incomparable +charm, our society has also its malcontents. There are here and there +certain recusants who declare they are soaked and saturated with the +essence, so remarkably pure and so much above proof, of our excessive +and compulsory society. They find our realm of beauty too static, our +atmosphere of happiness too tranquil. In vain to please them we vary +from time to time the intensity and colouring of our illuminations and +ventilate our colonnades with a kind of refreshing breeze. They persist +in condemning as monotonous our day devoid of clouds or night; our year, +devoid of seasons; our towns devoid of country-life. Very curiously when +the month of May comes round, this feeling of restlessness which they +alone experience at ordinary times, becomes contagious and well-nigh +general. And so it is the most melancholy and least busy month of the +year. One would say that the Spring driven from every place, from the +gloomy immensity of the heavens and from the frozen surface of the earth +has, as we, sought refuge under ground; or rather that her wandering +ghost returns at stated seasons to visit us and tantalise us by her +haunting presence. It is then that the city of the musicians grows full +and their music becomes so sweet, pathetic, mournful, and desperately +harrowing that we see lovers by hundreds at a time take each other by +the hand and go up to gaze upon the death-dealing sky.... In reference +to this I ought to say that there was recently a false alarm caused by a +madman who pretended he had seen the sun coming back to life and melting +the ice. At this news which had not been otherwise confirmed, quite a +considerable portion of the population became unsettled and gave itself +up to the pleasing task of forming plans for an early exodus. Such +unhealthy and revolutionary dreams evidently only serve to foment +artificial discontent. + +Luckily a scholar in rummaging in a forgotten corner of the archives put +his hand on a big collection of phonographic and cinematographic records +which had been amassed by an ancient collector. Interpreted by the +phonograph and cinematograph together, these cylinders and films have +enabled us suddenly to hear all the former sounds in nature accompanied +by their corresponding sights, the thunder, the winds, the mountain +torrents, the murmurs that accompany the dawn, the monotonous cry of the +osprey and the long drawn out lament of the nightingale amid the +manifold whisperings of night. At this resurrection of another age to +the ear and eye, of extinct species and vanished phenomena, an immense +astonishment quickly followed by an immense disillusion arose among the +most ardent partisans of a return to the ancient regime. For that was +not what one had hitherto believed on the strength of what even the most +realist poets and novelists had told us. It was something infinitely +less ravishing and less worthy of our regret. The song of the +nightingale above all provoked a most unpleasant surprise. We were all +angry with it for showing itself so inferior to its reputation. +Assuredly the worst of our concerts is more musical than this so-called +symphony of nature with full orchestral accompaniment. + +Thus has been quelled by an ingenious expedient entirely unknown to +former governments, this first and only attempt at rebellion. May it be +the last. A certain leaven of discord is beginning, alas, to contaminate +our ranks, and our moralists observe not without apprehension sundry +symptoms which indicate the relaxation of our morals. The growth in our +population is very disquieting, notably since certain chemical +discoveries, following upon which we have been too much in a hurry to +declare that bread might be made of stones, and that it was no longer +worth while to husband our food supplies or to trouble ourselves to +maintain at a certain limit the number of mouths to feed. + +Simultaneously with the increase in the number of children, there is a +diminution in the number of masterpieces. Let us hope that this +lamentable movement will soon abate. If the sun once more, as after the +different glacial epochs, succeeds in awakening from his lethargy and +regains fresh strength, let us pray that only a small part of our +population, that which is the most light-headed, the most unruly, and +the most deeply attacked by incurable "matrimonialitis", will avail +itself of the seeming yet deceptive advantages offered by this open air +cure and will make a dash upwards for the freedom of those inclement +climes! But this is highly improbable if one reflects on the advanced +age of the sun and the danger of those relapses common to old age. It is +still less desirable. Let us repeat in the words of Miltiades our august +ancestor, blessed are those stars which are extinct, that is to say, the +almost entire number of those which people space. Radiance, as he truly +said, is to the stars what the flowering season is to the plants. After +having flowered, they begin to bear fruit. Thus, doubtless, weary of +expansion and the useless squandering of their strength through the +infinite void, the stars collect the germs of higher life in order to +fertilize them in the depth of their bosom. The deceptive brilliancy of +these widely scattered stars, so relatively few in number, which are +still alight, which have not finished sowing what Miltiades called their +wild oats of light and heat, prevented the first race of men from +thinking of this, to wit of the numberless and tranquil multitude of +dark stars to whom this radiance served as a cloak. But as for us, +delivered from their spell and freed from this immemorial optical +delusion, we continue firmly to believe that, among the stars as among +mankind, the most brilliant are not the best, and that the same causes +have brought about elsewhere the same results, compelling other races of +men to hide themselves in the bosom of their earth, and there in peace +to pursue the happy course of their destiny under unique conditions of +absolute independence and purity, that in short in the heavens as on the +earth true happiness lives concealed. + + + + +NOTE ON TARDE + + +Gabriel Tarde was originally a member of the legal profession. For a +long time he was examining magistrate at Sarlat. His works on sociology +and criminology revealed him to the public. He was appointed head of the +Statistical bureau at the Ministry of Justice, a post in which he was +able to obtain first hand the most precious documents for his social +studies. Later he was elected to the chair of modern philosophy at the +College of France, then he was elected member of the Academy of moral +and political sciences in the philosophical section. He died in 1904. + +Tarde wrote a great deal. His flexibility of spirit and style add charm +to his work on technical subjects. In criminology his principal works +are: "The Philosophy of Punishment", "The Professional Criminal", +"Comparative Criminality" (1898);--then come the political works, such +as "The Transformation of Power" (1899). His "Transformation of Law" +dates from 1894. His study in social psychology entitled "Opinion and +the Masses" appeared in 1901. His most celebrated work is perhaps "The +Laws of Imitation" (1900) which was preceded by his "Social Logic" +(1898) and his "Universal Opposition" (1897). + +According to Tarde the social phenomena proceed from individual +inventions which in their turn are the offspring of imitation: the +latter is for Tarde a capital factor in social life. Original ideas or +inventions germinate ceaselessly in the social _milieu_, but only some, +either by their superior adaptability or through the peculiar authority +of their inventor, are accepted by the public as a whole. Sociology is +thus reduced to a Psychology of the _processus_ of invention and +imitations. This explains why the great effort of Tarde has been to +discover the "Laws of Invention". Thereby he has given in sociology a +preponderating place to the individual, and the accidental, and has thus +separated himself from the most general tendencies of thought in our +times which are those of Comte. + +The style of Tarde is abstract but supple. This fragment of future +History forms a kind of exception to his general work which is very +abstract. Tarde reveals himself in it one of the masters of literary +French. The style is picturesque, intense, broad, even periodic, novel +in respect to the thought, and entirely classical in its purity. + +Joseph Manchon. +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 33549 *** diff --git a/33549-h/33549-h.htm b/33549-h/33549-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4bcf78f --- /dev/null +++ b/33549-h/33549-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2579 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Underground Man, by Gabriel Tarde. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + background-color: #FAEBD7; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + + + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + + + + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 33549 ***</div> + +<h1>UNDERGROUND MAN</h1> + +<h3>By</h3> + +<h2>GABRIEL TARDE</h2> + +<h3>(1843-1904)</h3> + +<h4>MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE<br /> +PROFESSOR AT THE COLLEGE OF FRANCE</h4> + +<h4>TRANSLATED BY<br /> +CLOUDESLEY BRERETON<br /> +M.A., L. ÈS L.</h4> + +<h4>WITH A PREFACE +BY H.G. WELLS</h4> + +<h4>LONDON</h4> + +<h4>DUCKWORTH & CO.</h4> + + +<h4>1905</h4> + + + +<p class="caption">The whole of Tarde is in this little book.</p> + +<p>He has put into it along with a charming fancy his genialness and depth +of spirit, his ideas on the influence of art and the importance of love, +in an exceptional social milieu.</p> + +<p>This agreeable day-dream is vigorously thought out. On reading it we +fancy we are again seeing and hearing Tarde. In order to indulge in a +repetition of the illusion, a pious friendship has desired to clothe +this fascinating work in an appropriate dress.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 27.5em;">A.L.</span></p> + + + +<p class="caption">CONTENTS</p> + + +<p>DEDICATION<br /> +PREFACE By H.G. WELLS<br /> +<a href="#INTRODUCTORY">INTRODUCTORY</a><br /> +<a href="#I">I.</a> PROSPERITY<br /> +<a href="#II">II.</a> THE CATASTROPHE<br /> +<a href="#III">III.</a> THE STRUGGLE<br /> +<a href="#IV">IV.</a> SAVED<br /> +<a href="#V">V.</a> REGENERATION<br /> +<a href="#VI">VI.</a> LOVE<br /> +<a href="#VII">VII.</a> THE ÆSTHETIC LIFE<br /> +<a href="#NOTE_ON_TARDE">NOTE</a> ON TARDE By JOSEPH MANCHON</p> + + + +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + + +<p>It reflects not at all on Mr Cloudesley Brereton's admirable work of +translation to remark how subtly the spirit of such work as this of M. +Tarde's changes in such a process. There are certain things peculiar, I +suppose, to every language in the world, certain distinctive +possibilities in each. To French far more than to English, belong the +intellectual liveliness, the cheerful, ironical note, the professorial +playfulness of this present work. English is a less nimble, more various +and moodier tongue, not only in the sound and form of its sentences but +in its forms of thought. It clots and coagulates, it proliferates and +darkens, one jests in it with difficulty and great danger to a sober +reputation, and one attempts in vain to figure Professor Giddings and Mr +Benjamin Kidd, Doctor Beattie Crozier and Mr Wordsworth Donisthorpe +glittering out into any so cheerful an exploit as this before us. Like +Mr Gilbert's elderly naval man, they "never larks nor plays", and if +indeed they did so far triumph over the turgid intricacies of our speech +and the conscientious gravity of our style of thought, there would still +be the English public to consider, a public easily offended by any lack +of straightforwardness in its humorists, preferring to be amused by +known and recognised specialists in that line, in relation to themes of +recognised humorous tendency, and requiring in its professors as the +concomitant of a certain dignified inaccessibility of thought and +language, an honourable abstinence from the treacheries, as it would +consider them, of irony and satire. Imagine a Story of the Future from +Mr Herbert Spencer! America and the north of England would have swept +him out of all respect.... But M. Tarde being not only a Member of the +Institute and Professor at the College of France, but a Frenchman, was +free to give these fancies that entertained him, public, literary, and +witty expression, without self-destruction, and produce what has, in its +English dress, a curiously unfamiliar effect. Yet the English reader who +can overcome his natural disinclination to this union of intelligence +and jesting will find a vast amount of suggestion in M. Tarde's +fantastic abundance, and bringing his habitual gravity to bear may even +succeed in digesting off the humour altogether, and emerging with +edification of—it must be admitted—a rather miscellaneous sort.</p> + +<p>It is perhaps remarkable that for so many people, so tremendous a theme +as the material future of mankind should only be approachable either +through a method of conscientiously technical, pseudo-scientific +discussion that is in effect scarcely an approach at all or else in this +mood of levity. I know of no book in this direction that can claim to be +a permanent success which combines a tolerable intelligibility with a +simple good faith in the reader. One may speculate how this comes about? +The subject it would seem is so grave and great as to be incompatibly +out of proportion to the affairs and conditions of the individual life +about which our workaday thinking goes on. We are interested indeed, but +at the same time we feel it is outside us and beyond us. To turn one's +attention to it is at once to get an effect of presumption, strain, and +extravagant absurdity. It is like picking up a spade to attack a +mountain, and one's instinct is to put oneself right in the eyes of +one's fellow-men at once, by a few unmistakably facetious flourishes. It +is the same instinct really as that protective "foolery" in which +schoolboys indulge when they embark upon some hopeless undertaking, or +find themselves entirely outclassed at a game.</p> + +<p>The same instinct one finds in the facetious "parley vous Francey" of a +low class Englishman who would in secret like very much to speak French, +but in practice only admits such an idea as a laughable absurdity. To +give a concrete form to your sociological speculations is to strip them +of all their poor pretensions, and leave them shivering in palpable +inadequacy. It is not because the question is unimportant, but because +it is so overwhelmingly important that this jesting about the Future, +this fantastic and "ironical" fiction goes on. It is the only medium to +express the vague, ill-formed, new ideas with which we are all +labouring. It does not give any measure of our real sense of the +proportion of things that the Future should appear in our literature as +a sort of comic rally and harlequinade after the serious drama of the +Present—in which the heroes and heroines of the latter turn up again in +novel and undignified positions; but it seems to be the only method at +present available by which we may talk about our race's material Destiny +at all.</p> + +<p>M. Tarde, in this special case before us, pursues a course of elusive +ironies; sometimes he jests at contemporary ideas by imagining them in +burlesque realisation, sometimes he jests at contemporary facts by +transposing them into strange surroundings, sometimes he broaches +fancies of his own chiefly for their own sake, yet with the well-managed +literary equivalent of the palliating laugh of conversational +diffidence. It is interesting to remark upon the clearness, the French +reasonableness and order of his conceptions throughout. He thinks, as +the French seem always to think, in terms of a humanity at once more +lucid and more limited than the mankind with which we English have to +deal. There are no lapses, no fogs and mysteries, no total inadequacies, +no brutalities and left-handedness—and no dark gleams of the divinity, +about these amused bright people of five hundred years ahead, who are +overtaken by the great solar catastrophe. They have established a world +state and eliminated the ugly and feeble. You imagine the gentlemen in +that Utopia moving gracefully—with beautifully trimmed nails and +beards—about the most elegant and ravishing of ladies, their charm +greatly enhanced by the <i>pince-nez</i>, that is in universal wear. They all +speak not Esperanto—but Greek, which strikes one as a little out of the +picture—and all being more or less wealthy and pretty women and +handsome men, "as common as blackberries" and as available, "human +desire rushed with all its might towards the only field that remained +open to it",—politics. From that it was presently turned back again by +a certain philosophical financier, who, most delightfully, secured his +work for ever, as the reader may learn in detail, by erecting a statue +of Louis Philippe in wrought aluminium against any return of the +flood—and then what remained? The most brilliant efflorescence of +poetry and art!</p> + +<p>One does not quite know how far M. Tarde is in this first part of his +story jesting at his common countrymen's precisions and finalities and +unenterprising, exact arrangements, and how far he is sharing them. +Throughout he seems to assume that men can really make finished plans, +and carry them out, and settle things for ever, and so assure us this +state of elegant promenading among the arts, whereas the whole charm and +interest of making plans and carrying out, lies to the more typical kind +of Englishman, in his ineradicable, his innate, instinctive conviction, +that he will, try as he may, never carry them out at all, but something +else adventurously and happily unexpected and different. M. Tarde gives +his world the unexpected, but it comes, not insidiously as a unique +difference in every individual and item concerned, but from without. +Just as Humanity, handsome and charming, has grouped itself pleasantly, +rationally, and in the best of taste for ever in its studios, in its +<i>salons</i>, at its little green tables, at its <i>tables d'hôte</i>, in its +<i>cabinets particuliers</i>—the sun goes out!</p> + +<p>In the idea of that solar extinction there are extraordinary imaginative +possibilities, and M. Tarde must have exercised considerable restraint +to prevent their running away with him and so jarring with the ironical +lightness of his earlier passages. The conception of the sun seized in a +mysterious, chill grip and flickering from hue to hue in the skies of a +darkened, amazed and terrified world, could be presented in images of +stupendous majesty and splendour. There arise visions of darkened cities +and indistinct, multitudinous, fleeing crowds, of wide country-sides of +chill dismay, of beasts silent with the fear of this last eclipse, and +bats and night-birds abroad amidst the lost daylight creatures and +fluttering perplexed on noiseless wings. Then the abrupt sight of the +countless stars made visible by this great abdication, the thickening of +the sky to stormy masses of cloud so that these are hidden again, the +soughing of a world-wide wind, and then first little flakes and then the +drift and driving of the multiplying snow into the dim illumination of +lamps, of windows, of street lights lit untimely. Then again, the shiver +of the cold, the clutching of hands at coats and wraps, the blind +hurrying to shelter and the comfort of a fire—the blaze of fires. One +sees the red-lit faces about the fires, sees the furtive glances at the +wind-tormented windows, hears the furious knocking of those other +strangers barred out, for, "we cannot have everyone in here". The +darkness deepens, the cries without die away, and nothing is left but +the shift and falling of the incessant snow from roof to ground. Every +now and then the disjointed talk would cease altogether, and in the +stillness one would hear the faint yet insistent creeping sound of the +snowfall. "There is a little food downstairs," one would say. "The +servants must not eat it.... We had better lock it upstairs. We may be +here—for days." Grim stuff, indeed, one might make of it all, if one +dealt with it in realistic fashion, and great and increasing toil one +would find to carry on the tale. M. Tarde was well advised to let his +hand pass lightly over this episode, to give us a simply pyrotechnic +effect of red, yellow, green and pale blue, to let his people flee and +die like marionettes beneath the paper snows of a shop window dressed +for Christmas, and to emerge after the change with his urbanity +unimpaired. His apt jest at the endurance of artists' models, his easy +allusion to the hardening effects of fashionable decolletage, is the +measure of his dexterous success; his mention of hotel furniture on the +terminal moraines of the returning Alpine glaciers, just a happy touch +of that flavouring of reality which in abundance would have altogether +overwhelmed his purpose.</p> + +<p>Directly one thinks at all seriously of such a thing as this solar +extinction, one perceives how preposterously hopeless it is to imagine +that mankind would make any head against so swift and absolute a fate. +Our race would behave just as any single man behaves when death takes +him suddenly through some cardiac failure. It would feel very queer, it +would want to sit down and alleviate its strange discomfort, it would +say something stupid or inarticulate, make an odd gesture or so, and +flicker out. But it is compatible with the fantastic and ironical style +for M. Tarde to mock our conceit in our race's capacity and pretend men +did all sorts of organized and wholesale things quite beyond their +capabilities. People flee in "hordes" to Arabia Petræa and the Sahara, +and there perform prodigies of resistance. There arises the heroic +leader and preserver, Miltiades, who preaches Neo-troglodytism and loves +the peerless Lydia, and leads the remnant of humanity underground. So M. +Tarde arrives at the idea he is most concerned in developing, the idea +of an introverted world, and people following the dwindling heat of the +interior, generation after generation, through gallery and tunnel to the +core. About that conception he weaves the finest and richest and most +suggestive of his fantastic filaments.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the best sustained thread in this admirably entertaining tissue +is the entire satisfaction of the imaginary historian at the new +conditions of life. The earth is made into an interminable honeycomb, +all other forms of life than man are eliminated, and our race has +developed into a community sustained at a high level of happiness and +satisfaction by a constant resort to "social tonics". Half mockingly, +half approvingly, M. Tarde here indicates a new conception of human +intercourse and criticises with a richly suggestive detachment, the +social relationships of to-day. He moves indicatively and lightly over +deeps of human possibility; it is in these later passages that our +author is essentially found. One may regret he did not further expand +his happy opportunity of treating all the social types to-day as ice +embedded fossils, his comments on the peasant and artisan are so fine as +to provoke the appetite. He rejects the proposition that "society +consists in an exchange of services" with the confidence of a man who +has thought it finely out. He gives out clearly what so many of us are +beginning dimly perhaps to apprehend, that "society consists in the +exchange of reflections". The passages subsequent to this pronouncement +will be the seed of many interesting developments in any mind +sufficiently attuned to his. They constitute the body, the serious +reality to which all the rest of this little book is so much dress, +adornment and concealment. Very many of us, I believe, are dreaming of +the possibility of human groupings based on interest and a common +creative impulse rather than on justice and a trade in help and +services; and I do not scruple therefore to put my heavy underline and +marginal note to M. Tarde's most intimate moment. A page or so further +on he is back below his ironical mask again, jesting at the "tribe of +sociologists"—the most unsociable of mankind. Thereafter jest, +picturesque suggestion, fantasy, philosophical whim, alternate in a +continuously delightful fashion to the end—but always with the gleam of +a definite intention coming and going within sight of the surface—and +one ends at last a half convinced Neo-troglodyte, invaded by a passion +of intellectual regret for the varied interests of that inaccessible +world and its irradiating love. The description of the development of +science, and particularly of troglodytic astronomy, robbed of its +material, is a delightful freak of intellectual fantasy, and the +philosophical dream of the slow concentration of human life into the +final form of a single culminating omniscient, and therefore a +completely retrospective and anticipatory being, a being that is, that +has cast aside the time garment, is one of these suggestions that have +at once something penetratingly plausible, and a sort of colossal and +absurd monstrosity. If I may be forgiven a personal intrusion at this +point, there is a singular parallelism between this foreshadowed Last +Man of M. Tarde's stalactitic philosopher, and a certain <i>Grand Lunar</i> I +once wrote about in a book called "The First Men in the Moon". And I +remember coming upon the same idea in a book by Merejkowski, the title +of which I am now totally unable to recall.... But I will not write +further on this curiously attractive and deep seated suggestion. My +proper business here is, I think, chiefly to direct the reader past the +lightness and cheerful superficiality of the opening portions of this +book, and its—at the first blush, rather disappointing but critically +justifiable, treatment of the actual catastrophe, to these obscure but +curiously stimulating and interesting caves, and tunnels, and galleries +in which the elusive real thought of M. Tarde lurks—for those who care +to follow it up and seize it and understand.</p> + +<p>H. G. WELLS.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="INTRODUCTORY" id="INTRODUCTORY"></a>INTRODUCTORY</h2> + + +<p>It was towards the end of the twentieth century of the prehistoric era, +formerly called the Christian, that took place, as is well known, the +unexpected catastrophe with which the present epoch began, that +fortunate disaster which compelled the overflowing flood of civilisation +to disappear for the benefit of mankind. I have briefly to relate this +universal cataclysm and the unhoped-for redemption so rapidly effected +within a few centuries of heroic and triumphant efforts. Of course, I +shall pass over in silence the particular details which are known to +everybody, and shall merely confine myself to the general outlines of +the story. But first of all it may be as well to recall in a few words +the degree of relative progress already attained by mankind, while still +living above ground and on the surface of the earth, on the eve of this +momentous event.</p> + + + +<h3><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h3> + +<h2>PROSPERITY</h2> + + +<p>The zenith of human prosperity seemed to have been reached in the +superficial and frivolous sense of the word. For the last fifty years, +the final establishment of the great Asiatic-American-European +confederacy, and its indisputable supremacy over what was still left, +here and there, in Oceania and central Africa of barbarous tribes +incapable of assimilation, had habituated all the nations, now converted +into provinces, to the delights of universal and henceforth inviolable +peace. It had required not less than 150 years of warfare to arrive at +this wonderful result. But all these horrors were forgotten. True, there +had been many terrific battles between armies of three and four million +men, between trains with armour-clad carriages, flung, at full speed, +against one another, and opening fire on every side; engagements between +squadrons of sub-marines which blew one another up with electric +discharges; between fleets of iron-clad balloons, harpooned and ripped +up by aerial torpedoes, hurled headlong from the clouds, with thousands +of parachutes which violently opened and enveloped each other in a storm +of grape-shot as they fell together to earth. Yet of all this warlike +mania there only remained a vague poetic remembrance. Forgetfulness is +the beginning of happiness, as fear is the beginning of wisdom.</p> + +<p>As a solitary exception to the general rule, the nations, after this +gigantic blood-letting, did not experience the lethargy that follows +from exhaustion, but the calm that the accession of strength produces. +The explanation is easy. For about a hundred years the military +selection committees had broken with the blind routine of the past and +made it a practice to pick out carefully the strongest and best made +among the young men, in order to exempt them from the burden of military +service which had become purely mechanical, and to send to the depot all +the weaklings who were good enough to fulfil the sorely diminished +functions of the soldier and even of the non-commissioned officer. That +was really a piece of intelligent selection; and the historian cannot +conscientiously refuse gratefully to praise this innovation, thanks to +which the incomparable beauty of the human race to-day has been +gradually developed. In fact, when we now look through the glass cases +of our museums of antiquities at those singular collections of +caricatures which our ancestors used to call their photographic albums, +we can confirm the vastness of the progress thus accomplished, if it is +really true that we are actually descended from these dwarfs and +scare-crows, as an otherwise trustworthy tradition attests.</p> + +<p>From this epoch dates the discovery of the last microbes, which had not +yet been analysed by the neo-Pasteurian school. Once the cause of every +disease was known, the remedy was not long in becoming known as well, +and from that moment, a consumptive or rheumatic patient, or an invalid +of any kind became as rare a phenomenon as a double-headed monster +formerly was, or an honest publican. Ever since that epoch we have +dropped the ridiculous employment of those inquiries about health with +which the conversations of our ancestors were needlessly interlarded, +such as "How are you?" or "How do you do?" Short-sightedness alone +continued its lamentable progress, being stimulated by the extraordinary +spread of journalism. There was not a woman or a child, who did not wear +a <i>pince-nez</i>. This drawback, which besides was only momentary, was +largely compensated for by the progress it caused in the optician's art.</p> + +<p>Alongside of the political unity which did away with the enmities of +nations, there appeared a linguistic unity which rapidly blotted out the +last differences between them. Already since the twentieth century the +need of a single common language, similar to Latin in the Middle Ages, +had become sufficiently intense among the learned throughout the whole +world to induce them to make use of an international idiom in all their +writings. At the end of a long struggle for supremacy with English and +Spanish, Greek finally established its claims, after the break-up of the +British Empire and the recapture of Constantinople by the Græco-Russian +Empire. Gradually, or rather with the rapidity characteristic of all +modern progress, its usage descended from strata to strata till it +reached the lowest layers of society, and from the middle of the +twenty-second century there was not a little child between the Loire and +the River Amour who could not express itself with ease in the language +of Demosthenes. Here and there a few isolated villages in the hollows of +the mountains still persisted, in spite of the protests of their +schoolmasters, to mangle the old dialect formerly called French, German, +or Italian, but the sound of this gibberish in the towns would have +raised a hearty laugh.</p> + +<p>All contemporary documents agree in bearing witness to the rapidity, the +depth, and the universality of the change which took place in the +customs, ideas, and needs, and in all the forms of social life, thus +reduced to a common level from one pole to the other, as a result of +this unification of language. It seemed as if the course of civilisation +had been hitherto confined within high banks and that now, when for the +first time all the banks had burst, it readily spread over the whole +globe. It was no longer millions but thousands of millions that the +least newly discovered improvement in industry brought in to its +inventor; for henceforth there was no barrier to stop in its star-like +radiation the expansion of any idea, no matter where it originated. For +the same reason it was no longer by hundreds but by thousands, that were +reckoned the editions of any book, which appealed but moderately to the +public taste, or the performance of a play which was ever so little +applauded. The rivalry between authors had therefore risen to its +fullest diapason. Their fancy, moreover, could find full scope, for the +first effect of this deluge of universalised neo-Hellenism had been to +overwhelm for ever all the pretended literatures of our rude ancestors. +They became unintelligible, even to the very titles of what they were +pleased to call their classical masterpieces, even to the barbarous +names of Shakespeare, Goethe, and Hugo, who are now forgotten, and whose +rugged verses are deciphered with such difficulty by our scholars. To +plagiarise these folks whom hardly anyone could henceforth read, was to +render them service, nay, to pay them too much honour. One did not fail +to do so; and prodigious was the success of these audacious imitations +which were offered as original works. The material thus to turn to +account was abundant, and indeed inexhaustible.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately for the young writers the ancient poets who had been dead +for centuries, Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, had returned to life, a +hundred times more hale and hearty than at the time of Pericles himself; +and this unexpected competition proved a singular thorn in the side of +the new-comers. It was in fact in vain that original geniuses produced +on the stage such sensational novelties as <i>Athalias, Hernanias, +Macbethès</i>; the public often turned its back on them to rush off to +performances of <i>Oedipus Rex</i> or the <i>Birds</i> (of Aristophanes). And +<i>Nanais</i>, though a vigorous sketch of a novelist of the new school, was +a complete failure owing to the frenzied success of a popular edition of +the Odyssey. The ears of the people were saturated with Alexandrines +classical, romantic, and the rest. They were bored by the childish +tricks of cæsura and rhyme which sometimes attempted a see-saw effect by +producing now a poor and now a full rhyme, or again made a pretence of +hiding away and keeping out of sight in order to induce the hearer to +hunt it out. The splendid, untrammelled, and exuberant hexameters of +Homer, the stanzas of Sappho, the iambics of Sophocles, furnished them +with unspeakable pleasure, which did the greatest harm to the music of a +certain Wagner. Music in general fell to the secondary position to which +it really belongs in the hierarchy of the fine arts. To make up for it, +in the midst of this scholarly renaissance of the human spirit, there +arose an occasion for an unexpected literary outburst which allowed +poetry to regain its legitimate rank, that is to say, the foremost. In +fact it never fails to flower again when language takes a new lease of +life, and all the more so when the latter undergoes a complete +metamorphosis, and the pleasure arises of expressing anew the eternal +truisms.</p> + +<p>It was not merely a simple means of diversion for the cultured. The +masses took their share in it with enthusiasm. Certainly they now had +leisure to read and appreciate the masterpieces of art. The transmission +of force at a distance by electricity, and its enlistment under a +thousand forms, for instance, in that of cylinders of compressed air, +which could be easily carried from place to place, had reduced manual +labour to a mere nothing. The waterfalls, the winds and the tides had +become the slaves of man, as steam had once been in the remote ages and +in an infinitely less degree. Intelligently distributed and turned to +account by means of improved machines, as simple as they were ingenious, +this enormous energy freely furnished by nature had long rendered +superfluous every kind of domestic servant and the greater number of +artisans. The voluntary workmen, who still existed, spent barely three +hours a day in the international factories, magnificent co-operative +workshops, in which the productivity of human energy, multiplied +tenfold, and even a hundredfold, surpassed the expectations of their +founders.</p> + +<p>This does not mean that the social problem had been thereby solved. In +default of want, it is true, there were no longer any quarrels; wealth +or a competence had become the lot of every man, with the result that +hardly anyone henceforth set any store by them. In default of ugliness, +also, love was scarcely an object of either appreciation or jealousy, +owing to the abundance of pretty women and handsome men who were as +common as blackberries and not difficult to please, in appearance at +least. Thus expelled from its two former principal paths, human desire +rushed with all its might towards the only field which remained open to +it, the conquest of political power, which grew vaster every day owing +to the progress of socialistic centralisation. Overflowing ambition, +swollen all at once with all the evil passions pouring into it alone, +with the covetousness, lust, envious hunger, and hungry envy of +preceding ages, reached at that time an appalling height. It was a +struggle as to who should make himself master of that <i>summum bonum</i>, +the State; as to who should make the omnipotence and omniscience of the +Universal State minister to the realisation of his personal programme or +his humanitarian dreams. The result was not, as had been prophesied, a +vast democratic republic. Such an immense outburst of pride could not +fail to set up a new throne, the highest, the mightiest, the most +glorious that has ever been. Besides, inasmuch as the population of the +Single State was reckoned by thousands of millions, universal suffrage +had become impracticable and illusory. To obviate the greater +inconvenience of deliberative assemblies, ten or a hundred times too +numerous, it had been found necessary so to increase the electoral +districts that each deputy represented at least ten million electors. +That is not surprising if one reflects that it was the first time that +the very simple idea had won acceptance of extending to women and +children the right of voting exercised in their name, naturally enough, +by their father or by their lawful or natural husband. Incidentally one +may note that this salutary and necessary reform, as much in accordance +with common sense as with logic, required alike by the principle of +national sovereignty and by the needs of social stability, nearly failed +to pass, incredible as it may seem, in the face of a coalition of +celibate electors.</p> + +<p>Tradition informs us that the bill relating to this indispensable +extension of the franchise would have been infallibly rejected, if, +luckily, the recent election of a multi-millionaire suspected of +imperialistic tendencies had not scared the assembly. It fancied it +would injure the popularity of this ambitious pretender by hastening to +welcome this proposal in which it only saw one thing, that is, that the +fathers and husbands, outraged or alarmed by the gallantries of the new +Cæsar, would be all the stronger for impeding his triumphant march. But +this expectation was, it appears, unrealised.</p> + +<p>Whatever may be the truth of this legend, it is certain that, owing to +the enlargement of the electoral districts, combined with the +suppression of the electoral privileges, the election of a deputy was a +veritable coronation, and ordinarily produced in the elect a species of +megalomania. This reconstituted feudalism was bound to end in a +reconstitution of monarchy. For a moment the learned wore this cosmic +crown, following the prophecy of an ancient philosopher, but they did +not keep it. The popularisation of knowledge through innumerable schools +had made science as common an object as a charming woman or an elegant +suite of furniture. It had been extraordinarily simplified by the +thorough way in which it had been worked out, complete as regards its +general outlines, in which no change could be expected, and its +henceforth rigid classification abundantly garnished with data. Only +advancing at an imperceptible pace, it held, in short, but an +insignificant place in the background of the brain, in which it simply +replaced the catechism of former days. The bulk of intellectual energy +was therefore to be found in another direction, as were also its glory +and prestige. Already the scientific bodies, venerable in their +antiquity, began, alas! to acquire a slight tinge and veneer of +ridicule, which raised a smile and recalled the synods of bonzes or +ecclesiastical conferences, such as are represented in very ancient +pictures. It is, therefore, not surprising that this first dynasty of +imperial physicists and geometricians, genial copies of the Antonines, +were promptly succeeded by a dynasty of artists who had deserted art to +wield the sceptre, as they lately had wielded the bow, the roughing +chisel, and the brush. The most famous of all, a man possessed of an +overflowing imagination which was yet well under control, and ministered +to by an unparalleled energy, was an architect who among other gigantic +projects formed the idea of rasing to the ground his capital, +Constantinople, in order to rebuild it elsewhere, on the site of ancient +Babylon, which for three thousand years had been a desert—a truly +luminous idea. In this incomparable plain of Chaldea watered by a second +Nile there was another still more beautiful and fertile Egypt awaiting +resurrection and metamorphosis, an infinite expanse extending as far as +the eye could see, to be covered with striking public buildings +constructed with magical speed, with a teeming and throbbing population, +with golden harvests beneath a sky of changeless blue, with an iron +net-work of railways radiating from the town of Nebuchadnesor to the +furthest ends of Europe, Africa and Asia, and crossing the Himalayas, +the Caucasus, and the Sahara. The stored energy, electrically conveyed, +of a hundred Abyssinian waterfalls, and of, I do not know, how many +cyclones, hardly sufficed to transport from the mountains of Armenia the +necessary stone, wood and iron for these numerous constructions. One day +an excursion train, composed of a thousand and one carriages, having +passed too close to the electric cable at the moment when the current +was at its maximum, was destroyed and reduced to ashes in the twinkling +of an eye. None the less Babylon, the proud city of muddy clay, with its +paltry splendours of unbaked and painted brick, found itself rebuilt in +marble and granite, to the utmost confusion of the Nabopolassars, the +Belshazzars, the Cyruses, and the Alexanders. It is needless to add that +the archæologists made on this occasion the most priceless discoveries, +in the several successive strata, of Babylonian and Assyrian +antiquities. The mania for Assyriology went so far that every sculptor's +studio, the palaces, and even the King's armorial bearings were invaded +by winged bulls with human heads, just as formerly the museums were full +of cupids or cherubims, "with their cravat-like wings". Certain school +books for primary schools were actually printed in cuneiform characters +in order to enhance their authority over the youthful imagination.</p> + +<p>This imperial orgy in bricks and mortar having unhappily occasioned the +seventh, eighth, and ninth bankruptcy of the State and several +consecutive inundations of paper-money, the people in general rejoiced +to see after this brilliant reign the crown borne by a philosophical +financier. Order had hardly been re-established in the finances, when he +made his preparation for applying on a grand scale his ideal of +government, which was of a highly remarkable nature. One was not long in +noticing, in fact, after his accession, that all the newly chosen ladies +of honour, who were otherwise very intelligent but entirely lacking in +wit, were chiefly conspicuous for their striking ugliness; that the +liveries of the court were of a grey and lifeless colour; that the court +balls reproduced by instantaneous cinematography to the tune of millions +of copies furnished a collection of the most honest and insignificant +faces and unappetising forms that one could possibly see; that the +candidates recently appointed, after a preliminary despatch of their +portraits, to the highest dignities of the Empire, were pre-eminently +distinguished by the commonness of their bearing; in short, that the +races and the public holidays (the date of which were notified in +advance by secret telegrams announcing the arrival of a cyclone from +America), happened nine times out of ten to take place on a day of thick +fog, or of pelting rain, which transformed them into an immense array of +waterproofs and umbrellas. Alike in his legislative proposals, as in his +appointments, the choice of the prince was always the following: the +most useful and the best among the most unattractive. An insufferable +sameness of colour, a depressing monotony, a sickening insipidity were +the distinctive note of all the acts of the government. People laughed, +grew excited, waxed indignant, and got used to it. The result was that +at the end of a certain time it was impossible to meet an office-seeker +or a politician, that is to say, an artist or literary man, out of his +element and in search of the beautiful in an alien sphere, who did not +turn his back on the pursuit of a government appointment in order to +return to rhyming, sculpture and painting. And from that moment the +following aphorism has won general acceptance, that the superiority of +the politician is only mediocrity raised to its highest power.</p> + +<p>This is the great benefit that we owe to this eminent monarch. The lofty +purpose of his reign has been revealed by the posthumous publication of +his memoirs. Of these writings with which we can so ill dispense, we +have only left this fragment which is well calculated to make us regret +the loss of the remainder: "Who is the true founder of Sociology? +Auguste Comte? No, Menenius Agrippa. This great man understood that +government is the stomach, not the head of the social organism. Now, the +merit of a stomach is to be good and ugly, useful and repulsive to the +eye, for if this indispensable organ were agreeable to look upon, it +would be much to be feared that people would meddle with it and nature +would not have taken such care to conceal and defend it. What sensible +person prides himself on having a beautiful digestive apparatus, a +lovely liver or elegant lungs? Such a pretension would, however, not be +more ridiculous than the foible of cutting a great dash in politics. +What wants cultivating is the substantial and the commonplace. My poor +predecessors." ... Here follows a blank; a little further on, we read: +"The best government is that which holds to being so perfectly humdrum, +regular, neuter, and even emasculated, that no one can henceforth get up +any enthusiasm either for or against it."</p> + +<p>Such was the last successor of Semiramis. On the re-discovered site of +the Hanging-gardens he caused to be erected, at the expense of the +State, a statue of Louis Philippe in wrought aluminium, in the middle of +a public garden planted with common laurels and cauliflowers.</p> + +<p>The Universe breathed again. It yawned a little no doubt, but it +revelled for the first time in the fulness of peace, in the almost +gratuitous abundance of every kind of wealth. It burst into the most +brilliant efflorescence, or rather display of poetry and art, but +especially of luxury, that the world had as yet seen. It was just at +that moment an extraordinary alarm of a novel kind, justly provoked by +the astronomical observations made on the tower of Babel, which had been +rebuilt as an Eiffel Tower on an enlarged scale, began to spread among +the terrified populations.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h3> + +<h2>THE CATASTROPHE</h2> + + +<p>On several occasions already the sun had given evident signs of +weakness. From year to year his spots increased in size and number, and +his heat sensibly diminished. People were lost in conjecture. Was his +fuel giving out? Had he just traversed in his journey through space an +exceptionally cold region? No one knew. Whatever the reason was, the +public concerned itself little about the matter, as in all that is +gradual and not sudden. The "solar anæmia," which moreover restored some +degree of animation to neglected astronomy, had merely become the +subject of several rather smart articles in the reviews. In general, the +<i>savants</i>, in their well-warmed studies, affected to disbelieve in the +fall of temperature, and, in spite of the formal indications of the +thermometer, they did not cease to repeat that the dogma of slow +evolution, and of the conservation of energy combined with the classical +nebular hypothesis, forbade the admission of a sufficiently rapid +cooling of the solar mass to make itself felt during the short duration +of a century, much more so during that of five years or a year. A few +unorthodox persons of heretical and pessimistic temperament remarked, it +is true, that at different epochs, if one believed the astronomers of +the remote past, certain stars had gradually burnt out in the heavens, +or had passed from the most dazzling brilliance to an almost complete +obscurity, during the course of barely a single year. They therefore +concluded that the case of our sun had nothing exceptional about it; +that the theory of slow-footed evolution was not perhaps universally +applicable; and that, sometimes, as an old visionary mystic called +Cuvier had ventured to put forward in legendary times, veritable +revolutions took place in the heavens as well as on earth. But orthodox +science combated with indignation these audacious theories.</p> + +<p>However, the winter of 2489 was so disastrous, it was actually necessary +to take the threatening predictions of the alarmists seriously. One +reached the point of fearing at any moment a "solar apoplexy." That was +the title of a sensational pamphlet which went through twenty thousand +editions. The return of the spring was anxiously awaited.</p> + +<p>The spring returned at last, and the starry monarch reappeared, but his +golden crown was gone, and he himself well-nigh unrecognisable. He was +entirely red. The meadows were no longer green, the sky was no longer +blue, the Chinese were no longer yellow, all had suddenly changed colour +as in a transformation scene. Then, by degrees, from the red that he was +he became orange. He might then have been compared to a golden apple in +the sky, and so during several years he was seen to pass, and all nature +with him, through a thousand magnificent or terrible tints—from orange +to yellow, from yellow to green, and from green at length to indigo and +pale blue. The meteorologists then recalled the fact, in the year 1883, +on the second of September, the sun had appeared in Venezuela the whole +day long as blue as the moon. So many colours, so many new decorations +of the chameleon-like universe which dazzled the terrified eye, which +revived and restored to its primitive sharpness the rejuvenated +sensation of the beauties of nature, and strongly stirred the depths of +men's souls by renewing the former aspect of things.</p> + +<p>At the same time disaster succeeded disaster. The entire population of +Norway, Northern Russia, and Siberia perished, frozen to death in a +single night; the temperate zone was decimated, and what was left of its +inhabitants fled before the enormous drifts of snow and ice, and +emigrated by hundreds of millions towards the tropics, crowding into the +panting trains, several of which, overtaken by tornadoes of snow, +disappeared for ever.</p> + +<p>The telegraph successively informed the capital, now that there was no +longer any news of immense trains caught in the tunnels under the +Pyrenees, the Alps, the Caucasus, or Himalayas, in which they were +imprisoned by enormous avalanches, which blocked simultaneously the two +issues; now that some of the largest rivers of the world—the Rhine, for +instance, and the Danube—had ceased to flow, completely frozen to the +bottom, from which resulted a drought, followed by an indescribable +famine, which obliged thousands of mothers to devour their own children. +From time to time a country or continent broke off suddenly its +communication with the central agency, the reason being that an entire +telegraphic section was buried under the snow, from which at intervals +emerged the uneven tops of their posts, with their little cups of +porcelain. Of this immense network of electricity which enveloped in its +close meshes the entire globe, as of that prodigious coat of mail with +which the complicated system of railways clothed the earth, there was +only left some scattered fragments, like the remnant of the Grand Army +of Napoleon during the retreat from Russia.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the glaciers of the Alps, the Andes, and of all the mountains +of the world hitherto vanquished by the sun, which for several thousand +centuries had been thrust back into their last entrenchments, resumed +their triumphant march. All the glaciers that had been dead since the +geological ages came to life again, more colossal than ever. From all +the valleys in the Alps or Pyrenees, that were lately green and peopled +with delightful health resorts, there issued these snowy hordes, these +streams of icy lava, with their frontal moraine advancing as it spread +over the plain, a moving cliff composed of rocks and overturned engines, +of the wreckage of bridges, stations, hotels and public edifices, +whirled along in the wildest confusion, a heart-breaking welter of +gigantic bric-à-brac, with which the triumphant invasion decked itself +out as with the loot of victory. Slowly, step by step, in spite of +sundry transient intervals of light and warmth, in spite of occasionally +scorching days which bore witness to the supreme convulsions of the sun +in its battle against death, which revived in men's souls misleading +hopes, athwart and even by means of these unexpected changes the pale +invaders advanced. They retook and recovered one by one all their +ancient realms in the glacial period, and if they found on the road some +gigantic vagrant block lying in sullen solitude, near some famous city, +a hundred leagues from its native hills, mysterious witness of the +immense catastrophe of former times, they raised it and bore it onward, +cradling it on their unyielding waves, as an advancing army recaptures +and enfurls its ancient flags, all covered with dust, which it has found +again in its enemies' sanctuaries.</p> + +<p>But what was the glacial period compared with this new crisis of the +globe and the sky? Doubtless it had been due to a similar attack of +weakness, to a similar failure of the sun, and many species of animals +had necessarily perished at the time, from being insufficiently clad. +That had been, however, but a warning bell, so to say, a simple +notification of the final and fatal attack. The glacial periods—for we +know there have been several—now explained themselves by their +reappearance on a large scale. But this clearing up of an obscure point +in geology was, one must admit, an insufficient compensation for the +public disasters which were its price.</p> + +<p>What calamities! What horrors! My pen confesses its impotence to retrace +them. Besides how can we tell the story of disasters which were so +complete they often simultaneously overwhelmed under snow-drifts a +hundred yards deep all that witnessed them, to the very last man. All +that we know for certain is what took place at the time towards the end +of the twenty-fifth century in a little district of Arabia Petræa.</p> + +<p>Thither had flocked for refuge, in one horde after another, wave after +wave, with host upon host frozen one on the top of another, as they +advanced, the few millions of human creatures who survived of the +hundreds of millions that had disappeared. Arabia Petræa had, therefore, +along with the Sahara, become the most populous country of the globe. +They transported hither by reason of the relative warmth of its climate, +I will not say the seat of Government—for, alas! Terror alone +reigned—but an immense stove which took its place, and whatever +remained of Babylon now covered over by a glacier. A new town was +constructed in a few months on the plans of an entirely new system of +architecture, marvellously adapted for the struggle against the cold. By +the most happy of chances some rich and unworked coal mines were +discovered on the spot. There was enough fuel there, it seems, to +provide warmth for many years to come. And as for food, it was not as +yet too pressing a question. The granaries contained several sacks of +corn, while waiting for the sun to revive and the corn to sprout again. +The sun had certainly revived after the glacial periods; why should it +not do so again? asked the optimists.</p> + +<p>It was but the hope of a day. The sun assumed a violet hue. The frozen +corn ceased to be eatable. The cold became so intense that the walls of +the houses as they contracted cracked and admitted blasts of air which +killed the inhabitants on the spot. A physicist affirmed that he saw +crystals of solid nitrogen and oxygen fall from the sky which gave rise +to the fear that the atmosphere would shortly become decomposed. The +seas were already frozen solid. A hundred thousand human creatures +huddling around the huge government stove, which was no longer equal to +restoring their circulation, were turned into icicles in a single night; +and the night following, a second hundred thousand perished likewise. Of +the beautiful human race, so strong and noble, formed by so many +centuries of effort and genius by such an intelligent and extended +selection, there would soon have been only left a few thousands, a few +hundreds of haggard and trembling specimens, unique trustees of the last +ruins of what had once been civilisation.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h3> + +<h2>THE STRUGGLE</h2> + + +<p>In this extremity a man arose who did not despair of humanity. His name +has been preserved for us. By a singular coincidence he was called +Miltiades, like another saviour of Hellenism. He was not, however, of +Hellenic race. A cross between a Slave and a Breton he had only half +sympathised with the prosperity of the Neo-Græcian world with its +levelling and enervating tendencies, and amid this wholesale +obliteration of previous civilisation, and universal triumph of a kind +of Byzantine renaissance brought up to date, he belonged to those who +reverently guarded in the depths of their heart the germs of recusancy. +But, like the barbarian stilicho, the last defender of the foundering +Roman world against the barbaric hordes, it was precisely this +disbeliever in civilisation who alone undertook to arrest it on the +brink of its vast downfall. Eloquent and handsome, but nearly always +taciturn, he was not without certain resemblances in pose and features, +so it was said, to Chateaubriand and Napoleon (two celebrities, as one +knows, who in their time were famous throughout an entire continent). +Worshipped by the women of whom he was the hope, and by the men who +stood greatly in awe of him, he had early kept the crowd at arm's +length, and a singular accident had doubled his natural shyness. Finding +the sea less monotonously dull at any rate than terra firma, and in any +case more unconfined, he had passed his youth on board the last +iron-clad of State of which he was captain, in patrolling the coasts of +continents, in dreaming of impossible adventures, and of conquests when +all was conquered, of discoveries of America when all was discovered, +and in cursing all former travellers, discoverers and conquerors, +fortunate reapers in all the fields of glory in which there was nothing +more left to glean. One day, however, he believed he had discovered a +new island—it was a mistake—and he had the joy of engaging in a fight, +the last of which ancient history makes mention, with an apparently +highly primitive tribe of savages, who spoke English and read the Bible. +In this fight he displayed such valour that he was unanimously +pronounced to be mad by his crew, and was in great danger of losing his +rank after a specialist in insanity, who had been called in, was on the +point of publicly confirming popular opinion by declaring he was +suffering from suicidal mono-mania of a novel kind. Luckily an +archæologist protested and showed by actual documents that this +phenomenon, which had become so unusual but was frequent in past ages +under the name of bravery, was a simple case of ancestral reversion +sufficiently serious to merit examination. As luck would have it, the +unfortunate Miltiades had been wounded in the face in the same +encounter; and the scar which all the art of the best surgeons never +succeeded in removing, drew down upon him the annoying and almost +insulting nick-name of "scarred face". It may be readily understood how +from this time forward, soured by the consciousness of his partial +disfigurement, as the ancient bard Byron had formerly been for a nearly +similar reason, he avoided appearing in public, and thereby giving the +crowd an opportunity of pointing the finger of scorn at the visible +traces of his former attack of madness. He was never seen again till the +day when, his vessel being hemmed in by the icebergs of the Gulf Stream, +he was obliged with his companions to finish the crossing on foot over +the solidly frozen Atlantic.</p> + +<p>In the middle of the central state shelter, a huge vaulted hall with +walls ten yards thick, without windows, surrounded with a hundred +gigantic furnaces, and perpetually lit up by their hundred flaming maws, +Miltiades one day appeared. The remnant of the flower of humanity, of +both sexes, splendid even in its misery, was huddled together there. +They did not consist of the great men of science with their bald pates, +nor even the great actresses, nor the great writers, whose inspiration +had deserted them, nor the consequential ones now past their prime, nor +of prim old ladies—broncho-pneumonia, alas! had made a clean sweep of +them all at the very first frost—but the enthusiastic heirs of their +traditions, their secrets, and also of their vacant chairs, that is to +say, their pupils, full of talent and promise. Not a single university +professor was there, but a crowd of deputies and assistants; not a +single minister, but a crowd of young secretaries of state. Not a single +mother of a family, but a bevy of artists' models, admirably formed, and +inured against the cold by the practice of posing for the nude; above +all, a number of fashionable beauties, who had been likewise saved by +the excellent hygienic effect of daily wearing low dresses, without +taking into account the warmth of their temperament. Among them it was +impossible not to notice the Princess Lydia, owing to her tall and +exquisite figure, the brilliancy of her dress and her wit, of her dark +eyes and fair complexion, owing in fact to the radiance of her whole +person. She had carried off the prize at the last grand international +beauty competition, and was accounted the reigning beauty of the +drawing-rooms of Babylon. What a different set of individuals from that +which the spectator formerly surveyed through his opera-glass from the +top of the galleries of the so-called Chamber of Deputies! Youth, +beauty, genius, love, infinite treasures of science and art, writers +whose pens were of pure gold, artists with marvellous technique, singers +one raved about, all that was left of refinement and culture on the +earth, was concentrated in this last knot of human beings, which +blossomed under the snow like a tuft of rhododendrons, or of Alpine +roses at the foot of some mountain summit. But what dejection had fallen +on these fair flowers! How sadly drooped these manifold graces!</p> + +<p>At the sudden apparition of Miltiades every brow was lifted, every eye +was fastened upon him. He was tall, lean, and wizened, in spite of the +false plumpness of his thick white furs. When he threw back his big +white hood, which recalled the Dominican cowl of antiquity, they caught +sight of his huge scar athwart the icicles on his beard and eyebrows. At +the sight of it first a smile and then a shudder, which was not due to +cold alone, ran through the ranks of the women. For must we confess it, +in spite of the efforts of a rational education, the inclination to +applaud bravery and its indications could not be entirely uprooted from +their hearts. Lydia, notably, remained imbued with this sentiment of +another age, by a kind of moral ancestral reversion which served as a +pendant to her physical atavism. She concealed so little her feelings of +admiration, that Miltiades himself was struck by it. Her admiration was +combined with astonishment, for he was believed to have been dead for +years. They asked one another by what accumulation of miracles he had +been able to escape the fate of his companions. He requested leave to +speak. It was granted him. He mounted a platform, and such a profound +silence ensued, one might have heard the snow falling outside, in spite +of the thickness of the walls. But let us at this point allow an +eye-witness to speak; let us copy an extract of the account that he +phonographed of this memorable scene. I pass over the part of Miltiades' +discourse in which he related the thrilling story of the dangers he had +encountered from the time he left his vessel. (<i>Continuous applause</i>.) +After stating that in passing by Paris on a sledge drawn by +reindeer—thanks to it being the season of the dog-days—he had +recognised the site of this buried city by the double-pointed mound of +snow which had formed over the spires of Notre-Dame—(<i>excitement in the +audience</i>)—the speaker continued:—</p> + +<p>"The situation is serious," said he, "nothing like it has been seen +since the geological epochs. Is it irretrievable? No! (<i>Hear! hear!</i>) +Desperate diseases require desperate remedies. An idea, a glimmer of +hope has flashed upon me, but it is so strange, I shall never dare to +reveal it to you. (<i>Speak! speak!</i>) No, I dare not, I shall never dare +to formulate this project. You would believe me to be still insane. You +desire it, you promise me to listen to the end to my absurd and +extravagant project? (<i>Yes! yes!</i>) Even to give it a fair trial? (<i>Yes! +yes!</i>) Well! I will speak. (<i>Silence!</i>)</p> + +<p>"The hour has come to ascertain to what extent it is true to say and to +keep on repeating, as has been the practice for the last three centuries +since the time of a certain Stephenson, that all our energy, all our +strength, whether physical or moral, comes to us from the sun.... +(<i>Numerous voices: 'That is so'</i>). The calculation has been made: in two +years, three months, and six days, if there still remains a morsel of +coal there will not remain a morsel of bread! (<i>Prolonged sensation</i>.) +Therefore, if the source of all force, of all motion, and all life is in +the sun, and in the sun alone, there is no ground for self-delusion: in +two years, three months, and six days, the genius of man will be +quenched, and through the gloomy heavens the corpse of mankind, like a +Siberian mammoth, will roll for everlasting, incapable for ever of +resurrection. (<i>Excitement</i>.)</p> + +<p>"But is that the case? No, it is not, it cannot be the case. With all +the energy of my heart, which does not come from the sun—that energy +which comes from the earth, from our mother earth buried there below, +far, far away, for ever hidden from our eyes—I protest against this +vain theory, and against so many articles of faith and religion which I +have been obliged hitherto to endure in silence. (<i>Slight murmurs from +the centre</i>.) The earth is the contemporary of the sun, and not its +daughter; the earth was formerly a luminous star like the sun, only +sooner extinct. It is only on the surface that the earth is devoid of +movement, frozen and paralysed. Its bosom is ever warm and burning. It +has only concentrated its fire within itself in order to preserve it +better. (<i>Signs of interest in the audience</i>.) There lies a virgin force +that is unexploited, a force superior to all that the sun has been able +to generate for our industry by waterfalls which to-day are frozen, by +cyclones which now have ceased, by tides which to-day are suspended; a +force in which our engineers, with a little initiative, will find a +hundredfold the equivalent of the motive power they have lost. It is no +more by this gesture (<i>the speaker raises his finger to heaven</i>), that +the hope of salvation should henceforth be expressed, it is by this one. +(<i>He lowers his right hand towards the earth.... Signs of astonishment: +a few murmurs of dissent which are immediately repressed by the women</i>.) +We must say no more: 'Up there!' but, 'below!' There, below, far below, +lies the promised Eden, the abode of deliverance and of bliss: there, +and there alone, there are still innumerable conquests and discoveries +to be made! (<i>Bravos on the left</i>.) Ought I to draw my conclusion? +(<i>Yes! yes!</i>) Let us descend into these depths; let us make these +abysses our sure retreat. The mystics had a sublime presentiment when +they said in their Latin: 'From the outward to the inward.' The earth +calls us to its inner self. For many centuries it has lived separated, +so to say, from its children, the living creatures it produced outside +during its period of fecundity before the cooling of its crust! After +its crust cooled, the rays of a distant star alone, it is true, have +maintained on this dead epidermis their artificial and superficial life +which has been a stranger to her own.</p> + +<p>"But this schism has lasted too long. It is imperative that it should +cease. It is time to follow Empedocles, Ulysses, Æneas, Dante, to the +gloomy abodes of the underworld, to plunge mankind again in the fountain +from which it sprang, to effect the complete restoration of the exiled +soul to the land of its birth! (<i>Applause here and there</i>.) Besides, +there is but this alternative: life underground or death. The sun is +failing us: let us dispense with the sun. The plan, which it remains for +me to propose, has been worked out for several months past by the most +eminent men. To-day it is finished; it is final. It is complete in all +its details. Does it interest you? (<i>On all sides: 'Read it, read it.'</i>) +You will see that with discipline, patience, and courage—yes, courage, +I risk this evil-sounding word (<i>'Risk it, risk it.'</i>)—and above all, +with the aid of that splendid heritage of science and art which comes to +us from the past, for which we are accountable to the most distant of +our descendants, to the boundless universe, and I was going to say, to +God (<i>signs of surprise</i>), we can be saved if we will." (<i>Thunder of +applause</i>.)</p> + +<p>The speaker next entered into lengthy details, which it is useless to +reproduce here, on the Neo-troglodytism which he pretended to inaugurate +as the acme of civilisation, "which had," said he, "began with caves, +and was destined to return to these subterranean retreats, but at a far +deeper level." He displayed designs, quantities and drawings. He had no +trouble in proving that, on condition of burrowing sufficiently deep +into the ground below, they would find a deliciously gentle warmth, an +Elysian temperature. It would be enough to excavate, enlarge, heighten, +and extend the galleries of already existing mines in order to render +them habitable and comfortable into the bargain. The electric light, +supplied entirely without expense by the scattered centres of the fire +within, would provide for the magnificent illumination both by day and +night of these colossal crypts, these marvellous cloisters, indefinitely +extended and embellished by successive generations. With a good system +of ventilation, all danger of suffocation or of foulness of air would be +avoided. In short, after a more or less long period of settling in, +civilised life could unfold anew in all its intellectual, artistic, and +fashionable splendour, as freely as it did in the capricious and +intermittent light or natural day, and even perhaps more surely. At +these last words, the Princess Lydia broke her fan, by dint of +applauding. An objection then came from the right, "With what shall we +be fed?" Miltiades smiled disdainfully and replied: "Nothing is simpler. +For ordinary drinking purposes we first of all shall have melted ice. +Every day we shall transport enormous blocks of it in order to keep the +orifices of the crypts free from obstruction, and to supply the public +fountains. I may add that chemists undertake to manufacture alcohol from +anything, even from mineralised rocks, and that it is the A.B.C. of the +grocer's trade to manufacture wine from alcohol and water. (<i>'Hear! +hear!' from all the benches</i>). As for food, is not chemistry also +capable of manufacturing butter, albumen, and milk from no matter what? +Besides, has the last word been said on the subject? Is it not highly +probable that before long, if it takes up the matter, it will succeed in +satisfying, both on the score of quantity and expense, the desires of +the most refined gastronomy? And, meanwhile.... (<i>a voice timidly: +'Meanwhile?'</i>) Meanwhile does not our disaster itself, by a kind of +providential occurrence, place within our reach the best stocked, the +most abundant, the most inexhaustible larder that the human race has +ever had? Immense stores, the most admirable which have hitherto been +laid down, are lying for us under the ice or the snow. Myriads of +domestic or wild animals—I dare not add, of men and women (<i>a general +shudder of horror</i>)—but at least of bullocks, sheep and poultry, frozen +instantaneously in a single mass, are lying here and there in the public +markets a few steps away. Let us collect, as long as such work is still +possible out of doors, this boundless quarry which was destined to feed +for years several hundreds of millions, and which will well suffice, in +consequence, to feed a few thousands only for ages, even should they +multiply unduly, in despite of Malthus. If stacked in the neighbourhood +of the orifice of the chief cavern, they will be easy to get at and will +provide a delightful fare for our fraternal love-feasts."</p> + +<p>Still further objections were formulated from different quarters. They +were forcibly disposed of with the same irresistible easy assurance. The +conclusion is worthy of a verbatim quotation: "However extraordinary the +catastrophe which has befallen us and the means of escape which is left +us may seem in appearance, a little reflection will suffice to prove to +us that the predicament in which we are, must have been repeated a +thousand times already in the immensity of the universe, and must have +been cleared up in the same fashion, being inevitably and normally the +final phase in the life-drama of every star. The astronomers know that +every sun is bound to become extinct; they know, therefore, that in +addition to the luminous and visible stars, there are in the heavens an +infinitely greater number of extinct and rayless stars which continue +endlessly to revolve with their train of planets, doomed to an eternity +of night and cold. Well, if this is the case, I ask you: Can we suppose +that life, thought, and love, are the exclusive privilege of an infinite +minority of solar systems still possessed of light and heat, and deny to +the immense majority of gloomy stars every manifestation of life and +animation, the very highest reason for their existence? Thus +lifelessness, death, the void in movement would be the rule; and life +the exception! Thus the nine-tenths, the ninety-nine hundredths, +perhaps, of the solar systems, would idly revolve like senseless and +gigantic mill-wheels, a useless encumbrance of space. That is impossible +and idiotic, that is blasphemous. Let us have more faith in the unknown! +Truth, here as everywhere else, is without doubt the antipodes of +appearance. All that glitters is not gold. These splendid constellations +which attempt to dazzle us are themselves relatively barren. Their +light, what is it? A transient glory, a ruinous luxury, an ostentatious +squandering of energy, born of illimitable senselessness. But when the +stars have sown their wild oats, then the serious task of their life +begins, they develop their inner resources. For frozen and sunless +without, they literally preserve in their inviolate centres their +unquenchable fire, defended by the very layers of ice. There, finally, +is to be relit the lamp of life, banished from the surface above. For a +last time, therefore, let us look upwards in order there to find hope. +Up there innumerable races of mankind under ground, buried, to their +supreme joy, in the catacombs of invisible stars, encourage us by their +example. Let us act like them, let us like them withdraw to the interior +of our planet. Like them, let us bury ourselves in order to rise again, +and like them let us carry with us into our tomb, all that is worthy to +survive of our previous existence. It is not merely bread alone that man +has need of. He must live to think, and not merely think to live.</p> + +<p>"Recall the legend of Noah: to escape from a disaster almost equal to +our own, and to dispute with it all that the earth had most precious in +his eyes; what did he do, though he was but a simple-minded fellow and +addicted to drink? He turned his ark into a museum, containing a +complete collection of plants and animals, even of poisonous plants, of +wild beasts, boa-constrictors, and scorpions, and by reason of this +picturesque but incongruous cargo of creatures mutually harmful and +seeking one and all to devour each other, of this miscellany of living +contradictions which for so long was so foolishly worshipped under the +name of Nature, he believed in good faith to have deserved well of the +future.</p> + +<p>"But we, in our new ark, mysterious, impenetrable, indestructible, shall +carry with us neither plants nor animals. These types of existence are +annihilated; these rough drafts in creation, these fumbling experiments +of Earth in quest of the human form are for ever blotted out. Let us not +regret it. In place of so many pairs of animals which take up so much +room, of so many useless seeds, we will carry with us into our retreat +the harmonious garland of all the truths in perfect accord with one +another; of all artistic and poetic beauties, which are all members one +of another, united like sisters, which human genius has brought to light +in the course of ages and multiplied thereafter in millions of copies: +all of which will be destroyed save a single one, which it will be our +task to guarantee against all danger of destruction. We shall establish +a vast library containing all the principal works, enriched with +cinematographic albums. We shall set up a vast museum composed of single +specimens of all the schools, of all the styles of the masters in +architecture, sculpture, painting, and even music. These are our real +treasures, our real seed for future harvests, our gods for whom we will +do battle till our latest breath."</p> + +<p>The speaker stepped down from the platform in the midst of indescribable +enthusiasm: the ladies crowded round him. They deputed Lydia to bestow +on him a kiss in the name of them all. Blushing with modesty the latter +obeyed—a further sign of moral atavism on her part—and the applause +redoubled. The thermometers of the shelter rose several degrees in a few +minutes.</p> + +<p>It is well to recall to the younger generation these resolute words, +between the lines of which they will read the gratitude they owe to the +heroic "Scarred face," who so nearly died with the reputation of a +mono-maniac. They, too, are beginning to grow enervated and accustomed +to the delights of their underground Elysium, to the luxurious +spaciousness of these endless catacombs, the legacy of gigantic toil on +the part of their fathers, they too, are, inclined to think that all +this happened of its own accord, or at least was inevitable, that after +all there was no other way of escaping from the cold above ground, and +that this simple expedient did not require a great outlay of +imagination. Profound error! At its first appearance, the idea of +Miltiades had been hailed, and rightly enough, as a flash of genius. But +for him, but for his energy, and his eloquence, which was placed at the +service of his imagination, but for his forcefulness, his charm, and his +perseverance, which seconded his energy, let us add, but for the +profound passion that Lydia, the noblest and most valiant of women, had +been able to inspire in him, and which increased his heroism tenfold, +humanity would have suffered the fate of all the other animal or +vegetable species. What strikes us to-day in his discourse is the +extraordinary and truly prophetic lucidity with which he sketched in +general terms the conditions of existence in the new world. Without +doubt, these expectations have been immensely surpassed. He did not +foresee, he could not foresee, the prodigious accessions which his +original idea has received owing to its development by thousands of +auxiliary geniuses. He was far more right than he fancied, like the +majority of reformers—who are generally wrongly accused, of being too +much wrapt up in their own ideas. But on the whole, never was so +magnificent a plan so promptly carried out.</p> + +<p>From that very day all these exquisite and delicate hands set to work, +aided, it is true, by incomparable machines. Everywhere, at the head of +all the workings, were to be found Lydia and Miltiades. Henceforth +inseparable, they vied with one another in ardour; and before a year was +out the galleries of the mines had become sufficiently large and +comfortable, sufficiently decorated even and brilliantly lighted, to +receive the vast and priceless collections of all kinds, which it was +their object to place in safety there, in view of the future.</p> + +<p>With infinite precautions they were lowered one after another, bale by +bale, into the bowels of the earth. This salvage of the goods and +chattels of humanity was methodically carried out. It included all the +quintessence of the ancient grand libraries of Paris, Berlin, and +London, which had been brought together at Babylon, and then carried for +safety into the desert with the rest. The cream of all former museums, +of all previous exhibitions of industry and art, was concentrated there +with considerable additions. There were manuscripts, books, bronzes, and +pictures. What an expenditure of energy and incessant toil, in spite of +the assistance of inter-terrestrial forces, had been necessary for +packing, transporting, and housing it all! And yet, for the greater +part, it was useless to those who voluntarily this task imposed upon +themselves. They all knew it. They were well aware that they were +probably condemned for the rest of their days to a hard and +matter-of-fact existence, for which their lives as artists, +philosophers, and men of letters, had scarcely prepared them. But—for +the first time—the idea of duty to be done found its way into these +hearts, the beauty of self-sacrifice subdued these dilettanti. They +sacrificed themselves to the Unknown, to that which is not yet, to the +posterity towards which were turned all the desires of their electrified +spirits, as all the atoms of the magnetised iron turn towards the pole. +It was thus that, at the time when there were still countries, in the +midst of some great national peril, a wave of heroism swept over the +most frivolous cities. However admirable may have been, at the epoch of +which I speak, this collective need of individual self-sacrifice, ought +we to be astonished at it, when we know from the treatises on natural +history that have been preserved, that mere insects giving the same +example of foresight and self-renunciation, used before their death to +employ their latest energies to collect provisions useless to +themselves, and only useful in the future to their larvæ at their birth.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h3> + +<h2>SAVED!</h2> + + +<p>The day at length arrived on which, all the intellectual inheritance of +the past, all the real capital of humanity having been rescued from the +general shipwreck, the castaways were able to go down in their turn, +having henceforth only to think of their own preservation. That day +which forms, as everyone knows, the starting point of our new era, +called the era of salvation, was a solemn holiday. The sun, however, as +if to arouse regret, indulged in a few last bursts of sunshine. On +casting a final glance on this brightness, which they were never to +behold again, the survivors of mankind could not, we are told, restrain +their tears. A young poet on the brink of the pit that yawned to swallow +them up, repeated in the musical language of Euripides, the farewell to +the light of the dying Iphigenia. But that was a short-lived moment of +very natural emotion which speedily changed into an outburst of +unspeakable delight.</p> + +<p>How great in fact was their amazement and their ecstasy! They expected a +tomb; they opened their eyes in the most brilliant and interminable +galleries of art they could possibly see, in <i>salons</i> more beautiful +than those of Versailles, in enchanted palaces, in which all extremes of +climate, rain, and wind, cold and torrid heat were unknown; where +innumerable lamps, veritable suns in brilliancy and moons in softness, +shed unceasingly through the blue depths their daylight that knew no +night. Assuredly the sight was far from what it has since become; we +need an effort of imagination in order to represent the psychological +condition of our poor ancestors, hitherto accustomed to the perpetual +and insufferable discomforts and inconveniences of life on the surface +of the globe, in order to realise their enthusiasm, at a moment, when +only counting on escaping from the most appalling of deaths by means of +the gloomiest of dungeons, they felt themselves delivered of all their +troubles, and of all their apprehensions at the same time! Have you +noticed in the retrospective museum that quaint bit of apparatus of our +fathers, which is called an umbrella? Look at it and reflect on the +heart-breaking element, in a situation, which condemned man to make use +of this ridiculous piece of furniture. Imagine yourself obliged to +protect yourselves against those gigantic downpours which would +unexpectedly arrive on the scene and drench you for three or four days +running. Think likewise of sailors caught in a whirling cyclone, of the +victims of sunstroke, of the 20,000 Indians annually devoured by tigers +or killed by the bite of venomous serpents; think of those struck by +lightning. I do not speak of the legions of parasites and insects, of +the acarus, the phylloxera, and the microscopic beings which drained the +blood, the sweat, and the life of man, inoculating him with typhus, +plague, and cholera. In truth, if our change of condition has demanded +some sacrifices, it is not an illusion to declare that the balance of +advantage is immensely greater. What in comparison with this +unparalleled revolution is the most renowned of the petty revolutions of +the past which to-day are treated so lightly, and rightly so, by our +historians. One wonders how the first inhabitants of these underground +dwellings could, even for a moment, regret the sun, a mode of lighting +that bristled with so many inconveniences. The sun was a capricious +luminary which went out and was relit at variable hours, shone when it +felt disposed, sometimes was eclipsed, or hid itself behind the clouds +when one had most need of it, or pitilessly blinded one at the very +moment one yearned for shade! Every night,—do we really realise the +full force of the inconvenience?—every night the sun commanded social +life to desist and social life desisted. Humanity was actually to that +extent the slave of nature! To think it never succeeded in, never even +dreamed of, freeing itself from this slavery which weighed so heavily +and unconsciously on its destinies, on the course of its progress thus +straitened and confined! Ah! Let us once more bless our fortunate +disaster!</p> + +<p>What excuses or explains the weakness of the first immigrants of the +inner world is the fact that their life was necessarily rough and full +of hardships, in spite of a notable improvement after their descent into +the caverns. They had perpetually to enlarge them, to adjust them to the +requirements of the two civilisations, ancient and modern. That was not +the work of a single day. I am well aware how happily fortune favoured +them; how they again and again had the good luck when driving their +tunnels to discover natural grottoes of the utmost beauty, in which it +was enough to illuminate with the usual methods of lighting (which was +absolutely cost-free, as Miltiades had foreseen) in order to render them +almost habitable: delightful squares, as it were, enshrined and sparsely +disseminated throughout the labyrinth of our brilliantly lighted +streets; mines of sparkling diamonds, lakes of quicksilver, mounds of +golden ingots. I am well aware that they had at their disposition a sum +of natural forces very superior to all that the preceding ages had been +acquainted with. That is very easy to understand. In fact, if they +lacked waterfalls, they replaced them very advantageously by the finest +falls in temperature that physicists have ever dreamed of. The central +heat of the globe could not, it is true, by itself alone be a mechanical +force, any more than formerly a large mass of water falling by +hypothesis to the greatest possible depth. It is in its passage from a +higher to a lower level that the mass of water becomes (or rather +became) available energy: it is in its descent from a higher to a lower +degree of the thermometer that heat likewise becomes so. The greater +distance between any two degrees the greater amount of surplus energy. +Now, the mining physicists had hardly descended into the bowels of the +earth ere they at once perceived that thus placed between the furnaces +of the central fire, as it were, a forge of the Cyclops, hot enough to +liquefy granite, and the outer cold, which was sufficient to solidify +oxygen and nitrogen, they had at their disposal the most enormous +extremes in temperature, and consequently thermic cataracts by the side +of which all the cataracts of Abyssinia and Niagara were only toys. What +caldrons did they own in the ancient volcanoes! What condensers in the +glaciers! At first sight they must have seen that if a few distributing +agencies of this prodigious energy were provided, they had power enough +there to perform the whole work of mankind—excavation, air supply, +water supply, sanitation, locomotion, descent and transport of +provisions, etc.</p> + +<p>I am well aware of that. I am further aware that ever favoured by +fortune, the inseparable friend of daring, the new Troglodytes have +never suffered from famine, nor from shortness of supplies. When one of +their snow-covered deposits of carcasses threatened to give out, they +used to make several trial borings, drive several shafts in an upward +direction. They never failed presently to meet with rich finds of food +reserves, extensive enough to close the mouths of the alarmists, whereby +there resulted on each occasion, according to the law of Malthus, a +sudden increase in the population, coupled with the excavation of new +underground cities, more flourishing than their older sisters. But, in +spite of all this, we remain overwhelmed with wonder when we consider +the incalculable degree of courage and intelligence lavished on such a +work, and solely called into being by an idea which, starting one day +from one individual brain, has leavened the whole globe. What giant +falls of earth, what murderous explosions, what a death-roll there must +have been at the outset of the enterprise! We shall never know what +bloodthirsty duels, what rapes, what doleful tragedies, took place in +this lawless society, which had not yet been reorganised. The history of +the early conquerors and colonists of America, if it could be told in +detail, would pale entirely beside it. Let us draw a veil over the +proceedings. But this pitch of horrors was perhaps necessary to teach us +that in the forced intimacy of a cave there is no mean between warfare +and love, between mutual slaughter or mutual embraces. We began by +fighting; to-day we fall on each other's necks. And in fact, what human +ear, nose, or stomach could have longer withstood the deafening roar and +smoke of melanite explosions beneath our crypts; the sight and stench of +mangled bodies piled up within our narrow confines? Hideous and odious, +revolting beyond all expression, the underground war finished by +becoming impossible.</p> + +<p>It is, however, painful to think that it lasted right up to the death of +our glorious preserver. Everyone is acquainted with the heroic adventure +in which Miltiades and his companion lost their lives. It has been so +often painted, sculptured, sung, and immortalised by the great masters, +that it is not allowable to pass it over in silence. The famous struggle +between the centralist and federalist cities, that is to say, at bottom, +between the industrial and artist cities, having ended in the triumph of +the latter, a still more bloodthirsty conflict sprang up between the +free thinking and the cellular cities. The former fought to assert the +freedom of love with its uncertain fecundity; the second, for its +prudent regulation. Miltiades, misled by his passion, committed the +fault of siding with the former, a pardonable error which posterity has +forgiven him. Besieged in his last grotto—a perfect marvel in +strongholds—and at the end of his provisions, the besiegers having +intercepted the arrival of all his convoys, he essayed a final effort: +he prepared a formidable explosion intended to blow up the vault of his +cavern, and forcibly to open a way upwards by which he might have the +chance of reaching a deposit of provisions. His hope was deceived. The +vault blew up, it is true, and disclosed a cavern above it, the most +colossal one had hitherto seen, that dimly resembled a Hindoo temple. +But the hero himself perished miserably, buried with Lydia beneath +enormous rocks on the very spot on which now stands their double statue +in marble, the masterpiece of our new Phidias, which is now the crowded +meeting-place of our national pilgrimages.</p> + +<p>From these fruitful though troublous times, and from this beneficial +disorder, an advantage has accrued to us which we shall never +sufficiently appreciate. Our race, already so beautiful, has been +further strengthened and purified by these numerous trials. +Short-sightedness itself has disappeared under the prolonged influence +of a light that is pleasing to the eye, and of the habit of reading +books which are written in very large characters. For, from lack of +paper, we are obliged to write on slates, on pillars, obelisks, on the +broad panels of marble, and this necessity, in addition to compelling us +to adopt a sober style and contributing to the formation of taste, +prevents the daily newspapers from reappearing, to the great benefit of +the optic nerves and the lobes of the brain. It was, by the way, an +immense misfortune for "pre-salvationist" man to possess textile plants +which allowed him to stereotype without the slightest trouble on rags of +paper without the slightest value, all his ideas, idle or serious, piled +indiscriminately one on the other. Now, before graving our thoughts on a +panel of rock, we take time to reflect on our subject. Yet another bane +among our primitive forefathers was tobacco. At present we no longer +smoke, we can no longer smoke. The public health is accordingly +magnificent.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h3> + +<h2>REGENERATION</h2> + + +<p>It does not fall within the scope of my rapid sketch to relate date by +date the laborious vicissitudes of humanity since its settlement within +the planet from the year 1 of the era of Salvation to the year 596, in +which I write these lines in chalk on slabs of schist. I should only +like to bring out for my contemporaries, who might very well fail to +notice them (for we barely observe what we have always before our eyes), +the distinctive and original features of this modern civilisation of +which we are so justly proud. Now that after many abortive trials and +agonizing convulsions it has succeeded in taking its final shape, we can +clearly establish its essential characteristics. It consists in the +complete elimination of living nature, whether animal or vegetable, man +only excepted. That has produced, so to say, a purification of society. +Secluded thus from every influence of the natural milieu into which it +was hitherto plunged and confined, the social milieu was for the first +time able to reveal and display its true virtues, and the real social +bond appeared in all its vigour and purity. It might be said that +destiny had desired to make in our case an extended sociological +experiment for its own edification by placing us in such extraordinarily +unique conditions.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> The problem, in a way, was to learn, what would +social man become if committed to his own keeping, yet left to +himself—furnished with all the intellectual acquisitions accumulated +through a remote past by human geniuses, but deprived of the assistance +of all other living beings, nay, even of those beings half endowed with +life, that we call rivers and seas and stars, and thrown back on the +conquered, yet passive forces of chemical, inorganic and lifeless +Nature, which is separated from man by too deep a chasm to exercise on +him any action from the social point of view. The problem was to learn +what this humanity would do when restricted to man, and obliged to +extract from its own resources, if not its food supplies, yet at least +all its pleasures, all its occupations, all its creative inspirations. +The answer has been given, and we have realised at the same time what an +unsuspected drag the terrestrial fauna and flora had hitherto been on +the progress of humanity.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> In appearance only: we must not forget that in accordance +with all probability many extinct stars must have served as the scene of +this normal and necessary phase of social life.</p></div> + +<p>At first human pride and the faith of man in himself hitherto held in +check by the constant presence, by the profound sense of the superiority +of the forces round it, rebounded with a force of elasticity really +appalling. We are a race of Titans. But, at the same time, whatever +enervating element there might have been in the air of our grottoes has +been thereby victoriously combated. Otherwise our air is the purest that +man has ever breathed; all the bad germs with which the atmosphere was +loaded were killed by the cold. Far from being attacked by anæmia as +some predicted, we live in a state of habitual excitement maintained by +the multiplicity of our relations and of our "social tonics" (friendly +shakes of the hand, talks, meetings with charming women, etc.). With a +certain number among us it passes into a state of unintermittent +delirium under the name of Troglodytic fever. This new malady, whose +microbe has not yet been discovered, was unknown to our forefathers, +thanks perhaps to the stupefying (or soothing, if you prefer it) +influence of natural and rural distractions. Rural! what a strange +anachronism! Fishermen, hunters, ploughmen, and shepherds—do we really +understand to-day the meaning of these words? Have we for a moment +reflected on the life of that fossil creature who is so frequently +mentioned in books of ancient history and who was called the peasant? +The habitual society of this curious creature which comprised half or +three-quarters of the population was not man, but four-footed beasts, +pot herbs and green crops, which, owing to the conditions necessary for +their production in the country (yet another word which has become +meaningless) condemned him to live a wild, solitary life, far from his +fellows. As for his herds, they were acquainted with the charms of +social life, but he had not the slightest inkling of what it meant.</p> + +<p>The towns, to which people were so astonished that there should be a +desire to emigrate, were the only centres, rare and widely scattered as +they were, in which life in society was then known. But to what extent +does it not appear to have been adulterated, and attenuated by animal +and vegetable life? Another fossil peculiar to these regions is the +artisan. Was the relation of the worker to his employer, of the artisan +class to the other classes of the population, of these classes between +themselves a really social relation? Not the least in the world! Certain +sophists, who were called economists, and who were to our sociologists +of to-day what the alchemists formerly were to the chemists or the +astrologers to the astronomers, had given credit, it is true, to this +error—that society essentially consists in an exchange of services. +From this point of view, which, moreover, is quite out of date, the +social bond could never be closer than that between the ass and the ass +driver, the ox and drover, the sheep and the shepherd. Society, we now +know, consists in the exchange of reflections. Mutually to ape one +another, and by dint of accumulated apings diversely combined to create +an originality is the important thing. Reciprocal service is only an +accessory. That is why the urban life of former days being principally +founded on the organic and natural, rather than on the social relation +of producer to consumer, or of workman to employer, was itself only a +very imperfect kind of social life, and accordingly the source of +endless disagreements.</p> + +<p>If it has been possible for us to realise the most perfect and the most +intense social life that has ever been seen, it is thanks to the extreme +simplicity of our strictly so-called wants. At a time when man was +"panivorous" and omnivorous, the craving for food was broken up into an +infinity of petty ramifications. To-day it is confined to eating meat +which has been preserved in the best of refrigerators. Within the space +of an hour each morning, a single member of society by the employment of +our ingenious transport machinery feeds a thousand of his kind. The need +of clothing has been pretty nearly abolished by the softness of an ever +constant climate, and, we must also admit it, by the absence of +silkworms and of textile plants. That would perhaps be a disadvantage +were it not for the incomparable beauty of our bodies, which lends a +real charm to this grand simplicity of costume. Let us observe, however, +that it is fairly customary to wear coats of asbestos spangled with +mica, of silver interwoven and enriched with gold, in which the refined +and delicate charms of our women appear as though moulded in metal, +rather than completely screened from view. This metallic iridescence +with its infinite tints has a most delightful effect. These are, +however, costumes that never wear out. How many clothiers, milliners, +tailors, and drapery establishments are thereby abolished at a single +stroke! The need of shelter remains, it is true, but it has been greatly +reduced. One is no longer obliged to sleep at "starlight-hotel". When a +young man grows weary of the life in common which has hitherto sufficed +him in the spacious working-drawing-room of his fellows, and desires for +matrimonial reasons to have a dwelling to himself, he has only to apply +the boring-machine somewhere against the rocky wall and his cell is +excavated in a few days. There is no rent and few articles of furniture. +The joint-stock furniture, which is magnificent, is almost the only one +of which the pair of lovers make use.</p> + +<p>The quota of absolute necessities being thus reduced to almost nothing, +the quota of superfluities has been able to be extended to almost +everything. Since we live on so little, there remains abundant time for +thought. A minimum of utilitarian work and a maximum of æsthetic, is +surely civilisation itself in its most essential element. The room left +vacant in the heart by the reduction of our wants is taken up by the +talents—those artistic, poetic, and scientific talents which, as they +day by day multiply and take deeper root, become really and truly +acquired wants. They really spring, however, from a necessity to +produce, and not from a necessity to consume. I underline this +difference. The manufacturer is ever toiling, not for his own pleasure +nor for that of the world about him, of his fellow-men or his natural +rivals, but for a society different from his own—on mutual terms, but +that is immaterial. His work, therefore, constitutes a non-social, an +almost anti-social relationship with those who are not of his kind, to +the great hurt and hindrance of his relations with those who are. The +increasing intensity of his work tends to accentuate and not to +attenuate the dissimilarities between the different grades of society, +which act as an obstacle to the general reunion. We have clearly seen +the truth of this in the course of the twentieth century of the ancient +era, when the whole population was divided into trades-unions of the +different professions, which waged desperate warfare on one another, and +whose members in the bosom of each union hated one another as only +brothers can.</p> + +<p>But for the scientist, the artist, the lover of beauty in all its forms, +to produce is a passion, to consume is only a taste. For every artist +has a dilettante double. But his dilettantism in respect to arts other +than his own only plays by comparison a secondary part in his life. The +artist creates through sheer delight, and he alone creates for such +motives.</p> + +<p>We can now comprehend the depth of the truly social revolution which was +accomplished from the days when the æsthetic activity, by dint of ever +growing, ended by vanquishing utilitarian activity. Henceforth in place +of the relation of producer to consumer has been substituted, as +preponderating element in human dealings, the relation of the artist to +the art-lover. The ancient social ideal was to seek amusement or +self-satisfaction apart and to render mutual service. For this we +substitute the following: to be one's own servant and mutually to +delight one another. Henceforward, to insist once more, society reposes, +not on the exchange of services, but on the exchange of admiration or +criticism, of favourable or unfavourable judgments. The anarchical +regime of greed in all its forms has been succeeded by the autocratic +government of enlightened opinion which has become supreme. For our +worthy ancestors deceived themselves finely when they persuaded +themselves that social progress led to what they termed freedom of +thought. We have something better; we possess the joy and the strength +of the mind which attains a certainty of its own, founded, as it is, on +its only sure basis, the unanimity of other minds on certain essential +matters. On this rock we can rear the highest constructions of thought, +nay, the most gigantic systems of philosophy.</p> + +<p>The error, at present recognised, of those ancient visionaries called +socialists was their failure to see that this life in common, this +intense social life, they dreamt of so ardently, had for its +indispensable condition the æsthetic life and the universal propagation +of the religion of truth and beauty. The latter assumes the drastic +lopping off of numerous personal wants. Consequently in rushing, as they +did, into an exaggerated development of commercial life, they were +marching in the opposite direction to their own goal.</p> + +<p>They must have begun, I am well aware, by uprooting the fatal habit of +eating bread, which made man a slave to the tyrannical whims of a plant, +of beasts which were necessary for the manuring of this plant, and of +other plants which served as fodder for their beasts.... But as long as +this unhappy craving was rampant and they refrained from combating it, +it was obligatory to abstain from arousing others which were not less +anti-social, that is to say, not less natural. It was far better to +leave men at the ploughtail than to attract them to the factory, for the +dispersion and isolation of individualist types are more preferable to +bringing them together, which can only result in setting them by the +ears. But let us hurry on. All the advantages for which we are indebted +to our anti-natural position are now clear. We alone have realised all +the quintessence of refinement and reality, of strength and of +sweetness, that the social life contains. Formerly, here and there, in a +few rare cases in the midst of deserts an individual had certainly had a +distant foretaste of this ineffable thing, not to mention three or four +salons in the eighteenth century under the ancient regime, two or three +painters' studios, one or two green-rooms. They represented, in a way, +imperceptible cores of social protoplasm lost amid a mass of foreign +matter. But this marrow has become the entire bone at present. Our +cities, all in all, are one vast workshop, household and reception hall. +And this has happened in the simplest and most inevitable manner in the +world. Following the law of separation of the old Herbert Spencer, the +selection of heterogeneous talents and vocations was bound to take place +of its own accord. In fact, at the end of a century there was already +underground in course of development and continuous excavation a city of +painters, a city of sculptors, a city of musicians, of poets, of +geometricians, of physicists, of chemists, even of naturalists, of +psychologists, of scientific or æsthetic specialists of every kind, +except, strictly speaking, in philosophy. For we were obliged after +several attempts to give up the idea of founding or maintaining a city +of philosophers, notably owing to the incessant trouble caused by the +tribe of sociologists who are the most unsociable of mankind.</p> + +<p>Let us not forget, by the way, to mention the city of "sappers" (we no +longer speak of architects), whose speciality is to work out the plans +for excavating and repairing all our crypts and to direct the carrying +out of the work by our machines. Quitting the hackneyed paths of former +architecture, they have created in every detail our modern architecture +so profoundly original of which nothing could give an idea to our +forefathers. The public building of the ancient architect was a kind of +massive and voluminous work of art. It was entirely a thing by itself. +Its exterior, and especially its front, occupied his attention far more +than the inside. For the modern architect the interior alone exists, and +each work is linked on to those which have gone before. None stands by +itself. They are only an extension and ramification, one of another, an +endless continuation like the epics of the East. The work of the ancient +architect with its misplaced individuality, with its symmetry, which +gave it a mock air of being a living thing, yet only rendered it more +out of keeping with the surrounding landscape, the more symmetrical and +more skilfully designed it was, produced the effect of a verse in prose, +or of a hackneyed theme in a fantasia. Its special function was to +represent correctness, coldness, and stiffness amid the luxuriant +disorder of nature and the freedom of the other arts. But to-day, +instead of being the most tight-laced of the arts, architecture is the +freest and most wanton of them all. It is the chief element of +picturesqueness in our life, its artificial and veritably artistic +scenery lends to all the masterpieces of our painters and sculptors the +horizon of its perspective, the sky of its vaults, the tangled +vegetation of its innumerable colonnades, whose shafts are a copy of the +idealised trunk of all the antique essence of tree-life, whose capitals +imitate the idealised form of all the antique flowers. Here is nature +winnowed and perfected, which has become human in order to delight +humanity, and which humanity has deified in order to shelter love +beneath its shade. This perfection has only been, however, attained +after much groping in the dark. Many falls of rock, occasioned by +foolhardy excavations, which unduly reduced the number of supports, +swallowed up whole towns during the first two centuries. They will serve +for our descendants as Pompeii to rediscover. At the least shock +produced by earthquakes (the only natural plague which engages our +attention), a few cases of crushing to death still occur here and there, +but such accidents are very rare.</p> + +<p>To return to our subject. Each of our cities in founding colonies in the +region round it, has become the mother of cities similar to itself, in +which its own peculiar colour has been multiplied in different tints +which reflect and render it more beautiful. It is thus with us that +nations are formed whose differences no longer correspond to +geographical accidents but to the diversity of the social aptitudes of +human nature and of nothing else. Nay, more, in each of them the +division of cities is founded on that of schools, the most flourishing +of which, at any given moment, raises its particular town to the rank of +capital, thanks to the all-powerful favour of the public.</p> + +<p>The beginnings and devolution of power, questions which have so deeply +agitated humanity of yore, arise with us in the most natural way in the +world. There is always amid the crowd of our genius, a superior genius +who is hailed as such by the almost unanimous acclamation of his pupils +at first, and next of his comrades. A man is judged in fact by his peers +and according to his productions, not by the incompetent or according to +his electoral exploits. In the light of the intimate sense of corporate +life which binds and cements us one to another, the elevation of such a +dictator to the supreme magistracy has nothing humiliating about it for +the pride of the senators who have elected him, and who are the chiefs +of all the leading schools they themselves have created. The elector who +is a pupil, the elector who is an intelligent and sympathetic admirer +identifies himself with the object of his choice. Now it is the +particular characteristic of a "Geniocratic" Republic to be based on +admiration, not on envy, on sympathy, and not on dislike—on +enlightenment, not on illusion.</p> + +<p>Nothing is more delightful than a tour through our domains. Our towns, +which are quite close to one another are severally connected by broad +roads which are always illuminated and dotted with light and graceful +monocycles, with trains without smoke or whistle, with pretty electric +carriages which glide silently along, like gondolas between walls +covered with admirable bas-reliefs, with charming inscriptions, with +immortal fancies, the outpourings and accumulations of ten generations +of wandering artists. Similarly one might have seen in the olden times +the scanty remains of some convent where, in the course of ages the +monks had translated their weariness of spirit into grinning figures, +with hooded heads, into beasts from the Apocalypse, clumsily sculptured +on the capitals of the little pilasters or around the stone chair of the +Abbot. But what a distance lies between this monkish nightmare and this +artistic revelation! At the very most the pretty little gallery which +joined across the Arno, the museum of the Pitti Palace, with that of the +Uffizi at Florence, could give our ancestors a faint idea of what we +see.</p> + +<p>If the corridors of our abode possess this wealth and splendour, what +shall we say of the dwelling-places, or of the cities? They are filled +with heaps of artistic marvels, of frescoes, enamels, gold and silver +plate, bronzes and pictures, the acme and quintessence of musical +emotions, of philosophic conceptions, of poetic dreams, enough to baffle +all description, and weary all admiration. We have difficulty in +believing that the labyrinth of galleries, subterranean palaces and +marble catacombs, all named and numbered, whose manifold nomenclature +recalls all the geography and history of the past, have been excavated +in so few centuries. That is what perseverance can do! However +accustomed we may be to this extraordinary sight, it still at times +happens when wandering alone, during the hours of the siesta, in this +sort of infinite cathedral, with its irregular and endless architecture, +through this forest of lofty columns, massive or in close formation, +displaying in turn the most diversified and grandiose styles, Egyptian, +Greek, Byzantine, Arab, Gothic, and reminiscent of all the vanished and +venerated floras and faunas, when it is not above all profoundly +original ... it happens, I repeat, that panting, and beside ourselves +with ecstasy, we come to a standstill, like the traveller of yore when +he entered the twilight of a virgin forest, or of the pillared hall of +Karnak.</p> + +<p>To those who on reading the ancient accounts of travels might perchance +have regretted the wanderings of caravans across the deserts or the +discoveries of new worlds, our universe can offer boundless excursions +under the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans frozen to their very lowest +depths. Venturesome explorers, I was going to say discoverers, have in +every direction and in the easiest imaginable fashion honeycombed these +immense ice-caps with endless passages much in the same way as the +termites, according to our palæontologists, bored through the floors of +our fathers. We extend at will these fantastic galleries of crystal, +which, wherever they cross one another, form so many crystal palaces, by +casting on the walls a ray of intense heat which makes them melt. We +take good care to drain the water due to the liquefaction into one of +those bottomless pits which here and there yawn hideously beneath our +feet. Thanks to this method and the improvements it has undergone we +have succeeded in cutting, hewing and carving the solidified sea-water. +We are able to glide through it, to manoeuvre in it, to course through +it on skates or velocipedes with an ease and agility that are always +admired in spite of our being accustomed to it. The severe cold of these +regions is scarcely tempered by millions of electric lamps which are +mirrored in these emerald-green icicles with their velvet-like tints and +renders a permanent stay impossible. It would even prevent us crossing +them if, by good luck, the earliest pioneers had not discovered in them +crowds of seals which had been caught while still alive by the freezing +of the waters in which they remain imprisoned. Their carefully prepared +skins have furnished us with warm clothing. Nothing is more curious than +thus suddenly to catch sight of, as it were through a mysterious glass +case, one of these huge marine animals, sometimes a whale, a shark or a +devil fish, and that star-like flora which carpets the seas. Though +appearing crystallized in its transparent prison, in its Elysium of pure +brine, it has lost none of its secret charm, that was quite unknown to +our ancestors. Idealised by its very lack of motion, immortalised by its +death, it dimly shines here and there with gleams of pearl and mother of +pearl in the twilight of the depths below, to the right, the left, +beneath the feet or above the head of the solitary skater who roams with +his lamp on his forehead in pursuit of the unknown. There is always +something new to look forward to from these miraculous soundings, so +different from the soundings of former time. Never a tourist has come +home without having discovered some interesting object—a piece of +wreckage, the steeple of some sunken town, a human skeleton to enrich +our prehistoric museums, sometimes a shoal of sardines or cod. These +splendid and timely reserves come in very handy for replenishing our +bill of fare. But the chief fascination of such adventurous exploration +is the sense of the boundless and the everlasting, of the unfathomable +and the changeless by which one is arrested and overwhelmed in these +bottomless depths. The savour of this silence and solitude, of this +profound peace, the sequel to so many tempests, of this almost starless +gloaming and twilight with its fleeting gleams, reposes the eye after +our underground illuminations. I will not speak of the surprises which +the hand of man has lavished there. At the moment when one least expects +it one sees the submarine tunnel along which one is gliding, enlarged +beyond all measure and transformed into a vast hall in which the fancy +of our sculptors has found full play, a temple of vast dimensions with +transparent pillars, with walls of enthralling beauty that the eye in +ecstasy attempts to fathom. That is often the trysting place of friends +and lovers, and the excursion begun in dreamy loneliness is continued in +loving companionship.</p> + +<p>But we have wandered long enough in these halls of mysteries. Let us +return to our cities. One would look, by the bye, in vain for a city of +lawyers there, or even, for a court of justice. There is no more arable +land and therefore no more lawsuits about property or ancient rights. +There are no more walls, and therefore no more lawsuits about party +walls. As for felonies and misdemeanours, we do not know exactly why, +but it is an obvious fact that with the spread of the cult of art they +have disappeared as by enchantment, while formerly the progress of +industrial life had tripled their numbers in half a century.</p> + +<p>Man in becoming a town dweller has become really human. From the time +that all sorts of trees and beasts, of flowers and insects no longer +interpose between men, and all sorts of vulgar wants no longer hinder +the progress of the truly human faculties, every one seems to be born +well-bred, just as every one is born a sculptor or musician, philosopher +or poet, and speaks the most correct language with the purest accent. An +indescribable courtesy, skilled to charm without falsehood, to please +without obsequiousness, the most free from fawning one has ever seen, is +united to a politeness which has at heart the feeling, not of a social +hierarchy to be respected, but of a social harmony to be maintained. It +is composed not of more or less degenerate airs of the court, but of +more or less faithful reflections of the heart. Its refinement is such +as the race who lived on the surface of earth never even dreamed of. It +permeates like a fragrant oil all the complicated and delicate machinery +of our existence. No unsociableness, no misanthropy can resist it. The +charm is too profound. The single threat of ostracism, I do not say of +expulsion to the realms above, which would be a death sentence, but of +banishment beyond the limits of the usual corporate life, is sufficient +to arrest the most criminal natures on the slope of crime. There is in +the slightest inflexion of voice, in the least inclination of the head +of our women a special charm, which is not only the charm of former +times, whether roguish kindness or kindly roguishness, but a refinement +at once more exquisite and more healthful in which the constant practice +of seeing and doing beautiful things or loving and being loved is +expressed in an ineffable fashion.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h3> + +<h2>LOVE</h2> + + +<p>Love, in fact, is the unseen and perennial source of this novel +courtesy. The capital importance it has assumed, the strange forms it +has worn, the unexpected heights to which it has risen, are perhaps the +most significant characteristics of our civilisation. In the glittering +and superficial epochs, age of paper and electro-plating, which +immediately preceded our present era, love was held in check by a +thousand childish needs, by the contagious mono-mania of unsightly and +cumbersome luxury or of ceaseless globe-trotting, and by that other form +of madness which has now disappeared, the so-called political ambition. +It suffered accordingly an immense decline, relatively speaking. To-day +it benefits from the destruction or gradual diminution of all the other +principal impulses of the heart which have taken refuge and concentrated +themselves in it as banished mankind has done in the warm bosom of the +earth. Patriotism is dead, since there is no longer any native land, but +only a native grot. Moreover the guilds which we enter as we please +according to our vocations have taken the place of Fatherlands. +Corporate spirit has exterminated patriotism. In the same fashion the +school is on the road not to exterminate but to transform the family, +which is only right and proper. The best that can be said for the +parents of old was that they were compulsory and not always cost-free +friends. One was not wrong in preferring in general to them friends who +are a species of optional and unselfish relations. Maternal love itself +has undergone a good many transformations among our women artists, and +one must admit, sundry partial set backs.</p> + +<p>But love is left to us. Or rather, be it said without vanity, it is we +who discovered and introduced it. Its name has preceded it by a good +many centuries. Our ancestors gave it its name, but they spoke of it as +the Hebrews spoke of the Messiah. It has revealed itself in our day. In +our day it has become incarnate, it has founded the true religion, +universal and enduring, that pure and austere moral which is +indistinguishable from art. It has been favoured at the outset, beyond +all doubt and beyond all expectation by the charm and beauty of our +women, who are all differently yet almost equally accomplished. There is +nothing <i>natural</i> left in our world below if it be not they. But it +appears they have always been the most beautiful thing in nature even in +the most unfavourable and ill-favoured ages. For we are assured that +never was the graceful curve of hill or stream, of wave or rippling +cornfield, that never was the hue of the dawn or of the Mediterranean +equal in sweetness, in strength, in richness of visible music and +harmony to the female form. There must therefore have been a special +instinct which is quite incomprehensible which formerly retained the +poor beside their natal river or rock and prevented their emigrating to +the big towns, where they might well have hoped to admire at their ease +tints and outlines of beauty assuredly far superior to the charm of the +locality to whose attractions they fell a victim. At present there is no +other country than the woman of one's affections; there is no other +home-sickness than that caused by her absence.</p> + +<p>But the foregoing is insufficient to explain the unparalleled power and +persistence of our love which time intensifies more than it wears out, +and consummates as it consumes it. Love, we now at last know, is like +air, essential to life; we must look to it for health and not for mere +nourishment. It is as the sun once was, we must use it to give us light, +not allow it to dazzle us. It resembles that imposing temple that the +fervour of our fathers raised in its honour when they worshipped it, +unwittingly, at the Paris Opera-house. The most beautiful part of it is +the staircase—when one mounts it. We have therefore attempted to make +the staircase monopolise the whole edifice without leaving the tiniest +room for the hall. The wise man, an ancient writer has said, is to the +woman what the asymptote is to the curve, it draws ever nearer but never +touches. It was a half crazy fellow named Rousseau who uttered this +splendid aphorism and our society flatters itself that it has practised +it far better than he. All the same the ideal thus outlined, we are +compelled to confess, is rarely attained in all its entity. This degree +of perfection is reserved for the most saintly souls, the ascetics, men +and women, who wander together, two and two, in the most marvellous +cloisters, in the most Raphaelesque cells in the city of painters, in a +sort of artificial dusk produced by a coloured twilight in the midst of +a throng of similar couples, and on the banks of a stream so to say of +audacious and splendid revelations of the nude. They pass their life in +feasting their eyes on these waves of beauty, the living bank of which +is their own passion. Together they climb the fiery steps of the +heavenly staircase to the very summit on which they halt. Then supremely +inspired they set to work and produce masterpieces. Heroic lovers are +they whose whole pleasure in love consists in the sublime joy of feeling +their love growing within them, blissful because it is shared, inspiring +because it is chaste.</p> + +<p>But for the greater number of us it has been necessary to come down to +the level of the insurmountable weakness of the old Adam. None the less +the inelastic limits of our food supplies have made it a duty for us +rigorously to guard against a possible excess in our population which +has reached to-day fifty millions, a figure it can never exceed without +danger. We have been obliged to forbid in general under the most severe +penalties a practice which apparently was very common and indulged in +<i>ad libitum</i> by our forefathers. Is it possible that after manufacturing +the rubbish heaps of law with which our libraries are lumbered up, they +precisely omitted to regulate the only matter considered worthy to-day +of regulation? Can we conceive that it could ever have been permissible +to the first comer without due authorisation to expose society to the +arrival of a new hungry and wailing member—above all at a time when it +was not possible to kill a partridge without a game licence, or to +import a sack of corn without paying duty? Wiser and more far-sighted, +we degrade, and in case of a second offence we condemn to be thrown into +a lake of petroleum, whoever allows himself to infringe our +constitutional law on this point, or rather we should say, should allow +himself, for the force of public opinion has got the better of the crime +and has rendered our penalties unnecessary. We sometimes, nay very +often, see lovers who go mad from love and die in consequence. Others +courageously get themselves hoisted by a lift to the gaping mouth of an +extinct volcano and reach the outer air which in a moment freezes them +to death. They have scarcely time to regard the azure sky—a magnificent +spectacle, so they say—and the twilight hues of the still dying sun or +the vast and unstudied disorder of the stars; then locked in each +other's arms they fall dead upon the ice! The summit of their favourite +volcano is completely crowned with their corpses which are admirably +preserved always in twos, stark and livid, a living image still of love +and agony, of despair and frenzy, but more often of ecstatic repose. +They recently made an indelible impression on a celebrated traveller who +was bold enough to make the ascent in order to get a glimpse of them. We +all know how he has since died from the effects.</p> + +<p>But what is unheard of and unexampled in our day is for a woman in love +to abandon herself to her lover before the latter has under her +inspiration produced a masterpiece which is adjudged and proclaimed as +such by his rivals. For here we have the indispensable condition to +which legitimate marriage is subordinated. The right to have children is +the monopoly and supreme recompense of genius. It is besides a powerful +lever for the uplifting and exaltation of the race. Futhermore a man can +only exercise it exactly the same number of times as he produces works +worthy of a master. But in this respect some indulgence is shown. It +even happens pretty frequently that touched by pity for some grand +passion that disposes only of a mediocre talent, the affected admiration +of the public partly from sympathy and partly from condescension accords +a favourable verdict to works of no intrinsic value. Perhaps there are +also (in fact there is no doubt about it) for common use other methods +of getting round the law.</p> + +<p>Ancient society reposed on the fear of punishment, on a penal system +which has had its day. Ours, it is clear, is based on the expectation of +happiness. The enthusiasm and creative fire aroused by such a +perspective are attested by our exhibitions, and borne witness to by the +rich luxuriance of our annual art harvests. When we think of the +precisely opposite effects of ancient marriage, that institution of our +ancestors, more ridiculous still than their umbrellas, one can measure +the distance between this excessive and pretended exclusive <i>debitum +conjugale</i> and our mode of union, at once free and regulated, energetic +and intermittent, passionate and restrained, the true corner-stone of +our regenerated humanity. The sufferings it imposes on those who are +sacrificed, the unsuccessful artists, is not for the latter a cause of +complaint. Their despair itself is dear to the desperate; for if they do +not die of it, they draw life and immortality from it and from the +bottomless pit of their inner depth of woe, they gather deathless +flowers, flowers of art or poesy for some, mystic roses for others. To +the latter perhaps is given at that moment, as they grope in their +inward darkness to touch most nearly the essence of things, and these +delights are so vivid that our artists and our metaphysical mystics +wonder whether art and philosophy were made to console love or if the +sole reason for love's existence is not to inspire art and the pursuit +of ultimate truth. This last opinion has generally prevailed.</p> + +<p>The extent to which love has refined our habits, and to which our +civilisation based on love is superior in morality to the former +civilisation based on ambition and covetousness, was proved at the time +of the great discovery which took place in the Year of Salvation 194. +Guided by some mysterious inkling, some electric sense of direction, a +bold sapper by dint of forcing his way through the flanks of the earth +beyond the ordinary galleries suddenly penetrated into a strange open +space buzzing with human voices and swarming with human faces. But what +squeaky voices! What sallow complexions! What an impossible language +with no connection with our Greek! It was, without doubt, a veritable +underground America, quite as vast and still more curious. It was the +work of a little tribe of burrowing Chinese who had had, one imagines, +the same idea as our Miltiades. Much more practical than he, they had +hastily crawled underground without encumbering themselves with museums +and libraries, and there they had multiplied enormously. Instead of +confining themselves as we to turning to account the deposits of animal +carcasses, they had shamelessly given themselves up to ancestral +cannibalism. They were thus enabled, seeing the thousand of millions of +Chinese destroyed and buried beneath the snow, to give full vent to +their prolific instincts. Alas! who knows if our own descendants will +not one day be reduced to this extremity? In what promiscuity, in what a +slough of greed, falsehood and robbery were these unfortunates living! +The words of our language refuse to depict their filth and coarseness. +With infinite pains they raised underground diminutive vegetables in +diminutive beds of soil they had brought thither together with +diminutive pigs and dogs.... These ancient servants of mankind appeared +very disgusting to our new Christopher Columbus. These degraded beings +(I speak of the masters and not of the animals, for the latter belong to +a breed that has been much improved by those who raised them) had lost +all recollection of the Middle Empire and even of the surface of the +earth. They heartily laughed when some of our <i>savants</i> sent on a +mission to them spoke to them of the firmament, the sun, the moon and +the stars.... They listened, however, to the end of these accounts, then +in an ironical tone they asked our envoys: "Have you seen all that?" And +the latter unfortunately could not reply to the question, since no one +among us has seen the sky except the lovers who go to die together.</p> + +<p>Now, what did our settlers do at the sight of such cerebral atrophy? +Several proposed, it is true, to exterminate these savages who might +well become dangerous owing to their cunning and to their numbers, and +to appropriate their dwelling-place after a certain amount of cleaning +and painting and the removal of numerous little bells. Others proposed +to reduce them to the status of slaves or servants in order to shift on +to them all our menial work. But these two proposals were rejected. An +attempt was made to civilize and to render less savage these poor +cousins, and once the impossibility of any success in that direction had +been ascertained the partition was carefully blocked up.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h3> + +<h2>THE ÆSTHETIC LIFE</h2> + + +<p>Such is the moral miracle wrought by our excellence which itself is +begotten of love and beauty. But the intellectual marvels which have +issued from the same source, merit a still more extended notice. It will +be enough for me to indicate them as I go along.</p> + +<p>Let us first speak of the sciences. One might have thought that from the +day that the stars and celestial bodies, the faunas and floras, ceased +to play a certain part in our lives or that the manifold sources of +observation and experience ceased to flow, astronomy and meteorology +would henceforth be brought to a standstill while zoology and botany +would have become palæontology pure and simple, without speaking of +their application to the navy, army and agriculture, which are all +to-day entirely obsolete; in fact, that they would have ceased to make a +step forward and would have fallen into complete oblivion. Luckily these +apprehensions proved groundless. Let us admire the extent to which the +sciences which the past has bequeathed to us, formerly eminently useful +and inductive, have for the first time had the advantage of passionately +interesting and exciting the general public since they have acquired +this double characteristic of being an object of luxury and a deductive +subject. The past has accumulated such undigested masses of astronomical +tables, papers and proceedings dealing with measurements, vivisections, +and innumerable experiments, that the human mind can live on this +capital till the end of time. It was high time that it began at last to +arrange and utilize these materials. Now, for the sciences of which I am +speaking, the advantage is great from the point of view of their success +that they are entirely based on written testimony, and in no way on +sense perception, and that they on all occasions invoke the authority of +books (for we talk to-day of whole bibliographies when formerly people +spoke of a single Bible—evidently an immense difference). This great +and inestimable advantage consists in the extraordinary riches of our +libraries in documents of the most diverse kinds which never leaves an +ingenious theorist in the lurch, and is equal to supporting in a plenary +and authoritative fashion the most contradictory opinions at one and the +same symposium. Its abundance recalls the admirable wealth of antique +legislation and jurisprudence in texts and decisions of every hue which +rendered the lawsuits so interesting, almost as much as the battles of +the populace of Alexandria on the subject of a theological iota. The +debates of our <i>savants</i>, their polemics relative to the Vitellin yolk +of the egg of the Arachneida, or the digestive apparatus of the +Infusoria, constitute the burning questions which distress us, and which +if we had the misfortune to possess a regular press, would not fail to +drench our streets in gore. For the questions which are useless and even +harmful have always the knack of rousing the passions, provided they are +insoluble.</p> + +<p>These are our religious quarrels. In fact the sum total of the sciences +bequeathed to us by the past has become definitely and inevitably a +religion. Our <i>savants</i> to-day who work deductively on these data from +henceforth changeless and inviolate, exactly recall on a much larger +scale the theologians of the ancient world. This new encyclopædic +theology, not less fertile than others in schisms and heresies, is the +unique but inexhaustible source of divisions in the bosom of our Church +which is otherwise so compact. It is perhaps the most profound and +fascinating charm of our intellectual leaders.</p> + +<p>"All the same, they are dead sciences!" say certain malcontents. Let us +accept the epithet. They are dead, if one likes, but after the fashion +of those languages in which a whole people chanted its hymns although no +one speaks them any longer. This is also the case with certain faces +whose beauty only appears in its fulness when their last sleep has come. +Let none therefore be surprised if our love fastens on these majestic +dogmas, by which we are more and more overshadowed, on these higher +inutilities which are our vocation. Above all, mathematics, as being the +most perfect type of the new sciences, has progressed with giant steps. +Descending to fabulous depths, analysis has allowed the astronomers at +length to attack and to solve problems whose mere statement would have +provoked an incredulous smile in their predecessors. And so they +discover every day, chalk in hand, not with the telescope to the eye, I +know not how many intra-mercurial or extra-neptunian planets, and begin +to distinguish the planets of the nearer stars. There are in this +department, in the comparative anatomy and physiology of numerous solar +systems, the most novel and profound views. Our Leverriers are reckoned +by hundreds. Being all the better acquainted with the sky because they +no longer see it, they resemble Beethoven, who only wrote his finest +symphonies when he had lost his hearing. Our Claude Bernards and +Pasteurs are almost as numerous. Although we are careful as a matter of +fact not to accord to the natural sciences the exaggerated and +fundamentally anti-social importance they formerly usurped during two or +three centuries, we do not completely neglect them. Even the applied +sciences have their votaries. Recently one of the latter has at last +discovered—such is the irony of destiny—the practical means of +steering balloons. These discoveries are useless, I admit, yet are ever +beautiful and fertile, fertile in new, if superfluous, beauties. They +are welcomed with transports of feverish enthusiasm and win for their +originators something better than glory,—the happiness that we know so +well.</p> + +<p>But among the sciences there are two which are still experimental and +inductive and in addition pre-eminently useful. It is to this +exceptional standing that they perhaps owe, we must admit, the +unparalled rapidity with which they have grown. These two sciences which +were formerly the antipodes of one another, are to-day on the high road +to becoming identical by dint of pushing their joint researches ever +deeper and crushing to atoms the last problems left. Their names are +chemistry and psychology.</p> + +<p>Our chemists, inspired perhaps by love and better instructed in the +nature of affinities, force their way into the inner life of the +molecules and reveal to us their desires, their ideas, and under a +fallacious air of conformity, their individual physiognomy. While they +thus construct for us the psychology of the atom, our psychologists +explain to us the atomic theory of self, I was going to say the +sociology of self. They enable us to perceive, even in its most minute +detail, the most admirable of all societies, this hierarchy of +consciousness, this feudal system of vassal souls, of which our +personality is the summit. We are indebted to them both for priceless +benefits. Thanks to the former we are no longer alone in a frozen world. +We are conscious that these rocks are alive and animated, we are +conscious that these hard metals which protect and warm us are likewise +a prolific brotherhood. Through their mediation these living stones have +some message for our heart, something at once alien and intimate, which +neither the stars nor the flowers of the field ever told to our +forefathers. And by their mediation also, and the service is not to be +despised—we have learnt certain processes which allow us (in a scanty +measure, it is true, for the moment) to supplement the insufficiency of +our ordinary food supplies, or to vary their monotony by several +substances agreeable to the taste and entirely compounded by artificial +means. But if our chemists have thus reassured us against the danger of +dying of hunger, our psychologists have acquired still further claims on +our gratitude in freeing us from the fear of death. Permeated by their +doctrines we have followed their consequences to their final conclusion +with the deductive vigour that is second nature with us. Death appears +to us as a dethronement that leads to freedom. It restores to itself the +fallen or abdicated self that retires anew into its inner consciousness, +where it finds in depths more than the equivalent of the outward empire +it has lost. In thinking of the terrors of former man, face to face with +the tomb, we compare them with the dread experienced by the comrades of +Miltiades when they were compelled to bid adieu to the fields of ice, to +the snowy horizons, in order to enter for ever the gloomy abysses in +which such a myriad of glittering and marvellous surprises awaited them.</p> + +<p>That is a well-established doctrine and one on which no discussion would +be tolerated. It is, with our devotion to beauty and our faith in the +divine omnipotence of love, the foundation of our peace of mind and the +starting point of our enthusiasms. Our philosophers themselves avoid +touching on it, as on all which is fundamental in our institutions. To +this perhaps may be traced an agreeable air of harmlessness which adds +to the charm of their refinement and contributes to their success in +public. With such certainties as ballast we can spring with a light +heart into the æther of systems, and so we do not fail to do so. One may +be surprised, however, that I made a distinction between our +philosophers and those deductive <i>savants</i> of whom I have spoken above. +Their subject-matter and their methods are identical. They chew the +cud—if I may be allowed the expression—in the same fashion at the same +mangers. But the one group, I mean the <i>savants</i>, are ordinary +ruminants, that is, slow and clumsy. The others have the peculiar +quality of being at once ruminants and nimble, like the antelope. And +this difference of temperament is indelible.</p> + +<p>There is not, I have already said, a city, but there is a grotto of +philosophers, a natural one to which they come, and sit apart from one +another or in groups, according to their schools, on chairs formed of +granite blocks beside a petrifying well. This spacious grotto contains +astounding stalactites, the slow product of continuous droppings which +vaguely imitate, in the eyes of those who are not too critical, all +kinds of beautiful objects, cups and chandeliers, cathedrals and +mirrors—cups which quench no man's thirst, chandeliers which give no +light, cathedrals in which no one prays, but mirrors in which one sees +oneself more or less faithfully and pleasantly portrayed. There also is +to be seen a gloomy and bottomless lake over which hang like so many +question-marks, the pendants in the sombre roof and the beards of the +thinkers. Such is the ample cave which is exactly identical to the +philosophy it shelters, with its crystals sparkling amid its uncertain +shadows—full of precipices, it is true. It recalls better than anything +else to the new race of men, but with a still greater portion of +mirage-like fascination, that diurnal miracle of our forefathers—the +starry night. Now the crowd of systematic ideas which slowly form and +crystallise there in each brain like mental stalactites is indescribably +enormous. While all the former stalactites of thought are for ever +ramifying and changing their shape, turning as it were from a table into +an altar, or from an eagle into a griffin, new ideas appear here and +there still more surprising. There are always, of course, +Neo-Aristotelians, Neo-Kantians, Neo-Cartesians, and Neo-Pythagoricians. +Let us not forget the commentators of Empedocles to whom his passion for +the volcanic underworld has procured an unexpected rejuvenation of his +antique authority on the minds of men, above all since an archæologist +has maintained he has found the skeleton of this grand man in pushing an +exploring gallery to the very foot of Ætna which to-day is completely +extinct. But there is ever arising some great reformer with an +unpublished gospel that each attempts to enrich with a new version +destined to take its place. I will cite for example the greatest +intellect of our time, the chief of the fashionable school in sociology. +According to this profound thinker the social development of humanity, +starting on the outer rind of the earth and continuing to-day beneath +its crust, at no great distance from the surface, is destined in +proportion to the growing solar and planetary cooling, to pursue its +course from strata to strata down to the very centre of the earth, while +the population forcibly contracts and civilisation on the contrary +expands at each new descent. It is worth seeing the vigour and +Dante-like precision with which he characterises the social type +peculiar to each of these humanities, immured within its own circle, +growing ever nobler and richer, happier and better balanced. One should +read the portrait which he has limned with a bold brush of the last man, +sole survivor and heir of a hundred successive civilisations, left to +himself yet self-sufficient in the midst of his immense stores of +science and art. He is happy as a god because he is omniscient and +omnipotent, because he has just discovered the true answer of the Great +Enigma, yet dying because he cannot survive humanity. By means of an +explosive substance of extraordinary potency he blows up the globe with +himself in order to sow the immensity of space with the last remnants of +mankind. This system very naturally has a good many adherents. The +graceful Hypatias, however, who form his female followers, idly lying +round the master's stone, are agreed it would be proper to associate +with the last man, the last woman, not less ideal than he.</p> + +<p>But what shall I say of art and poetry? Here to be just, praise must +become panegyric. Let us limit ourselves to indicating the general +tendency of the transformations that have taken place. I have related +what has become of our architecture which has been turned "outside in", +so to say, and brought into keeping with its surroundings, the idealised +image in stone, the essence and consummation of former Nature. I shall +not return to the subject. But I must still say a word about this +immortal and overflowing population of statues, this wealth of frescoes, +enamels, and bronzes which in concert with our poetry celebrate in this +architectural transfiguration of the nether world the apotheosis of +love. There would be an interesting study to make on the gradual +metamorphoses that the genius of our painters and sculptors has imposed +for the last three centuries on these traditional types of lions, +horses, tigers, birds, trees and flowers, with which it is never weary +of disporting itself, without being either helped or hindered by the +sight of any animal or any plant. Never, in fact, have our artists, who +protest strongly against being taken for photographers, depicted so many +plants, animals and landscapes, than since these were no more. +Similarly, they have never painted or sculptured so many draperies, +since everyone goes about almost naked, while formerly at the time when +humanity wore clothes the nude abounded in art. Does it mean that +nature, now dead and formerly alive, from which our great masters drew +their subjects and themes, has become a simple hieroglyphic and coldly +conventional alphabet? No. Daughter to-day of tradition and no longer of +productive nature, humanised and harmonised, she has a still firmer hold +on the heart. If she recalls to each his day-dreams rather than his +recollections, his imaginings rather than his impressions, his +admiration as an artist rather than his terror as a child, she is only +the better calculated to fascinate and subdue. She has for us the +profound and intimate charm of an old legend, but it is a legend in +which one believes.</p> + +<p>Nothing is more inspiring. Such must have been the mythology of the +worthy Homer when his hearers in the Cyclades still believed in +Aphrodite and Pallas, in the Dioscuri and the Centaurs, of whom he spoke +to them and wrung from them tears of sheer delight. Thus our poets make +us weep, when they speak to us now of azure skies, of the sea-girt +horizon, of the perfume of roses, of the song of birds, of all those +objects that our eye has never seen, our ear has never heard, of which +all our senses are ignorant, yet our mind conjures them up within us by +a strange instinct at the least suggestion of love.</p> + +<p>And when our painters show us these horses whose legs grow ever slimmer, +these swans whose necks become ever rounder and longer, these vines +whose leaves and branches grow ever more intricate with their lace-like +edges and arabesques interwoven round still more exquisite birds, a +matchless emotion rises within us such as a young Greek might have felt +before a bas-relief crowded with fauns and nymphs or with Argonautes +bearing off the Golden Fleece, or with Nereids sporting around the cup +of Amphitrite.</p> + +<p>If our architecture in spite of all its splendours seems but a simple +foil of our other fine arts, they in their turn, however admirable, have +the air of being barely worthy to illustrate our poetry and literature +graven on stone. But in our poetry and even in our literature there are +glories which in comparison with less obvious beauty are as the corona +is to the ovary, or the frame to the picture. Read our romantic dramas +and epics in which all ancient history is magically unrolled down to the +heroic struggle and love story of Miltiades. You will decide that +nothing more sublime could ever be written. Read also our idylls, our +elegies, our epigrams inspired by antiquity, and our poetry of every +kind written in a dozen dead languages which when desired revive in +order to vivify with their clear notes and their manifold harmonies, the +pleasure of our ear, to accompany, so to say, with their rich +orchestration in English, German, Swedish, Arabic, Italian and French, +the music of our pure Attic. You will imagine nothing more fascinating +than this renaissance and transfiguration of forgotten idioms, once the +glory of antiquity. As for our dramas and our poems which are often at +once the collective and individual work of a school, incarnate in its +chief and animated with a single idea like the sculptures of the +Parthenon, there is nothing comparable in the masterpieces of Sophocles +or Homer. What the extinct species of nature formerly alive are to our +painters and sculptors, the no less extinct sentiments of former human +nature are to our dramatists. Jealousy, ambition, patriotism, +fanaticism, the mad lust of battle, the exalted love of family, the +pride of an illustrious name, all the vanished passions of the heart +when called up upon the stage, no longer cause tears or terror in a +single soul, any more than the heraldic tigers and lions painted up on +our public squares frighten our children. But in a new accent with quite +a different ring, they speak to us their ancient language; and to tell +the truth, they are only a grand piano on which our new passions play. +Now there is but a single passion for all its thousand names, as there +is above but a single sun. It is love, the soul of our soul and source +of our art. That is the true sun which will never fail us, which is +never weary of touching and reanimating with the light of its +countenance its lower creations of yore, the first-born incarnations of +the heart, in order to make them young once more, in order to re-gild +them with its dawns, and reincarnadine them with its setting splendours; +almost in the same fashion as it sufficed the other sun to compass with +a single ray that august summons to deck the earth, addressed to every +ancient plant of the field, awakening it to bloom anew, that grand +yearly transformation scene, so deceptive and entrancing, which they +named the Spring, when there was still a Spring to name!</p> + +<p>And so for our highly refined writers, all that I have just praised a +moment ago has no value if their heart is left untouched. They would +give for one true and personal note all these feats of skill and sleight +of hand. What they look for under the most grandiose conceptions and +stage effects, and under the most audacious novelties in rhyme; what +they adore on bended knee when they have found it, is a short passage, a +line, half a line, on which an imperceptible hint of profound passion, +or the most fleeting phase, though unexpressed, of love in joy, in +suffering or in death has left its impress. Thus at the beginning of +humanity each tint of the dawn or the dusk, each hour of the day was, +for the first man who gave it a name, a new solar god who soon possessed +worshippers, priests and temples of his own. But to analyse sensations +after the manner of the old-fashioned erotic writers gives us no +trouble. The real difficulty and merit lie in gathering along with our +mystics, from the lowest depths of sorrow, its flowers of ecstasy, the +pearls and coral that lie at the bottom of its sea, and to enrich the +soul in its own eyes. Our purest poetry thus joins hands with our most +profound psychology. One is the oracle, the other the dogma of one and +the same religion.</p> + +<p>And yet is it credible? In spite of its beauty, harmony and incomparable +charm, our society has also its malcontents. There are here and there +certain recusants who declare they are soaked and saturated with the +essence, so remarkably pure and so much above proof, of our excessive +and compulsory society. They find our realm of beauty too static, our +atmosphere of happiness too tranquil. In vain to please them we vary +from time to time the intensity and colouring of our illuminations and +ventilate our colonnades with a kind of refreshing breeze. They persist +in condemning as monotonous our day devoid of clouds or night; our year, +devoid of seasons; our towns devoid of country-life. Very curiously when +the month of May comes round, this feeling of restlessness which they +alone experience at ordinary times, becomes contagious and well-nigh +general. And so it is the most melancholy and least busy month of the +year. One would say that the Spring driven from every place, from the +gloomy immensity of the heavens and from the frozen surface of the earth +has, as we, sought refuge under ground; or rather that her wandering +ghost returns at stated seasons to visit us and tantalise us by her +haunting presence. It is then that the city of the musicians grows full +and their music becomes so sweet, pathetic, mournful, and desperately +harrowing that we see lovers by hundreds at a time take each other by +the hand and go up to gaze upon the death-dealing sky.... In reference +to this I ought to say that there was recently a false alarm caused by a +madman who pretended he had seen the sun coming back to life and melting +the ice. At this news which had not been otherwise confirmed, quite a +considerable portion of the population became unsettled and gave itself +up to the pleasing task of forming plans for an early exodus. Such +unhealthy and revolutionary dreams evidently only serve to foment +artificial discontent.</p> + +<p>Luckily a scholar in rummaging in a forgotten corner of the archives put +his hand on a big collection of phonographic and cinematographic records +which had been amassed by an ancient collector. Interpreted by the +phonograph and cinematograph together, these cylinders and films have +enabled us suddenly to hear all the former sounds in nature accompanied +by their corresponding sights, the thunder, the winds, the mountain +torrents, the murmurs that accompany the dawn, the monotonous cry of the +osprey and the long drawn out lament of the nightingale amid the +manifold whisperings of night. At this resurrection of another age to +the ear and eye, of extinct species and vanished phenomena, an immense +astonishment quickly followed by an immense disillusion arose among the +most ardent partisans of a return to the ancient regime. For that was +not what one had hitherto believed on the strength of what even the most +realist poets and novelists had told us. It was something infinitely +less ravishing and less worthy of our regret. The song of the +nightingale above all provoked a most unpleasant surprise. We were all +angry with it for showing itself so inferior to its reputation. +Assuredly the worst of our concerts is more musical than this so-called +symphony of nature with full orchestral accompaniment.</p> + +<p>Thus has been quelled by an ingenious expedient entirely unknown to +former governments, this first and only attempt at rebellion. May it be +the last. A certain leaven of discord is beginning, alas, to contaminate +our ranks, and our moralists observe not without apprehension sundry +symptoms which indicate the relaxation of our morals. The growth in our +population is very disquieting, notably since certain chemical +discoveries, following upon which we have been too much in a hurry to +declare that bread might be made of stones, and that it was no longer +worth while to husband our food supplies or to trouble ourselves to +maintain at a certain limit the number of mouths to feed.</p> + +<p>Simultaneously with the increase in the number of children, there is a +diminution in the number of masterpieces. Let us hope that this +lamentable movement will soon abate. If the sun once more, as after the +different glacial epochs, succeeds in awakening from his lethargy and +regains fresh strength, let us pray that only a small part of our +population, that which is the most light-headed, the most unruly, and +the most deeply attacked by incurable "matrimonialitis", will avail +itself of the seeming yet deceptive advantages offered by this open air +cure and will make a dash upwards for the freedom of those inclement +climes! But this is highly improbable if one reflects on the advanced +age of the sun and the danger of those relapses common to old age. It is +still less desirable. Let us repeat in the words of Miltiades our august +ancestor, blessed are those stars which are extinct, that is to say, the +almost entire number of those which people space. Radiance, as he truly +said, is to the stars what the flowering season is to the plants. After +having flowered, they begin to bear fruit. Thus, doubtless, weary of +expansion and the useless squandering of their strength through the +infinite void, the stars collect the germs of higher life in order to +fertilize them in the depth of their bosom. The deceptive brilliancy of +these widely scattered stars, so relatively few in number, which are +still alight, which have not finished sowing what Miltiades called their +wild oats of light and heat, prevented the first race of men from +thinking of this, to wit of the numberless and tranquil multitude of +dark stars to whom this radiance served as a cloak. But as for us, +delivered from their spell and freed from this immemorial optical +delusion, we continue firmly to believe that, among the stars as among +mankind, the most brilliant are not the best, and that the same causes +have brought about elsewhere the same results, compelling other races of +men to hide themselves in the bosom of their earth, and there in peace +to pursue the happy course of their destiny under unique conditions of +absolute independence and purity, that in short in the heavens as on the +earth true happiness lives concealed.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="NOTE_ON_TARDE" id="NOTE_ON_TARDE"></a>NOTE ON TARDE</h2> + + +<p>Gabriel Tarde was originally a member of the legal profession. For a +long time he was examining magistrate at Sarlat. His works on sociology +and criminology revealed him to the public. He was appointed head of the +Statistical bureau at the Ministry of Justice, a post in which he was +able to obtain first hand the most precious documents for his social +studies. Later he was elected to the chair of modern philosophy at the +College of France, then he was elected member of the Academy of moral +and political sciences in the philosophical section. He died in 1904.</p> + +<p>Tarde wrote a great deal. His flexibility of spirit and style add charm +to his work on technical subjects. In criminology his principal works +are: "The Philosophy of Punishment", "The Professional Criminal", +"Comparative Criminality" (1898);—then come the political works, such +as "The Transformation of Power" (1899). His "Transformation of Law" +dates from 1894. His study in social psychology entitled "Opinion and +the Masses" appeared in 1901. His most celebrated work is perhaps "The +Laws of Imitation" (1900) which was preceded by his "Social Logic" +(1898) and his "Universal Opposition" (1897).</p> + +<p>According to Tarde the social phenomena proceed from individual +inventions which in their turn are the offspring of imitation: the +latter is for Tarde a capital factor in social life. Original ideas or +inventions germinate ceaselessly in the social <i>milieu</i>, but only some, +either by their superior adaptability or through the peculiar authority +of their inventor, are accepted by the public as a whole. Sociology is +thus reduced to a Psychology of the <i>processus</i> of invention and +imitations. This explains why the great effort of Tarde has been to +discover the "Laws of Invention". Thereby he has given in sociology a +preponderating place to the individual, and the accidental, and has thus +separated himself from the most general tendencies of thought in our +times which are those of Comte.</p> + +<p>The style of Tarde is abstract but supple. This fragment of future +History forms a kind of exception to his general work which is very +abstract. Tarde reveals himself in it one of the masters of literary +French. The style is picturesque, intense, broad, even periodic, novel +in respect to the thought, and entirely classical in its purity.</p> + +<p>Joseph Manchon.</p> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 33549 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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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: Underground Man + +Author: Gabriel Tarde + +Translator: Cloudesley Brereton + +Release Date: August 27, 2010 [EBook #33549] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNDERGROUND MAN *** + + + + +Produced by Christine Bell and Marc D'Hooghe at +http://www.freeliterature.org + + + + + +UNDERGROUND MAN + +By + +GABRIEL TARDE + +(1843-1904) + +MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE +PROFESSOR AT THE COLLEGE OF FRANCE + +TRANSLATED BY CLOUDESLEY BRERETON +M.A., L. ÈS L. + +WITH A PREFACE BY H.G. WELLS + +LONDON + +DUCKWORTH & CO. + + +1905 + + + +The whole of Tarde is in this little book. + +He has put into it along with a charming fancy his genialness and depth +of spirit, his ideas on the influence of art and the importance of love, +in an exceptional social milieu. + +This agreeable day-dream is vigorously thought out. On reading it we +fancy we are again seeing and hearing Tarde. In order to indulge in a +repetition of the illusion, a pious friendship has desired to clothe +this fascinating work in an appropriate dress. + + A.L. + + + +CONTENTS + + +DEDICATION +PREFACE By H.G. WELLS +INTRODUCTORY +I. PROSPERITY +II. THE CATASTROPHE +III. THE STRUGGLE +IV. SAVED +V. REGENERATION +VI. LOVE +VII. THE ÆSTHETIC LIFE +NOTE ON TARDE By JOSEPH MANCHON + + + +PREFACE + + +It reflects not at all on Mr Cloudesley Brereton's admirable work of +translation to remark how subtly the spirit of such work as this of M. +Tarde's changes in such a process. There are certain things peculiar, I +suppose, to every language in the world, certain distinctive +possibilities in each. To French far more than to English, belong the +intellectual liveliness, the cheerful, ironical note, the professorial +playfulness of this present work. English is a less nimble, more various +and moodier tongue, not only in the sound and form of its sentences but +in its forms of thought. It clots and coagulates, it proliferates and +darkens, one jests in it with difficulty and great danger to a sober +reputation, and one attempts in vain to figure Professor Giddings and Mr +Benjamin Kidd, Doctor Beattie Crozier and Mr Wordsworth Donisthorpe +glittering out into any so cheerful an exploit as this before us. Like +Mr Gilbert's elderly naval man, they "never larks nor plays", and if +indeed they did so far triumph over the turgid intricacies of our speech +and the conscientious gravity of our style of thought, there would still +be the English public to consider, a public easily offended by any lack +of straightforwardness in its humorists, preferring to be amused by +known and recognised specialists in that line, in relation to themes of +recognised humorous tendency, and requiring in its professors as the +concomitant of a certain dignified inaccessibility of thought and +language, an honourable abstinence from the treacheries, as it would +consider them, of irony and satire. Imagine a Story of the Future from +Mr Herbert Spencer! America and the north of England would have swept +him out of all respect.... But M. Tarde being not only a Member of the +Institute and Professor at the College of France, but a Frenchman, was +free to give these fancies that entertained him, public, literary, and +witty expression, without self-destruction, and produce what has, in its +English dress, a curiously unfamiliar effect. Yet the English reader who +can overcome his natural disinclination to this union of intelligence +and jesting will find a vast amount of suggestion in M. Tarde's +fantastic abundance, and bringing his habitual gravity to bear may even +succeed in digesting off the humour altogether, and emerging with +edification of--it must be admitted--a rather miscellaneous sort. + +It is perhaps remarkable that for so many people, so tremendous a theme +as the material future of mankind should only be approachable either +through a method of conscientiously technical, pseudo-scientific +discussion that is in effect scarcely an approach at all or else in this +mood of levity. I know of no book in this direction that can claim to be +a permanent success which combines a tolerable intelligibility with a +simple good faith in the reader. One may speculate how this comes about? +The subject it would seem is so grave and great as to be incompatibly +out of proportion to the affairs and conditions of the individual life +about which our workaday thinking goes on. We are interested indeed, but +at the same time we feel it is outside us and beyond us. To turn one's +attention to it is at once to get an effect of presumption, strain, and +extravagant absurdity. It is like picking up a spade to attack a +mountain, and one's instinct is to put oneself right in the eyes of +one's fellow-men at once, by a few unmistakably facetious flourishes. It +is the same instinct really as that protective "foolery" in which +schoolboys indulge when they embark upon some hopeless undertaking, or +find themselves entirely outclassed at a game. + +The same instinct one finds in the facetious "parley vous Francey" of a +low class Englishman who would in secret like very much to speak French, +but in practice only admits such an idea as a laughable absurdity. To +give a concrete form to your sociological speculations is to strip them +of all their poor pretensions, and leave them shivering in palpable +inadequacy. It is not because the question is unimportant, but because +it is so overwhelmingly important that this jesting about the Future, +this fantastic and "ironical" fiction goes on. It is the only medium to +express the vague, ill-formed, new ideas with which we are all +labouring. It does not give any measure of our real sense of the +proportion of things that the Future should appear in our literature as +a sort of comic rally and harlequinade after the serious drama of the +Present--in which the heroes and heroines of the latter turn up again in +novel and undignified positions; but it seems to be the only method at +present available by which we may talk about our race's material Destiny +at all. + +M. Tarde, in this special case before us, pursues a course of elusive +ironies; sometimes he jests at contemporary ideas by imagining them in +burlesque realisation, sometimes he jests at contemporary facts by +transposing them into strange surroundings, sometimes he broaches +fancies of his own chiefly for their own sake, yet with the well-managed +literary equivalent of the palliating laugh of conversational +diffidence. It is interesting to remark upon the clearness, the French +reasonableness and order of his conceptions throughout. He thinks, as +the French seem always to think, in terms of a humanity at once more +lucid and more limited than the mankind with which we English have to +deal. There are no lapses, no fogs and mysteries, no total inadequacies, +no brutalities and left-handedness--and no dark gleams of the divinity, +about these amused bright people of five hundred years ahead, who are +overtaken by the great solar catastrophe. They have established a world +state and eliminated the ugly and feeble. You imagine the gentlemen in +that Utopia moving gracefully--with beautifully trimmed nails and +beards--about the most elegant and ravishing of ladies, their charm +greatly enhanced by the _pince-nez_, that is in universal wear. They all +speak not Esperanto--but Greek, which strikes one as a little out of the +picture--and all being more or less wealthy and pretty women and +handsome men, "as common as blackberries" and as available, "human +desire rushed with all its might towards the only field that remained +open to it",--politics. From that it was presently turned back again by +a certain philosophical financier, who, most delightfully, secured his +work for ever, as the reader may learn in detail, by erecting a statue +of Louis Philippe in wrought aluminium against any return of the +flood--and then what remained? The most brilliant efflorescence of +poetry and art! + +One does not quite know how far M. Tarde is in this first part of his +story jesting at his common countrymen's precisions and finalities and +unenterprising, exact arrangements, and how far he is sharing them. +Throughout he seems to assume that men can really make finished plans, +and carry them out, and settle things for ever, and so assure us this +state of elegant promenading among the arts, whereas the whole charm and +interest of making plans and carrying out, lies to the more typical kind +of Englishman, in his ineradicable, his innate, instinctive conviction, +that he will, try as he may, never carry them out at all, but something +else adventurously and happily unexpected and different. M. Tarde gives +his world the unexpected, but it comes, not insidiously as a unique +difference in every individual and item concerned, but from without. +Just as Humanity, handsome and charming, has grouped itself pleasantly, +rationally, and in the best of taste for ever in its studios, in its +_salons_, at its little green tables, at its _tables d'hôte_, in its +_cabinets particuliers_--the sun goes out! + +In the idea of that solar extinction there are extraordinary imaginative +possibilities, and M. Tarde must have exercised considerable restraint +to prevent their running away with him and so jarring with the ironical +lightness of his earlier passages. The conception of the sun seized in a +mysterious, chill grip and flickering from hue to hue in the skies of a +darkened, amazed and terrified world, could be presented in images of +stupendous majesty and splendour. There arise visions of darkened cities +and indistinct, multitudinous, fleeing crowds, of wide country-sides of +chill dismay, of beasts silent with the fear of this last eclipse, and +bats and night-birds abroad amidst the lost daylight creatures and +fluttering perplexed on noiseless wings. Then the abrupt sight of the +countless stars made visible by this great abdication, the thickening of +the sky to stormy masses of cloud so that these are hidden again, the +soughing of a world-wide wind, and then first little flakes and then the +drift and driving of the multiplying snow into the dim illumination of +lamps, of windows, of street lights lit untimely. Then again, the shiver +of the cold, the clutching of hands at coats and wraps, the blind +hurrying to shelter and the comfort of a fire--the blaze of fires. One +sees the red-lit faces about the fires, sees the furtive glances at the +wind-tormented windows, hears the furious knocking of those other +strangers barred out, for, "we cannot have everyone in here". The +darkness deepens, the cries without die away, and nothing is left but +the shift and falling of the incessant snow from roof to ground. Every +now and then the disjointed talk would cease altogether, and in the +stillness one would hear the faint yet insistent creeping sound of the +snowfall. "There is a little food downstairs," one would say. "The +servants must not eat it.... We had better lock it upstairs. We may be +here--for days." Grim stuff, indeed, one might make of it all, if one +dealt with it in realistic fashion, and great and increasing toil one +would find to carry on the tale. M. Tarde was well advised to let his +hand pass lightly over this episode, to give us a simply pyrotechnic +effect of red, yellow, green and pale blue, to let his people flee and +die like marionettes beneath the paper snows of a shop window dressed +for Christmas, and to emerge after the change with his urbanity +unimpaired. His apt jest at the endurance of artists' models, his easy +allusion to the hardening effects of fashionable decolletage, is the +measure of his dexterous success; his mention of hotel furniture on the +terminal moraines of the returning Alpine glaciers, just a happy touch +of that flavouring of reality which in abundance would have altogether +overwhelmed his purpose. + +Directly one thinks at all seriously of such a thing as this solar +extinction, one perceives how preposterously hopeless it is to imagine +that mankind would make any head against so swift and absolute a fate. +Our race would behave just as any single man behaves when death takes +him suddenly through some cardiac failure. It would feel very queer, it +would want to sit down and alleviate its strange discomfort, it would +say something stupid or inarticulate, make an odd gesture or so, and +flicker out. But it is compatible with the fantastic and ironical style +for M. Tarde to mock our conceit in our race's capacity and pretend men +did all sorts of organized and wholesale things quite beyond their +capabilities. People flee in "hordes" to Arabia Petræa and the Sahara, +and there perform prodigies of resistance. There arises the heroic +leader and preserver, Miltiades, who preaches Neo-troglodytism and loves +the peerless Lydia, and leads the remnant of humanity underground. So M. +Tarde arrives at the idea he is most concerned in developing, the idea +of an introverted world, and people following the dwindling heat of the +interior, generation after generation, through gallery and tunnel to the +core. About that conception he weaves the finest and richest and most +suggestive of his fantastic filaments. + +Perhaps the best sustained thread in this admirably entertaining tissue +is the entire satisfaction of the imaginary historian at the new +conditions of life. The earth is made into an interminable honeycomb, +all other forms of life than man are eliminated, and our race has +developed into a community sustained at a high level of happiness and +satisfaction by a constant resort to "social tonics". Half mockingly, +half approvingly, M. Tarde here indicates a new conception of human +intercourse and criticises with a richly suggestive detachment, the +social relationships of to-day. He moves indicatively and lightly over +deeps of human possibility; it is in these later passages that our +author is essentially found. One may regret he did not further expand +his happy opportunity of treating all the social types to-day as ice +embedded fossils, his comments on the peasant and artisan are so fine as +to provoke the appetite. He rejects the proposition that "society +consists in an exchange of services" with the confidence of a man who +has thought it finely out. He gives out clearly what so many of us are +beginning dimly perhaps to apprehend, that "society consists in the +exchange of reflections". The passages subsequent to this pronouncement +will be the seed of many interesting developments in any mind +sufficiently attuned to his. They constitute the body, the serious +reality to which all the rest of this little book is so much dress, +adornment and concealment. Very many of us, I believe, are dreaming of +the possibility of human groupings based on interest and a common +creative impulse rather than on justice and a trade in help and +services; and I do not scruple therefore to put my heavy underline and +marginal note to M. Tarde's most intimate moment. A page or so further +on he is back below his ironical mask again, jesting at the "tribe of +sociologists"--the most unsociable of mankind. Thereafter jest, +picturesque suggestion, fantasy, philosophical whim, alternate in a +continuously delightful fashion to the end--but always with the gleam of +a definite intention coming and going within sight of the surface--and +one ends at last a half convinced Neo-troglodyte, invaded by a passion +of intellectual regret for the varied interests of that inaccessible +world and its irradiating love. The description of the development of +science, and particularly of troglodytic astronomy, robbed of its +material, is a delightful freak of intellectual fantasy, and the +philosophical dream of the slow concentration of human life into the +final form of a single culminating omniscient, and therefore a +completely retrospective and anticipatory being, a being that is, that +has cast aside the time garment, is one of these suggestions that have +at once something penetratingly plausible, and a sort of colossal and +absurd monstrosity. If I may be forgiven a personal intrusion at this +point, there is a singular parallelism between this foreshadowed Last +Man of M. Tarde's stalactitic philosopher, and a certain _Grand Lunar_ I +once wrote about in a book called "The First Men in the Moon". And I +remember coming upon the same idea in a book by Merejkowski, the title +of which I am now totally unable to recall.... But I will not write +further on this curiously attractive and deep seated suggestion. My +proper business here is, I think, chiefly to direct the reader past the +lightness and cheerful superficiality of the opening portions of this +book, and its--at the first blush, rather disappointing but critically +justifiable, treatment of the actual catastrophe, to these obscure but +curiously stimulating and interesting caves, and tunnels, and galleries +in which the elusive real thought of M. Tarde lurks--for those who care +to follow it up and seize it and understand. + +H.G. WELLS. + + + + +INTRODUCTORY + + +It was towards the end of the twentieth century of the prehistoric era, +formerly called the Christian, that took place, as is well known, the +unexpected catastrophe with which the present epoch began, that +fortunate disaster which compelled the overflowing flood of civilisation +to disappear for the benefit of mankind. I have briefly to relate this +universal cataclysm and the unhoped-for redemption so rapidly effected +within a few centuries of heroic and triumphant efforts. Of course, I +shall pass over in silence the particular details which are known to +everybody, and shall merely confine myself to the general outlines of +the story. But first of all it may be as well to recall in a few words +the degree of relative progress already attained by mankind, while still +living above ground and on the surface of the earth, on the eve of this +momentous event. + + + +I + +PROSPERITY + + +The zenith of human prosperity seemed to have been reached in the +superficial and frivolous sense of the word. For the last fifty years, +the final establishment of the great Asiatic-American-European +confederacy, and its indisputable supremacy over what was still left, +here and there, in Oceania and central Africa of barbarous tribes +incapable of assimilation, had habituated all the nations, now converted +into provinces, to the delights of universal and henceforth inviolable +peace. It had required not less than 150 years of warfare to arrive at +this wonderful result. But all these horrors were forgotten. True, there +had been many terrific battles between armies of three and four million +men, between trains with armour-clad carriages, flung, at full speed, +against one another, and opening fire on every side; engagements between +squadrons of sub-marines which blew one another up with electric +discharges; between fleets of iron-clad balloons, harpooned and ripped +up by aerial torpedoes, hurled headlong from the clouds, with thousands +of parachutes which violently opened and enveloped each other in a storm +of grape-shot as they fell together to earth. Yet of all this warlike +mania there only remained a vague poetic remembrance. Forgetfulness is +the beginning of happiness, as fear is the beginning of wisdom. + +As a solitary exception to the general rule, the nations, after this +gigantic blood-letting, did not experience the lethargy that follows +from exhaustion, but the calm that the accession of strength produces. +The explanation is easy. For about a hundred years the military +selection committees had broken with the blind routine of the past and +made it a practice to pick out carefully the strongest and best made +among the young men, in order to exempt them from the burden of military +service which had become purely mechanical, and to send to the depot all +the weaklings who were good enough to fulfil the sorely diminished +functions of the soldier and even of the non-commissioned officer. That +was really a piece of intelligent selection; and the historian cannot +conscientiously refuse gratefully to praise this innovation, thanks to +which the incomparable beauty of the human race to-day has been +gradually developed. In fact, when we now look through the glass cases +of our museums of antiquities at those singular collections of +caricatures which our ancestors used to call their photographic albums, +we can confirm the vastness of the progress thus accomplished, if it is +really true that we are actually descended from these dwarfs and +scare-crows, as an otherwise trustworthy tradition attests. + +From this epoch dates the discovery of the last microbes, which had not +yet been analysed by the neo-Pasteurian school. Once the cause of every +disease was known, the remedy was not long in becoming known as well, +and from that moment, a consumptive or rheumatic patient, or an invalid +of any kind became as rare a phenomenon as a double-headed monster +formerly was, or an honest publican. Ever since that epoch we have +dropped the ridiculous employment of those inquiries about health with +which the conversations of our ancestors were needlessly interlarded, +such as "How are you?" or "How do you do?" Short-sightedness alone +continued its lamentable progress, being stimulated by the extraordinary +spread of journalism. There was not a woman or a child, who did not wear +a _pince-nez_. This drawback, which besides was only momentary, was +largely compensated for by the progress it caused in the optician's art. + +Alongside of the political unity which did away with the enmities of +nations, there appeared a linguistic unity which rapidly blotted out the +last differences between them. Already since the twentieth century the +need of a single common language, similar to Latin in the Middle Ages, +had become sufficiently intense among the learned throughout the whole +world to induce them to make use of an international idiom in all their +writings. At the end of a long struggle for supremacy with English and +Spanish, Greek finally established its claims, after the break-up of the +British Empire and the recapture of Constantinople by the Græco-Russian +Empire. Gradually, or rather with the rapidity characteristic of all +modern progress, its usage descended from strata to strata till it +reached the lowest layers of society, and from the middle of the +twenty-second century there was not a little child between the Loire and +the River Amour who could not express itself with ease in the language +of Demosthenes. Here and there a few isolated villages in the hollows of +the mountains still persisted, in spite of the protests of their +schoolmasters, to mangle the old dialect formerly called French, German, +or Italian, but the sound of this gibberish in the towns would have +raised a hearty laugh. + +All contemporary documents agree in bearing witness to the rapidity, the +depth, and the universality of the change which took place in the +customs, ideas, and needs, and in all the forms of social life, thus +reduced to a common level from one pole to the other, as a result of +this unification of language. It seemed as if the course of civilisation +had been hitherto confined within high banks and that now, when for the +first time all the banks had burst, it readily spread over the whole +globe. It was no longer millions but thousands of millions that the +least newly discovered improvement in industry brought in to its +inventor; for henceforth there was no barrier to stop in its star-like +radiation the expansion of any idea, no matter where it originated. For +the same reason it was no longer by hundreds but by thousands, that were +reckoned the editions of any book, which appealed but moderately to the +public taste, or the performance of a play which was ever so little +applauded. The rivalry between authors had therefore risen to its +fullest diapason. Their fancy, moreover, could find full scope, for the +first effect of this deluge of universalised neo-Hellenism had been to +overwhelm for ever all the pretended literatures of our rude ancestors. +They became unintelligible, even to the very titles of what they were +pleased to call their classical masterpieces, even to the barbarous +names of Shakespeare, Goethe, and Hugo, who are now forgotten, and whose +rugged verses are deciphered with such difficulty by our scholars. To +plagiarise these folks whom hardly anyone could henceforth read, was to +render them service, nay, to pay them too much honour. One did not fail +to do so; and prodigious was the success of these audacious imitations +which were offered as original works. The material thus to turn to +account was abundant, and indeed inexhaustible. + +Unfortunately for the young writers the ancient poets who had been dead +for centuries, Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, had returned to life, a +hundred times more hale and hearty than at the time of Pericles himself; +and this unexpected competition proved a singular thorn in the side of +the new-comers. It was in fact in vain that original geniuses produced +on the stage such sensational novelties as _Athalias, Hernanias, +Macbethès_; the public often turned its back on them to rush off to +performances of _Oedipus Rex_ or the _Birds_ (of Aristophanes). And +_Nanais_, though a vigorous sketch of a novelist of the new school, was +a complete failure owing to the frenzied success of a popular edition of +the Odyssey. The ears of the people were saturated with Alexandrines +classical, romantic, and the rest. They were bored by the childish +tricks of cæsura and rhyme which sometimes attempted a see-saw effect by +producing now a poor and now a full rhyme, or again made a pretence of +hiding away and keeping out of sight in order to induce the hearer to +hunt it out. The splendid, untrammelled, and exuberant hexameters of +Homer, the stanzas of Sappho, the iambics of Sophocles, furnished them +with unspeakable pleasure, which did the greatest harm to the music of a +certain Wagner. Music in general fell to the secondary position to which +it really belongs in the hierarchy of the fine arts. To make up for it, +in the midst of this scholarly renaissance of the human spirit, there +arose an occasion for an unexpected literary outburst which allowed +poetry to regain its legitimate rank, that is to say, the foremost. In +fact it never fails to flower again when language takes a new lease of +life, and all the more so when the latter undergoes a complete +metamorphosis, and the pleasure arises of expressing anew the eternal +truisms. + +It was not merely a simple means of diversion for the cultured. The +masses took their share in it with enthusiasm. Certainly they now had +leisure to read and appreciate the masterpieces of art. The transmission +of force at a distance by electricity, and its enlistment under a +thousand forms, for instance, in that of cylinders of compressed air, +which could be easily carried from place to place, had reduced manual +labour to a mere nothing. The waterfalls, the winds and the tides had +become the slaves of man, as steam had once been in the remote ages and +in an infinitely less degree. Intelligently distributed and turned to +account by means of improved machines, as simple as they were ingenious, +this enormous energy freely furnished by nature had long rendered +superfluous every kind of domestic servant and the greater number of +artisans. The voluntary workmen, who still existed, spent barely three +hours a day in the international factories, magnificent co-operative +workshops, in which the productivity of human energy, multiplied +tenfold, and even a hundredfold, surpassed the expectations of their +founders. + +This does not mean that the social problem had been thereby solved. In +default of want, it is true, there were no longer any quarrels; wealth +or a competence had become the lot of every man, with the result that +hardly anyone henceforth set any store by them. In default of ugliness, +also, love was scarcely an object of either appreciation or jealousy, +owing to the abundance of pretty women and handsome men who were as +common as blackberries and not difficult to please, in appearance at +least. Thus expelled from its two former principal paths, human desire +rushed with all its might towards the only field which remained open to +it, the conquest of political power, which grew vaster every day owing +to the progress of socialistic centralisation. Overflowing ambition, +swollen all at once with all the evil passions pouring into it alone, +with the covetousness, lust, envious hunger, and hungry envy of +preceding ages, reached at that time an appalling height. It was a +struggle as to who should make himself master of that _summum bonum_, +the State; as to who should make the omnipotence and omniscience of the +Universal State minister to the realisation of his personal programme or +his humanitarian dreams. The result was not, as had been prophesied, a +vast democratic republic. Such an immense outburst of pride could not +fail to set up a new throne, the highest, the mightiest, the most +glorious that has ever been. Besides, inasmuch as the population of the +Single State was reckoned by thousands of millions, universal suffrage +had become impracticable and illusory. To obviate the greater +inconvenience of deliberative assemblies, ten or a hundred times too +numerous, it had been found necessary so to increase the electoral +districts that each deputy represented at least ten million electors. +That is not surprising if one reflects that it was the first time that +the very simple idea had won acceptance of extending to women and +children the right of voting exercised in their name, naturally enough, +by their father or by their lawful or natural husband. Incidentally one +may note that this salutary and necessary reform, as much in accordance +with common sense as with logic, required alike by the principle of +national sovereignty and by the needs of social stability, nearly failed +to pass, incredible as it may seem, in the face of a coalition of +celibate electors. + +Tradition informs us that the bill relating to this indispensable +extension of the franchise would have been infallibly rejected, if, +luckily, the recent election of a multi-millionaire suspected of +imperialistic tendencies had not scared the assembly. It fancied it +would injure the popularity of this ambitious pretender by hastening to +welcome this proposal in which it only saw one thing, that is, that the +fathers and husbands, outraged or alarmed by the gallantries of the new +Cæsar, would be all the stronger for impeding his triumphant march. But +this expectation was, it appears, unrealised. + +Whatever may be the truth of this legend, it is certain that, owing to +the enlargement of the electoral districts, combined with the +suppression of the electoral privileges, the election of a deputy was a +veritable coronation, and ordinarily produced in the elect a species of +megalomania. This reconstituted feudalism was bound to end in a +reconstitution of monarchy. For a moment the learned wore this cosmic +crown, following the prophecy of an ancient philosopher, but they did +not keep it. The popularisation of knowledge through innumerable schools +had made science as common an object as a charming woman or an elegant +suite of furniture. It had been extraordinarily simplified by the +thorough way in which it had been worked out, complete as regards its +general outlines, in which no change could be expected, and its +henceforth rigid classification abundantly garnished with data. Only +advancing at an imperceptible pace, it held, in short, but an +insignificant place in the background of the brain, in which it simply +replaced the catechism of former days. The bulk of intellectual energy +was therefore to be found in another direction, as were also its glory +and prestige. Already the scientific bodies, venerable in their +antiquity, began, alas! to acquire a slight tinge and veneer of +ridicule, which raised a smile and recalled the synods of bonzes or +ecclesiastical conferences, such as are represented in very ancient +pictures. It is, therefore, not surprising that this first dynasty of +imperial physicists and geometricians, genial copies of the Antonines, +were promptly succeeded by a dynasty of artists who had deserted art to +wield the sceptre, as they lately had wielded the bow, the roughing +chisel, and the brush. The most famous of all, a man possessed of an +overflowing imagination which was yet well under control, and ministered +to by an unparalleled energy, was an architect who among other gigantic +projects formed the idea of rasing to the ground his capital, +Constantinople, in order to rebuild it elsewhere, on the site of ancient +Babylon, which for three thousand years had been a desert--a truly +luminous idea. In this incomparable plain of Chaldea watered by a second +Nile there was another still more beautiful and fertile Egypt awaiting +resurrection and metamorphosis, an infinite expanse extending as far as +the eye could see, to be covered with striking public buildings +constructed with magical speed, with a teeming and throbbing population, +with golden harvests beneath a sky of changeless blue, with an iron +net-work of railways radiating from the town of Nebuchadnesor to the +furthest ends of Europe, Africa and Asia, and crossing the Himalayas, +the Caucasus, and the Sahara. The stored energy, electrically conveyed, +of a hundred Abyssinian waterfalls, and of, I do not know, how many +cyclones, hardly sufficed to transport from the mountains of Armenia the +necessary stone, wood and iron for these numerous constructions. One day +an excursion train, composed of a thousand and one carriages, having +passed too close to the electric cable at the moment when the current +was at its maximum, was destroyed and reduced to ashes in the twinkling +of an eye. None the less Babylon, the proud city of muddy clay, with its +paltry splendours of unbaked and painted brick, found itself rebuilt in +marble and granite, to the utmost confusion of the Nabopolassars, the +Belshazzars, the Cyruses, and the Alexanders. It is needless to add that +the archæologists made on this occasion the most priceless discoveries, +in the several successive strata, of Babylonian and Assyrian +antiquities. The mania for Assyriology went so far that every sculptor's +studio, the palaces, and even the King's armorial bearings were invaded +by winged bulls with human heads, just as formerly the museums were full +of cupids or cherubims, "with their cravat-like wings". Certain school +books for primary schools were actually printed in cuneiform characters +in order to enhance their authority over the youthful imagination. + +This imperial orgy in bricks and mortar having unhappily occasioned the +seventh, eighth, and ninth bankruptcy of the State and several +consecutive inundations of paper-money, the people in general rejoiced +to see after this brilliant reign the crown borne by a philosophical +financier. Order had hardly been re-established in the finances, when he +made his preparation for applying on a grand scale his ideal of +government, which was of a highly remarkable nature. One was not long in +noticing, in fact, after his accession, that all the newly chosen ladies +of honour, who were otherwise very intelligent but entirely lacking in +wit, were chiefly conspicuous for their striking ugliness; that the +liveries of the court were of a grey and lifeless colour; that the court +balls reproduced by instantaneous cinematography to the tune of millions +of copies furnished a collection of the most honest and insignificant +faces and unappetising forms that one could possibly see; that the +candidates recently appointed, after a preliminary despatch of their +portraits, to the highest dignities of the Empire, were pre-eminently +distinguished by the commonness of their bearing; in short, that the +races and the public holidays (the date of which were notified in +advance by secret telegrams announcing the arrival of a cyclone from +America), happened nine times out of ten to take place on a day of thick +fog, or of pelting rain, which transformed them into an immense array of +waterproofs and umbrellas. Alike in his legislative proposals, as in his +appointments, the choice of the prince was always the following: the +most useful and the best among the most unattractive. An insufferable +sameness of colour, a depressing monotony, a sickening insipidity were +the distinctive note of all the acts of the government. People laughed, +grew excited, waxed indignant, and got used to it. The result was that +at the end of a certain time it was impossible to meet an office-seeker +or a politician, that is to say, an artist or literary man, out of his +element and in search of the beautiful in an alien sphere, who did not +turn his back on the pursuit of a government appointment in order to +return to rhyming, sculpture and painting. And from that moment the +following aphorism has won general acceptance, that the superiority of +the politician is only mediocrity raised to its highest power. + +This is the great benefit that we owe to this eminent monarch. The lofty +purpose of his reign has been revealed by the posthumous publication of +his memoirs. Of these writings with which we can so ill dispense, we +have only left this fragment which is well calculated to make us regret +the loss of the remainder: "Who is the true founder of Sociology? +Auguste Comte? No, Menenius Agrippa. This great man understood that +government is the stomach, not the head of the social organism. Now, the +merit of a stomach is to be good and ugly, useful and repulsive to the +eye, for if this indispensable organ were agreeable to look upon, it +would be much to be feared that people would meddle with it and nature +would not have taken such care to conceal and defend it. What sensible +person prides himself on having a beautiful digestive apparatus, a +lovely liver or elegant lungs? Such a pretension would, however, not be +more ridiculous than the foible of cutting a great dash in politics. +What wants cultivating is the substantial and the commonplace. My poor +predecessors." ... Here follows a blank; a little further on, we read: +"The best government is that which holds to being so perfectly humdrum, +regular, neuter, and even emasculated, that no one can henceforth get up +any enthusiasm either for or against it." + +Such was the last successor of Semiramis. On the re-discovered site of +the Hanging-gardens he caused to be erected, at the expense of the +State, a statue of Louis Philippe in wrought aluminium, in the middle of +a public garden planted with common laurels and cauliflowers. + +The Universe breathed again. It yawned a little no doubt, but it +revelled for the first time in the fulness of peace, in the almost +gratuitous abundance of every kind of wealth. It burst into the most +brilliant efflorescence, or rather display of poetry and art, but +especially of luxury, that the world had as yet seen. It was just at +that moment an extraordinary alarm of a novel kind, justly provoked by +the astronomical observations made on the tower of Babel, which had been +rebuilt as an Eiffel Tower on an enlarged scale, began to spread among +the terrified populations. + + + + +II + +THE CATASTROPHE + + +On several occasions already the sun had given evident signs of +weakness. From year to year his spots increased in size and number, and +his heat sensibly diminished. People were lost in conjecture. Was his +fuel giving out? Had he just traversed in his journey through space an +exceptionally cold region? No one knew. Whatever the reason was, the +public concerned itself little about the matter, as in all that is +gradual and not sudden. The "solar anæmia," which moreover restored some +degree of animation to neglected astronomy, had merely become the +subject of several rather smart articles in the reviews. In general, the +_savants_, in their well-warmed studies, affected to disbelieve in the +fall of temperature, and, in spite of the formal indications of the +thermometer, they did not cease to repeat that the dogma of slow +evolution, and of the conservation of energy combined with the classical +nebular hypothesis, forbade the admission of a sufficiently rapid +cooling of the solar mass to make itself felt during the short duration +of a century, much more so during that of five years or a year. A few +unorthodox persons of heretical and pessimistic temperament remarked, it +is true, that at different epochs, if one believed the astronomers of +the remote past, certain stars had gradually burnt out in the heavens, +or had passed from the most dazzling brilliance to an almost complete +obscurity, during the course of barely a single year. They therefore +concluded that the case of our sun had nothing exceptional about it; +that the theory of slow-footed evolution was not perhaps universally +applicable; and that, sometimes, as an old visionary mystic called +Cuvier had ventured to put forward in legendary times, veritable +revolutions took place in the heavens as well as on earth. But orthodox +science combated with indignation these audacious theories. + +However, the winter of 2489 was so disastrous, it was actually necessary +to take the threatening predictions of the alarmists seriously. One +reached the point of fearing at any moment a "solar apoplexy." That was +the title of a sensational pamphlet which went through twenty thousand +editions. The return of the spring was anxiously awaited. + +The spring returned at last, and the starry monarch reappeared, but his +golden crown was gone, and he himself well-nigh unrecognisable. He was +entirely red. The meadows were no longer green, the sky was no longer +blue, the Chinese were no longer yellow, all had suddenly changed colour +as in a transformation scene. Then, by degrees, from the red that he was +he became orange. He might then have been compared to a golden apple in +the sky, and so during several years he was seen to pass, and all nature +with him, through a thousand magnificent or terrible tints--from orange +to yellow, from yellow to green, and from green at length to indigo and +pale blue. The meteorologists then recalled the fact, in the year 1883, +on the second of September, the sun had appeared in Venezuela the whole +day long as blue as the moon. So many colours, so many new decorations +of the chameleon-like universe which dazzled the terrified eye, which +revived and restored to its primitive sharpness the rejuvenated +sensation of the beauties of nature, and strongly stirred the depths of +men's souls by renewing the former aspect of things. + +At the same time disaster succeeded disaster. The entire population of +Norway, Northern Russia, and Siberia perished, frozen to death in a +single night; the temperate zone was decimated, and what was left of its +inhabitants fled before the enormous drifts of snow and ice, and +emigrated by hundreds of millions towards the tropics, crowding into the +panting trains, several of which, overtaken by tornadoes of snow, +disappeared for ever. + +The telegraph successively informed the capital, now that there was no +longer any news of immense trains caught in the tunnels under the +Pyrenees, the Alps, the Caucasus, or Himalayas, in which they were +imprisoned by enormous avalanches, which blocked simultaneously the two +issues; now that some of the largest rivers of the world--the Rhine, for +instance, and the Danube--had ceased to flow, completely frozen to the +bottom, from which resulted a drought, followed by an indescribable +famine, which obliged thousands of mothers to devour their own children. +From time to time a country or continent broke off suddenly its +communication with the central agency, the reason being that an entire +telegraphic section was buried under the snow, from which at intervals +emerged the uneven tops of their posts, with their little cups of +porcelain. Of this immense network of electricity which enveloped in its +close meshes the entire globe, as of that prodigious coat of mail with +which the complicated system of railways clothed the earth, there was +only left some scattered fragments, like the remnant of the Grand Army +of Napoleon during the retreat from Russia. + +Meanwhile, the glaciers of the Alps, the Andes, and of all the mountains +of the world hitherto vanquished by the sun, which for several thousand +centuries had been thrust back into their last entrenchments, resumed +their triumphant march. All the glaciers that had been dead since the +geological ages came to life again, more colossal than ever. From all +the valleys in the Alps or Pyrenees, that were lately green and peopled +with delightful health resorts, there issued these snowy hordes, these +streams of icy lava, with their frontal moraine advancing as it spread +over the plain, a moving cliff composed of rocks and overturned engines, +of the wreckage of bridges, stations, hotels and public edifices, +whirled along in the wildest confusion, a heart-breaking welter of +gigantic bric-à-brac, with which the triumphant invasion decked itself +out as with the loot of victory. Slowly, step by step, in spite of +sundry transient intervals of light and warmth, in spite of occasionally +scorching days which bore witness to the supreme convulsions of the sun +in its battle against death, which revived in men's souls misleading +hopes, athwart and even by means of these unexpected changes the pale +invaders advanced. They retook and recovered one by one all their +ancient realms in the glacial period, and if they found on the road some +gigantic vagrant block lying in sullen solitude, near some famous city, +a hundred leagues from its native hills, mysterious witness of the +immense catastrophe of former times, they raised it and bore it onward, +cradling it on their unyielding waves, as an advancing army recaptures +and enfurls its ancient flags, all covered with dust, which it has found +again in its enemies' sanctuaries. + +But what was the glacial period compared with this new crisis of the +globe and the sky? Doubtless it had been due to a similar attack of +weakness, to a similar failure of the sun, and many species of animals +had necessarily perished at the time, from being insufficiently clad. +That had been, however, but a warning bell, so to say, a simple +notification of the final and fatal attack. The glacial periods--for we +know there have been several--now explained themselves by their +reappearance on a large scale. But this clearing up of an obscure point +in geology was, one must admit, an insufficient compensation for the +public disasters which were its price. + +What calamities! What horrors! My pen confesses its impotence to retrace +them. Besides how can we tell the story of disasters which were so +complete they often simultaneously overwhelmed under snow-drifts a +hundred yards deep all that witnessed them, to the very last man. All +that we know for certain is what took place at the time towards the end +of the twenty-fifth century in a little district of Arabia Petræa. + +Thither had flocked for refuge, in one horde after another, wave after +wave, with host upon host frozen one on the top of another, as they +advanced, the few millions of human creatures who survived of the +hundreds of millions that had disappeared. Arabia Petræa had, therefore, +along with the Sahara, become the most populous country of the globe. +They transported hither by reason of the relative warmth of its climate, +I will not say the seat of Government--for, alas! Terror alone +reigned--but an immense stove which took its place, and whatever +remained of Babylon now covered over by a glacier. A new town was +constructed in a few months on the plans of an entirely new system of +architecture, marvellously adapted for the struggle against the cold. By +the most happy of chances some rich and unworked coal mines were +discovered on the spot. There was enough fuel there, it seems, to +provide warmth for many years to come. And as for food, it was not as +yet too pressing a question. The granaries contained several sacks of +corn, while waiting for the sun to revive and the corn to sprout again. +The sun had certainly revived after the glacial periods; why should it +not do so again? asked the optimists. + +It was but the hope of a day. The sun assumed a violet hue. The frozen +corn ceased to be eatable. The cold became so intense that the walls of +the houses as they contracted cracked and admitted blasts of air which +killed the inhabitants on the spot. A physicist affirmed that he saw +crystals of solid nitrogen and oxygen fall from the sky which gave rise +to the fear that the atmosphere would shortly become decomposed. The +seas were already frozen solid. A hundred thousand human creatures +huddling around the huge government stove, which was no longer equal to +restoring their circulation, were turned into icicles in a single night; +and the night following, a second hundred thousand perished likewise. Of +the beautiful human race, so strong and noble, formed by so many +centuries of effort and genius by such an intelligent and extended +selection, there would soon have been only left a few thousands, a few +hundreds of haggard and trembling specimens, unique trustees of the last +ruins of what had once been civilisation. + + + + +III + +THE STRUGGLE + + +In this extremity a man arose who did not despair of humanity. His name +has been preserved for us. By a singular coincidence he was called +Miltiades, like another saviour of Hellenism. He was not, however, of +Hellenic race. A cross between a Slave and a Breton he had only half +sympathised with the prosperity of the Neo-Græcian world with its +levelling and enervating tendencies, and amid this wholesale +obliteration of previous civilisation, and universal triumph of a kind +of Byzantine renaissance brought up to date, he belonged to those who +reverently guarded in the depths of their heart the germs of recusancy. +But, like the barbarian stilicho, the last defender of the foundering +Roman world against the barbaric hordes, it was precisely this +disbeliever in civilisation who alone undertook to arrest it on the +brink of its vast downfall. Eloquent and handsome, but nearly always +taciturn, he was not without certain resemblances in pose and features, +so it was said, to Chateaubriand and Napoleon (two celebrities, as one +knows, who in their time were famous throughout an entire continent). +Worshipped by the women of whom he was the hope, and by the men who +stood greatly in awe of him, he had early kept the crowd at arm's +length, and a singular accident had doubled his natural shyness. Finding +the sea less monotonously dull at any rate than terra firma, and in any +case more unconfined, he had passed his youth on board the last +iron-clad of State of which he was captain, in patrolling the coasts of +continents, in dreaming of impossible adventures, and of conquests when +all was conquered, of discoveries of America when all was discovered, +and in cursing all former travellers, discoverers and conquerors, +fortunate reapers in all the fields of glory in which there was nothing +more left to glean. One day, however, he believed he had discovered a +new island--it was a mistake--and he had the joy of engaging in a fight, +the last of which ancient history makes mention, with an apparently +highly primitive tribe of savages, who spoke English and read the Bible. +In this fight he displayed such valour that he was unanimously +pronounced to be mad by his crew, and was in great danger of losing his +rank after a specialist in insanity, who had been called in, was on the +point of publicly confirming popular opinion by declaring he was +suffering from suicidal mono-mania of a novel kind. Luckily an +archæologist protested and showed by actual documents that this +phenomenon, which had become so unusual but was frequent in past ages +under the name of bravery, was a simple case of ancestral reversion +sufficiently serious to merit examination. As luck would have it, the +unfortunate Miltiades had been wounded in the face in the same +encounter; and the scar which all the art of the best surgeons never +succeeded in removing, drew down upon him the annoying and almost +insulting nick-name of "scarred face". It may be readily understood how +from this time forward, soured by the consciousness of his partial +disfigurement, as the ancient bard Byron had formerly been for a nearly +similar reason, he avoided appearing in public, and thereby giving the +crowd an opportunity of pointing the finger of scorn at the visible +traces of his former attack of madness. He was never seen again till the +day when, his vessel being hemmed in by the icebergs of the Gulf Stream, +he was obliged with his companions to finish the crossing on foot over +the solidly frozen Atlantic. + +In the middle of the central state shelter, a huge vaulted hall with +walls ten yards thick, without windows, surrounded with a hundred +gigantic furnaces, and perpetually lit up by their hundred flaming maws, +Miltiades one day appeared. The remnant of the flower of humanity, of +both sexes, splendid even in its misery, was huddled together there. +They did not consist of the great men of science with their bald pates, +nor even the great actresses, nor the great writers, whose inspiration +had deserted them, nor the consequential ones now past their prime, nor +of prim old ladies--broncho-pneumonia, alas! had made a clean sweep of +them all at the very first frost--but the enthusiastic heirs of their +traditions, their secrets, and also of their vacant chairs, that is to +say, their pupils, full of talent and promise. Not a single university +professor was there, but a crowd of deputies and assistants; not a +single minister, but a crowd of young secretaries of state. Not a single +mother of a family, but a bevy of artists' models, admirably formed, and +inured against the cold by the practice of posing for the nude; above +all, a number of fashionable beauties, who had been likewise saved by +the excellent hygienic effect of daily wearing low dresses, without +taking into account the warmth of their temperament. Among them it was +impossible not to notice the Princess Lydia, owing to her tall and +exquisite figure, the brilliancy of her dress and her wit, of her dark +eyes and fair complexion, owing in fact to the radiance of her whole +person. She had carried off the prize at the last grand international +beauty competition, and was accounted the reigning beauty of the +drawing-rooms of Babylon. What a different set of individuals from that +which the spectator formerly surveyed through his opera-glass from the +top of the galleries of the so-called Chamber of Deputies! Youth, +beauty, genius, love, infinite treasures of science and art, writers +whose pens were of pure gold, artists with marvellous technique, singers +one raved about, all that was left of refinement and culture on the +earth, was concentrated in this last knot of human beings, which +blossomed under the snow like a tuft of rhododendrons, or of Alpine +roses at the foot of some mountain summit. But what dejection had fallen +on these fair flowers! How sadly drooped these manifold graces! + +At the sudden apparition of Miltiades every brow was lifted, every eye +was fastened upon him. He was tall, lean, and wizened, in spite of the +false plumpness of his thick white furs. When he threw back his big +white hood, which recalled the Dominican cowl of antiquity, they caught +sight of his huge scar athwart the icicles on his beard and eyebrows. At +the sight of it first a smile and then a shudder, which was not due to +cold alone, ran through the ranks of the women. For must we confess it, +in spite of the efforts of a rational education, the inclination to +applaud bravery and its indications could not be entirely uprooted from +their hearts. Lydia, notably, remained imbued with this sentiment of +another age, by a kind of moral ancestral reversion which served as a +pendant to her physical atavism. She concealed so little her feelings of +admiration, that Miltiades himself was struck by it. Her admiration was +combined with astonishment, for he was believed to have been dead for +years. They asked one another by what accumulation of miracles he had +been able to escape the fate of his companions. He requested leave to +speak. It was granted him. He mounted a platform, and such a profound +silence ensued, one might have heard the snow falling outside, in spite +of the thickness of the walls. But let us at this point allow an +eye-witness to speak; let us copy an extract of the account that he +phonographed of this memorable scene. I pass over the part of Miltiades' +discourse in which he related the thrilling story of the dangers he had +encountered from the time he left his vessel. (_Continuous applause_.) +After stating that in passing by Paris on a sledge drawn by +reindeer--thanks to it being the season of the dog-days--he had +recognised the site of this buried city by the double-pointed mound of +snow which had formed over the spires of Notre-Dame--(_excitement in the +audience_)--the speaker continued:-- + +"The situation is serious," said he, "nothing like it has been seen +since the geological epochs. Is it irretrievable? No! (_Hear! hear!_) +Desperate diseases require desperate remedies. An idea, a glimmer of +hope has flashed upon me, but it is so strange, I shall never dare to +reveal it to you. (_Speak! speak!_) No, I dare not, I shall never dare +to formulate this project. You would believe me to be still insane. You +desire it, you promise me to listen to the end to my absurd and +extravagant project? (_Yes! yes!_) Even to give it a fair trial? (_Yes! +yes!_) Well! I will speak. (_Silence!_) + +"The hour has come to ascertain to what extent it is true to say and to +keep on repeating, as has been the practice for the last three centuries +since the time of a certain Stephenson, that all our energy, all our +strength, whether physical or moral, comes to us from the sun.... +(_Numerous voices: 'That is so'_). The calculation has been made: in two +years, three months, and six days, if there still remains a morsel of +coal there will not remain a morsel of bread! (_Prolonged sensation_.) +Therefore, if the source of all force, of all motion, and all life is in +the sun, and in the sun alone, there is no ground for self-delusion: in +two years, three months, and six days, the genius of man will be +quenched, and through the gloomy heavens the corpse of mankind, like a +Siberian mammoth, will roll for everlasting, incapable for ever of +resurrection. (_Excitement_.) + +"But is that the case? No, it is not, it cannot be the case. With all +the energy of my heart, which does not come from the sun--that energy +which comes from the earth, from our mother earth buried there below, +far, far away, for ever hidden from our eyes--I protest against this +vain theory, and against so many articles of faith and religion which I +have been obliged hitherto to endure in silence. (_Slight murmurs from +the centre_.) The earth is the contemporary of the sun, and not its +daughter; the earth was formerly a luminous star like the sun, only +sooner extinct. It is only on the surface that the earth is devoid of +movement, frozen and paralysed. Its bosom is ever warm and burning. It +has only concentrated its fire within itself in order to preserve it +better. (_Signs of interest in the audience_.) There lies a virgin force +that is unexploited, a force superior to all that the sun has been able +to generate for our industry by waterfalls which to-day are frozen, by +cyclones which now have ceased, by tides which to-day are suspended; a +force in which our engineers, with a little initiative, will find a +hundredfold the equivalent of the motive power they have lost. It is no +more by this gesture (_the speaker raises his finger to heaven_), that +the hope of salvation should henceforth be expressed, it is by this one. +(_He lowers his right hand towards the earth.... Signs of astonishment: +a few murmurs of dissent which are immediately repressed by the women_.) +We must say no more: 'Up there!' but, 'below!' There, below, far below, +lies the promised Eden, the abode of deliverance and of bliss: there, +and there alone, there are still innumerable conquests and discoveries +to be made! (_Bravos on the left_.) Ought I to draw my conclusion? +(_Yes! yes!_) Let us descend into these depths; let us make these +abysses our sure retreat. The mystics had a sublime presentiment when +they said in their Latin: 'From the outward to the inward.' The earth +calls us to its inner self. For many centuries it has lived separated, +so to say, from its children, the living creatures it produced outside +during its period of fecundity before the cooling of its crust! After +its crust cooled, the rays of a distant star alone, it is true, have +maintained on this dead epidermis their artificial and superficial life +which has been a stranger to her own. + +"But this schism has lasted too long. It is imperative that it should +cease. It is time to follow Empedocles, Ulysses, Æneas, Dante, to the +gloomy abodes of the underworld, to plunge mankind again in the fountain +from which it sprang, to effect the complete restoration of the exiled +soul to the land of its birth! (_Applause here and there_.) Besides, +there is but this alternative: life underground or death. The sun is +failing us: let us dispense with the sun. The plan, which it remains for +me to propose, has been worked out for several months past by the most +eminent men. To-day it is finished; it is final. It is complete in all +its details. Does it interest you? (_On all sides: 'Read it, read it.'_) +You will see that with discipline, patience, and courage--yes, courage, +I risk this evil-sounding word (_'Risk it, risk it.'_)--and above all, +with the aid of that splendid heritage of science and art which comes to +us from the past, for which we are accountable to the most distant of +our descendants, to the boundless universe, and I was going to say, to +God (_signs of surprise_), we can be saved if we will." (_Thunder of +applause_.) + +The speaker next entered into lengthy details, which it is useless to +reproduce here, on the Neo-troglodytism which he pretended to inaugurate +as the acme of civilisation, "which had," said he, "began with caves, +and was destined to return to these subterranean retreats, but at a far +deeper level." He displayed designs, quantities and drawings. He had no +trouble in proving that, on condition of burrowing sufficiently deep +into the ground below, they would find a deliciously gentle warmth, an +Elysian temperature. It would be enough to excavate, enlarge, heighten, +and extend the galleries of already existing mines in order to render +them habitable and comfortable into the bargain. The electric light, +supplied entirely without expense by the scattered centres of the fire +within, would provide for the magnificent illumination both by day and +night of these colossal crypts, these marvellous cloisters, indefinitely +extended and embellished by successive generations. With a good system +of ventilation, all danger of suffocation or of foulness of air would be +avoided. In short, after a more or less long period of settling in, +civilised life could unfold anew in all its intellectual, artistic, and +fashionable splendour, as freely as it did in the capricious and +intermittent light or natural day, and even perhaps more surely. At +these last words, the Princess Lydia broke her fan, by dint of +applauding. An objection then came from the right, "With what shall we +be fed?" Miltiades smiled disdainfully and replied: "Nothing is simpler. +For ordinary drinking purposes we first of all shall have melted ice. +Every day we shall transport enormous blocks of it in order to keep the +orifices of the crypts free from obstruction, and to supply the public +fountains. I may add that chemists undertake to manufacture alcohol from +anything, even from mineralised rocks, and that it is the A.B.C. of the +grocer's trade to manufacture wine from alcohol and water. (_'Hear! +hear!' from all the benches_). As for food, is not chemistry also +capable of manufacturing butter, albumen, and milk from no matter what? +Besides, has the last word been said on the subject? Is it not highly +probable that before long, if it takes up the matter, it will succeed in +satisfying, both on the score of quantity and expense, the desires of +the most refined gastronomy? And, meanwhile.... (_a voice timidly: +'Meanwhile?'_) Meanwhile does not our disaster itself, by a kind of +providential occurrence, place within our reach the best stocked, the +most abundant, the most inexhaustible larder that the human race has +ever had? Immense stores, the most admirable which have hitherto been +laid down, are lying for us under the ice or the snow. Myriads of +domestic or wild animals--I dare not add, of men and women (_a general +shudder of horror_)--but at least of bullocks, sheep and poultry, frozen +instantaneously in a single mass, are lying here and there in the public +markets a few steps away. Let us collect, as long as such work is still +possible out of doors, this boundless quarry which was destined to feed +for years several hundreds of millions, and which will well suffice, in +consequence, to feed a few thousands only for ages, even should they +multiply unduly, in despite of Malthus. If stacked in the neighbourhood +of the orifice of the chief cavern, they will be easy to get at and will +provide a delightful fare for our fraternal love-feasts." + +Still further objections were formulated from different quarters. They +were forcibly disposed of with the same irresistible easy assurance. The +conclusion is worthy of a verbatim quotation: "However extraordinary the +catastrophe which has befallen us and the means of escape which is left +us may seem in appearance, a little reflection will suffice to prove to +us that the predicament in which we are, must have been repeated a +thousand times already in the immensity of the universe, and must have +been cleared up in the same fashion, being inevitably and normally the +final phase in the life-drama of every star. The astronomers know that +every sun is bound to become extinct; they know, therefore, that in +addition to the luminous and visible stars, there are in the heavens an +infinitely greater number of extinct and rayless stars which continue +endlessly to revolve with their train of planets, doomed to an eternity +of night and cold. Well, if this is the case, I ask you: Can we suppose +that life, thought, and love, are the exclusive privilege of an infinite +minority of solar systems still possessed of light and heat, and deny to +the immense majority of gloomy stars every manifestation of life and +animation, the very highest reason for their existence? Thus +lifelessness, death, the void in movement would be the rule; and life +the exception! Thus the nine-tenths, the ninety-nine hundredths, +perhaps, of the solar systems, would idly revolve like senseless and +gigantic mill-wheels, a useless encumbrance of space. That is impossible +and idiotic, that is blasphemous. Let us have more faith in the unknown! +Truth, here as everywhere else, is without doubt the antipodes of +appearance. All that glitters is not gold. These splendid constellations +which attempt to dazzle us are themselves relatively barren. Their +light, what is it? A transient glory, a ruinous luxury, an ostentatious +squandering of energy, born of illimitable senselessness. But when the +stars have sown their wild oats, then the serious task of their life +begins, they develop their inner resources. For frozen and sunless +without, they literally preserve in their inviolate centres their +unquenchable fire, defended by the very layers of ice. There, finally, +is to be relit the lamp of life, banished from the surface above. For a +last time, therefore, let us look upwards in order there to find hope. +Up there innumerable races of mankind under ground, buried, to their +supreme joy, in the catacombs of invisible stars, encourage us by their +example. Let us act like them, let us like them withdraw to the interior +of our planet. Like them, let us bury ourselves in order to rise again, +and like them let us carry with us into our tomb, all that is worthy to +survive of our previous existence. It is not merely bread alone that man +has need of. He must live to think, and not merely think to live. + +"Recall the legend of Noah: to escape from a disaster almost equal to +our own, and to dispute with it all that the earth had most precious in +his eyes; what did he do, though he was but a simple-minded fellow and +addicted to drink? He turned his ark into a museum, containing a +complete collection of plants and animals, even of poisonous plants, of +wild beasts, boa-constrictors, and scorpions, and by reason of this +picturesque but incongruous cargo of creatures mutually harmful and +seeking one and all to devour each other, of this miscellany of living +contradictions which for so long was so foolishly worshipped under the +name of Nature, he believed in good faith to have deserved well of the +future. + +"But we, in our new ark, mysterious, impenetrable, indestructible, shall +carry with us neither plants nor animals. These types of existence are +annihilated; these rough drafts in creation, these fumbling experiments +of Earth in quest of the human form are for ever blotted out. Let us not +regret it. In place of so many pairs of animals which take up so much +room, of so many useless seeds, we will carry with us into our retreat +the harmonious garland of all the truths in perfect accord with one +another; of all artistic and poetic beauties, which are all members one +of another, united like sisters, which human genius has brought to light +in the course of ages and multiplied thereafter in millions of copies: +all of which will be destroyed save a single one, which it will be our +task to guarantee against all danger of destruction. We shall establish +a vast library containing all the principal works, enriched with +cinematographic albums. We shall set up a vast museum composed of single +specimens of all the schools, of all the styles of the masters in +architecture, sculpture, painting, and even music. These are our real +treasures, our real seed for future harvests, our gods for whom we will +do battle till our latest breath." + +The speaker stepped down from the platform in the midst of indescribable +enthusiasm: the ladies crowded round him. They deputed Lydia to bestow +on him a kiss in the name of them all. Blushing with modesty the latter +obeyed--a further sign of moral atavism on her part--and the applause +redoubled. The thermometers of the shelter rose several degrees in a few +minutes. + +It is well to recall to the younger generation these resolute words, +between the lines of which they will read the gratitude they owe to the +heroic "Scarred face," who so nearly died with the reputation of a +mono-maniac. They, too, are beginning to grow enervated and accustomed +to the delights of their underground Elysium, to the luxurious +spaciousness of these endless catacombs, the legacy of gigantic toil on +the part of their fathers, they too, are, inclined to think that all +this happened of its own accord, or at least was inevitable, that after +all there was no other way of escaping from the cold above ground, and +that this simple expedient did not require a great outlay of +imagination. Profound error! At its first appearance, the idea of +Miltiades had been hailed, and rightly enough, as a flash of genius. But +for him, but for his energy, and his eloquence, which was placed at the +service of his imagination, but for his forcefulness, his charm, and his +perseverance, which seconded his energy, let us add, but for the +profound passion that Lydia, the noblest and most valiant of women, had +been able to inspire in him, and which increased his heroism tenfold, +humanity would have suffered the fate of all the other animal or +vegetable species. What strikes us to-day in his discourse is the +extraordinary and truly prophetic lucidity with which he sketched in +general terms the conditions of existence in the new world. Without +doubt, these expectations have been immensely surpassed. He did not +foresee, he could not foresee, the prodigious accessions which his +original idea has received owing to its development by thousands of +auxiliary geniuses. He was far more right than he fancied, like the +majority of reformers--who are generally wrongly accused, of being too +much wrapt up in their own ideas. But on the whole, never was so +magnificent a plan so promptly carried out. + +From that very day all these exquisite and delicate hands set to work, +aided, it is true, by incomparable machines. Everywhere, at the head of +all the workings, were to be found Lydia and Miltiades. Henceforth +inseparable, they vied with one another in ardour; and before a year was +out the galleries of the mines had become sufficiently large and +comfortable, sufficiently decorated even and brilliantly lighted, to +receive the vast and priceless collections of all kinds, which it was +their object to place in safety there, in view of the future. + +With infinite precautions they were lowered one after another, bale by +bale, into the bowels of the earth. This salvage of the goods and +chattels of humanity was methodically carried out. It included all the +quintessence of the ancient grand libraries of Paris, Berlin, and +London, which had been brought together at Babylon, and then carried for +safety into the desert with the rest. The cream of all former museums, +of all previous exhibitions of industry and art, was concentrated there +with considerable additions. There were manuscripts, books, bronzes, and +pictures. What an expenditure of energy and incessant toil, in spite of +the assistance of inter-terrestrial forces, had been necessary for +packing, transporting, and housing it all! And yet, for the greater +part, it was useless to those who voluntarily this task imposed upon +themselves. They all knew it. They were well aware that they were +probably condemned for the rest of their days to a hard and +matter-of-fact existence, for which their lives as artists, +philosophers, and men of letters, had scarcely prepared them. But--for +the first time--the idea of duty to be done found its way into these +hearts, the beauty of self-sacrifice subdued these dilettanti. They +sacrificed themselves to the Unknown, to that which is not yet, to the +posterity towards which were turned all the desires of their electrified +spirits, as all the atoms of the magnetised iron turn towards the pole. +It was thus that, at the time when there were still countries, in the +midst of some great national peril, a wave of heroism swept over the +most frivolous cities. However admirable may have been, at the epoch of +which I speak, this collective need of individual self-sacrifice, ought +we to be astonished at it, when we know from the treatises on natural +history that have been preserved, that mere insects giving the same +example of foresight and self-renunciation, used before their death to +employ their latest energies to collect provisions useless to +themselves, and only useful in the future to their larvæ at their birth. + + + + +IV + +SAVED! + + +The day at length arrived on which, all the intellectual inheritance of +the past, all the real capital of humanity having been rescued from the +general shipwreck, the castaways were able to go down in their turn, +having henceforth only to think of their own preservation. That day +which forms, as everyone knows, the starting point of our new era, +called the era of salvation, was a solemn holiday. The sun, however, as +if to arouse regret, indulged in a few last bursts of sunshine. On +casting a final glance on this brightness, which they were never to +behold again, the survivors of mankind could not, we are told, restrain +their tears. A young poet on the brink of the pit that yawned to swallow +them up, repeated in the musical language of Euripides, the farewell to +the light of the dying Iphigenia. But that was a short-lived moment of +very natural emotion which speedily changed into an outburst of +unspeakable delight. + +How great in fact was their amazement and their ecstasy! They expected a +tomb; they opened their eyes in the most brilliant and interminable +galleries of art they could possibly see, in _salons_ more beautiful +than those of Versailles, in enchanted palaces, in which all extremes of +climate, rain, and wind, cold and torrid heat were unknown; where +innumerable lamps, veritable suns in brilliancy and moons in softness, +shed unceasingly through the blue depths their daylight that knew no +night. Assuredly the sight was far from what it has since become; we +need an effort of imagination in order to represent the psychological +condition of our poor ancestors, hitherto accustomed to the perpetual +and insufferable discomforts and inconveniences of life on the surface +of the globe, in order to realise their enthusiasm, at a moment, when +only counting on escaping from the most appalling of deaths by means of +the gloomiest of dungeons, they felt themselves delivered of all their +troubles, and of all their apprehensions at the same time! Have you +noticed in the retrospective museum that quaint bit of apparatus of our +fathers, which is called an umbrella? Look at it and reflect on the +heart-breaking element, in a situation, which condemned man to make use +of this ridiculous piece of furniture. Imagine yourself obliged to +protect yourselves against those gigantic downpours which would +unexpectedly arrive on the scene and drench you for three or four days +running. Think likewise of sailors caught in a whirling cyclone, of the +victims of sunstroke, of the 20,000 Indians annually devoured by tigers +or killed by the bite of venomous serpents; think of those struck by +lightning. I do not speak of the legions of parasites and insects, of +the acarus, the phylloxera, and the microscopic beings which drained the +blood, the sweat, and the life of man, inoculating him with typhus, +plague, and cholera. In truth, if our change of condition has demanded +some sacrifices, it is not an illusion to declare that the balance of +advantage is immensely greater. What in comparison with this +unparalleled revolution is the most renowned of the petty revolutions of +the past which to-day are treated so lightly, and rightly so, by our +historians. One wonders how the first inhabitants of these underground +dwellings could, even for a moment, regret the sun, a mode of lighting +that bristled with so many inconveniences. The sun was a capricious +luminary which went out and was relit at variable hours, shone when it +felt disposed, sometimes was eclipsed, or hid itself behind the clouds +when one had most need of it, or pitilessly blinded one at the very +moment one yearned for shade! Every night,--do we really realise the +full force of the inconvenience?--every night the sun commanded social +life to desist and social life desisted. Humanity was actually to that +extent the slave of nature! To think it never succeeded in, never even +dreamed of, freeing itself from this slavery which weighed so heavily +and unconsciously on its destinies, on the course of its progress thus +straitened and confined! Ah! Let us once more bless our fortunate +disaster! + +What excuses or explains the weakness of the first immigrants of the +inner world is the fact that their life was necessarily rough and full +of hardships, in spite of a notable improvement after their descent into +the caverns. They had perpetually to enlarge them, to adjust them to the +requirements of the two civilisations, ancient and modern. That was not +the work of a single day. I am well aware how happily fortune favoured +them; how they again and again had the good luck when driving their +tunnels to discover natural grottoes of the utmost beauty, in which it +was enough to illuminate with the usual methods of lighting (which was +absolutely cost-free, as Miltiades had foreseen) in order to render them +almost habitable: delightful squares, as it were, enshrined and sparsely +disseminated throughout the labyrinth of our brilliantly lighted +streets; mines of sparkling diamonds, lakes of quicksilver, mounds of +golden ingots. I am well aware that they had at their disposition a sum +of natural forces very superior to all that the preceding ages had been +acquainted with. That is very easy to understand. In fact, if they +lacked waterfalls, they replaced them very advantageously by the finest +falls in temperature that physicists have ever dreamed of. The central +heat of the globe could not, it is true, by itself alone be a mechanical +force, any more than formerly a large mass of water falling by +hypothesis to the greatest possible depth. It is in its passage from a +higher to a lower level that the mass of water becomes (or rather +became) available energy: it is in its descent from a higher to a lower +degree of the thermometer that heat likewise becomes so. The greater +distance between any two degrees the greater amount of surplus energy. +Now, the mining physicists had hardly descended into the bowels of the +earth ere they at once perceived that thus placed between the furnaces +of the central fire, as it were, a forge of the Cyclops, hot enough to +liquefy granite, and the outer cold, which was sufficient to solidify +oxygen and nitrogen, they had at their disposal the most enormous +extremes in temperature, and consequently thermic cataracts by the side +of which all the cataracts of Abyssinia and Niagara were only toys. What +caldrons did they own in the ancient volcanoes! What condensers in the +glaciers! At first sight they must have seen that if a few distributing +agencies of this prodigious energy were provided, they had power enough +there to perform the whole work of mankind--excavation, air supply, +water supply, sanitation, locomotion, descent and transport of +provisions, etc. + +I am well aware of that. I am further aware that ever favoured by +fortune, the inseparable friend of daring, the new Troglodytes have +never suffered from famine, nor from shortness of supplies. When one of +their snow-covered deposits of carcasses threatened to give out, they +used to make several trial borings, drive several shafts in an upward +direction. They never failed presently to meet with rich finds of food +reserves, extensive enough to close the mouths of the alarmists, whereby +there resulted on each occasion, according to the law of Malthus, a +sudden increase in the population, coupled with the excavation of new +underground cities, more flourishing than their older sisters. But, in +spite of all this, we remain overwhelmed with wonder when we consider +the incalculable degree of courage and intelligence lavished on such a +work, and solely called into being by an idea which, starting one day +from one individual brain, has leavened the whole globe. What giant +falls of earth, what murderous explosions, what a death-roll there must +have been at the outset of the enterprise! We shall never know what +bloodthirsty duels, what rapes, what doleful tragedies, took place in +this lawless society, which had not yet been reorganised. The history of +the early conquerors and colonists of America, if it could be told in +detail, would pale entirely beside it. Let us draw a veil over the +proceedings. But this pitch of horrors was perhaps necessary to teach us +that in the forced intimacy of a cave there is no mean between warfare +and love, between mutual slaughter or mutual embraces. We began by +fighting; to-day we fall on each other's necks. And in fact, what human +ear, nose, or stomach could have longer withstood the deafening roar and +smoke of melanite explosions beneath our crypts; the sight and stench of +mangled bodies piled up within our narrow confines? Hideous and odious, +revolting beyond all expression, the underground war finished by +becoming impossible. + +It is, however, painful to think that it lasted right up to the death of +our glorious preserver. Everyone is acquainted with the heroic adventure +in which Miltiades and his companion lost their lives. It has been so +often painted, sculptured, sung, and immortalised by the great masters, +that it is not allowable to pass it over in silence. The famous struggle +between the centralist and federalist cities, that is to say, at bottom, +between the industrial and artist cities, having ended in the triumph of +the latter, a still more bloodthirsty conflict sprang up between the +free thinking and the cellular cities. The former fought to assert the +freedom of love with its uncertain fecundity; the second, for its +prudent regulation. Miltiades, misled by his passion, committed the +fault of siding with the former, a pardonable error which posterity has +forgiven him. Besieged in his last grotto--a perfect marvel in +strongholds--and at the end of his provisions, the besiegers having +intercepted the arrival of all his convoys, he essayed a final effort: +he prepared a formidable explosion intended to blow up the vault of his +cavern, and forcibly to open a way upwards by which he might have the +chance of reaching a deposit of provisions. His hope was deceived. The +vault blew up, it is true, and disclosed a cavern above it, the most +colossal one had hitherto seen, that dimly resembled a Hindoo temple. +But the hero himself perished miserably, buried with Lydia beneath +enormous rocks on the very spot on which now stands their double statue +in marble, the masterpiece of our new Phidias, which is now the crowded +meeting-place of our national pilgrimages. + +From these fruitful though troublous times, and from this beneficial +disorder, an advantage has accrued to us which we shall never +sufficiently appreciate. Our race, already so beautiful, has been +further strengthened and purified by these numerous trials. +Short-sightedness itself has disappeared under the prolonged influence +of a light that is pleasing to the eye, and of the habit of reading +books which are written in very large characters. For, from lack of +paper, we are obliged to write on slates, on pillars, obelisks, on the +broad panels of marble, and this necessity, in addition to compelling us +to adopt a sober style and contributing to the formation of taste, +prevents the daily newspapers from reappearing, to the great benefit of +the optic nerves and the lobes of the brain. It was, by the way, an +immense misfortune for "pre-salvationist" man to possess textile plants +which allowed him to stereotype without the slightest trouble on rags of +paper without the slightest value, all his ideas, idle or serious, piled +indiscriminately one on the other. Now, before graving our thoughts on a +panel of rock, we take time to reflect on our subject. Yet another bane +among our primitive forefathers was tobacco. At present we no longer +smoke, we can no longer smoke. The public health is accordingly +magnificent. + + + + +V + +REGENERATION + + +It does not fall within the scope of my rapid sketch to relate date by +date the laborious vicissitudes of humanity since its settlement within +the planet from the year 1 of the era of Salvation to the year 596, in +which I write these lines in chalk on slabs of schist. I should only +like to bring out for my contemporaries, who might very well fail to +notice them (for we barely observe what we have always before our eyes), +the distinctive and original features of this modern civilisation of +which we are so justly proud. Now that after many abortive trials and +agonizing convulsions it has succeeded in taking its final shape, we can +clearly establish its essential characteristics. It consists in the +complete elimination of living nature, whether animal or vegetable, man +only excepted. That has produced, so to say, a purification of society. +Secluded thus from every influence of the natural milieu into which it +was hitherto plunged and confined, the social milieu was for the first +time able to reveal and display its true virtues, and the real social +bond appeared in all its vigour and purity. It might be said that +destiny had desired to make in our case an extended sociological +experiment for its own edification by placing us in such extraordinarily +unique conditions.[1] The problem, in a way, was to learn, what would +social man become if committed to his own keeping, yet left to +himself--furnished with all the intellectual acquisitions accumulated +through a remote past by human geniuses, but deprived of the assistance +of all other living beings, nay, even of those beings half endowed with +life, that we call rivers and seas and stars, and thrown back on the +conquered, yet passive forces of chemical, inorganic and lifeless +Nature, which is separated from man by too deep a chasm to exercise on +him any action from the social point of view. The problem was to learn +what this humanity would do when restricted to man, and obliged to +extract from its own resources, if not its food supplies, yet at least +all its pleasures, all its occupations, all its creative inspirations. +The answer has been given, and we have realised at the same time what an +unsuspected drag the terrestrial fauna and flora had hitherto been on +the progress of humanity. + +[1] In appearance only: we must not forget that in accordance +with all probability many extinct stars must have served as the scene of +this normal and necessary phase of social life. + +At first human pride and the faith of man in himself hitherto held in +check by the constant presence, by the profound sense of the superiority +of the forces round it, rebounded with a force of elasticity really +appalling. We are a race of Titans. But, at the same time, whatever +enervating element there might have been in the air of our grottoes has +been thereby victoriously combated. Otherwise our air is the purest that +man has ever breathed; all the bad germs with which the atmosphere was +loaded were killed by the cold. Far from being attacked by anæmia as +some predicted, we live in a state of habitual excitement maintained by +the multiplicity of our relations and of our "social tonics" (friendly +shakes of the hand, talks, meetings with charming women, etc.). With a +certain number among us it passes into a state of unintermittent +delirium under the name of Troglodytic fever. This new malady, whose +microbe has not yet been discovered, was unknown to our forefathers, +thanks perhaps to the stupefying (or soothing, if you prefer it) +influence of natural and rural distractions. Rural! what a strange +anachronism! Fishermen, hunters, ploughmen, and shepherds--do we really +understand to-day the meaning of these words? Have we for a moment +reflected on the life of that fossil creature who is so frequently +mentioned in books of ancient history and who was called the peasant? +The habitual society of this curious creature which comprised half or +three-quarters of the population was not man, but four-footed beasts, +pot herbs and green crops, which, owing to the conditions necessary for +their production in the country (yet another word which has become +meaningless) condemned him to live a wild, solitary life, far from his +fellows. As for his herds, they were acquainted with the charms of +social life, but he had not the slightest inkling of what it meant. + +The towns, to which people were so astonished that there should be a +desire to emigrate, were the only centres, rare and widely scattered as +they were, in which life in society was then known. But to what extent +does it not appear to have been adulterated, and attenuated by animal +and vegetable life? Another fossil peculiar to these regions is the +artisan. Was the relation of the worker to his employer, of the artisan +class to the other classes of the population, of these classes between +themselves a really social relation? Not the least in the world! Certain +sophists, who were called economists, and who were to our sociologists +of to-day what the alchemists formerly were to the chemists or the +astrologers to the astronomers, had given credit, it is true, to this +error--that society essentially consists in an exchange of services. +From this point of view, which, moreover, is quite out of date, the +social bond could never be closer than that between the ass and the ass +driver, the ox and drover, the sheep and the shepherd. Society, we now +know, consists in the exchange of reflections. Mutually to ape one +another, and by dint of accumulated apings diversely combined to create +an originality is the important thing. Reciprocal service is only an +accessory. That is why the urban life of former days being principally +founded on the organic and natural, rather than on the social relation +of producer to consumer, or of workman to employer, was itself only a +very imperfect kind of social life, and accordingly the source of +endless disagreements. + +If it has been possible for us to realise the most perfect and the most +intense social life that has ever been seen, it is thanks to the extreme +simplicity of our strictly so-called wants. At a time when man was +"panivorous" and omnivorous, the craving for food was broken up into an +infinity of petty ramifications. To-day it is confined to eating meat +which has been preserved in the best of refrigerators. Within the space +of an hour each morning, a single member of society by the employment of +our ingenious transport machinery feeds a thousand of his kind. The need +of clothing has been pretty nearly abolished by the softness of an ever +constant climate, and, we must also admit it, by the absence of +silkworms and of textile plants. That would perhaps be a disadvantage +were it not for the incomparable beauty of our bodies, which lends a +real charm to this grand simplicity of costume. Let us observe, however, +that it is fairly customary to wear coats of asbestos spangled with +mica, of silver interwoven and enriched with gold, in which the refined +and delicate charms of our women appear as though moulded in metal, +rather than completely screened from view. This metallic iridescence +with its infinite tints has a most delightful effect. These are, +however, costumes that never wear out. How many clothiers, milliners, +tailors, and drapery establishments are thereby abolished at a single +stroke! The need of shelter remains, it is true, but it has been greatly +reduced. One is no longer obliged to sleep at "starlight-hotel". When a +young man grows weary of the life in common which has hitherto sufficed +him in the spacious working-drawing-room of his fellows, and desires for +matrimonial reasons to have a dwelling to himself, he has only to apply +the boring-machine somewhere against the rocky wall and his cell is +excavated in a few days. There is no rent and few articles of furniture. +The joint-stock furniture, which is magnificent, is almost the only one +of which the pair of lovers make use. + +The quota of absolute necessities being thus reduced to almost nothing, +the quota of superfluities has been able to be extended to almost +everything. Since we live on so little, there remains abundant time for +thought. A minimum of utilitarian work and a maximum of æsthetic, is +surely civilisation itself in its most essential element. The room left +vacant in the heart by the reduction of our wants is taken up by the +talents--those artistic, poetic, and scientific talents which, as they +day by day multiply and take deeper root, become really and truly +acquired wants. They really spring, however, from a necessity to +produce, and not from a necessity to consume. I underline this +difference. The manufacturer is ever toiling, not for his own pleasure +nor for that of the world about him, of his fellow-men or his natural +rivals, but for a society different from his own--on mutual terms, but +that is immaterial. His work, therefore, constitutes a non-social, an +almost anti-social relationship with those who are not of his kind, to +the great hurt and hindrance of his relations with those who are. The +increasing intensity of his work tends to accentuate and not to +attenuate the dissimilarities between the different grades of society, +which act as an obstacle to the general reunion. We have clearly seen +the truth of this in the course of the twentieth century of the ancient +era, when the whole population was divided into trades-unions of the +different professions, which waged desperate warfare on one another, and +whose members in the bosom of each union hated one another as only +brothers can. + +But for the scientist, the artist, the lover of beauty in all its forms, +to produce is a passion, to consume is only a taste. For every artist +has a dilettante double. But his dilettantism in respect to arts other +than his own only plays by comparison a secondary part in his life. The +artist creates through sheer delight, and he alone creates for such +motives. + +We can now comprehend the depth of the truly social revolution which was +accomplished from the days when the æsthetic activity, by dint of ever +growing, ended by vanquishing utilitarian activity. Henceforth in place +of the relation of producer to consumer has been substituted, as +preponderating element in human dealings, the relation of the artist to +the art-lover. The ancient social ideal was to seek amusement or +self-satisfaction apart and to render mutual service. For this we +substitute the following: to be one's own servant and mutually to +delight one another. Henceforward, to insist once more, society reposes, +not on the exchange of services, but on the exchange of admiration or +criticism, of favourable or unfavourable judgments. The anarchical +regime of greed in all its forms has been succeeded by the autocratic +government of enlightened opinion which has become supreme. For our +worthy ancestors deceived themselves finely when they persuaded +themselves that social progress led to what they termed freedom of +thought. We have something better; we possess the joy and the strength +of the mind which attains a certainty of its own, founded, as it is, on +its only sure basis, the unanimity of other minds on certain essential +matters. On this rock we can rear the highest constructions of thought, +nay, the most gigantic systems of philosophy. + +The error, at present recognised, of those ancient visionaries called +socialists was their failure to see that this life in common, this +intense social life, they dreamt of so ardently, had for its +indispensable condition the æsthetic life and the universal propagation +of the religion of truth and beauty. The latter assumes the drastic +lopping off of numerous personal wants. Consequently in rushing, as they +did, into an exaggerated development of commercial life, they were +marching in the opposite direction to their own goal. + +They must have begun, I am well aware, by uprooting the fatal habit of +eating bread, which made man a slave to the tyrannical whims of a plant, +of beasts which were necessary for the manuring of this plant, and of +other plants which served as fodder for their beasts.... But as long as +this unhappy craving was rampant and they refrained from combating it, +it was obligatory to abstain from arousing others which were not less +anti-social, that is to say, not less natural. It was far better to +leave men at the ploughtail than to attract them to the factory, for the +dispersion and isolation of individualist types are more preferable to +bringing them together, which can only result in setting them by the +ears. But let us hurry on. All the advantages for which we are indebted +to our anti-natural position are now clear. We alone have realised all +the quintessence of refinement and reality, of strength and of +sweetness, that the social life contains. Formerly, here and there, in a +few rare cases in the midst of deserts an individual had certainly had a +distant foretaste of this ineffable thing, not to mention three or four +salons in the eighteenth century under the ancient regime, two or three +painters' studios, one or two green-rooms. They represented, in a way, +imperceptible cores of social protoplasm lost amid a mass of foreign +matter. But this marrow has become the entire bone at present. Our +cities, all in all, are one vast workshop, household and reception hall. +And this has happened in the simplest and most inevitable manner in the +world. Following the law of separation of the old Herbert Spencer, the +selection of heterogeneous talents and vocations was bound to take place +of its own accord. In fact, at the end of a century there was already +underground in course of development and continuous excavation a city of +painters, a city of sculptors, a city of musicians, of poets, of +geometricians, of physicists, of chemists, even of naturalists, of +psychologists, of scientific or æsthetic specialists of every kind, +except, strictly speaking, in philosophy. For we were obliged after +several attempts to give up the idea of founding or maintaining a city +of philosophers, notably owing to the incessant trouble caused by the +tribe of sociologists who are the most unsociable of mankind. + +Let us not forget, by the way, to mention the city of "sappers" (we no +longer speak of architects), whose speciality is to work out the plans +for excavating and repairing all our crypts and to direct the carrying +out of the work by our machines. Quitting the hackneyed paths of former +architecture, they have created in every detail our modern architecture +so profoundly original of which nothing could give an idea to our +forefathers. The public building of the ancient architect was a kind of +massive and voluminous work of art. It was entirely a thing by itself. +Its exterior, and especially its front, occupied his attention far more +than the inside. For the modern architect the interior alone exists, and +each work is linked on to those which have gone before. None stands by +itself. They are only an extension and ramification, one of another, an +endless continuation like the epics of the East. The work of the ancient +architect with its misplaced individuality, with its symmetry, which +gave it a mock air of being a living thing, yet only rendered it more +out of keeping with the surrounding landscape, the more symmetrical and +more skilfully designed it was, produced the effect of a verse in prose, +or of a hackneyed theme in a fantasia. Its special function was to +represent correctness, coldness, and stiffness amid the luxuriant +disorder of nature and the freedom of the other arts. But to-day, +instead of being the most tight-laced of the arts, architecture is the +freest and most wanton of them all. It is the chief element of +picturesqueness in our life, its artificial and veritably artistic +scenery lends to all the masterpieces of our painters and sculptors the +horizon of its perspective, the sky of its vaults, the tangled +vegetation of its innumerable colonnades, whose shafts are a copy of the +idealised trunk of all the antique essence of tree-life, whose capitals +imitate the idealised form of all the antique flowers. Here is nature +winnowed and perfected, which has become human in order to delight +humanity, and which humanity has deified in order to shelter love +beneath its shade. This perfection has only been, however, attained +after much groping in the dark. Many falls of rock, occasioned by +foolhardy excavations, which unduly reduced the number of supports, +swallowed up whole towns during the first two centuries. They will serve +for our descendants as Pompeii to rediscover. At the least shock +produced by earthquakes (the only natural plague which engages our +attention), a few cases of crushing to death still occur here and there, +but such accidents are very rare. + +To return to our subject. Each of our cities in founding colonies in the +region round it, has become the mother of cities similar to itself, in +which its own peculiar colour has been multiplied in different tints +which reflect and render it more beautiful. It is thus with us that +nations are formed whose differences no longer correspond to +geographical accidents but to the diversity of the social aptitudes of +human nature and of nothing else. Nay, more, in each of them the +division of cities is founded on that of schools, the most flourishing +of which, at any given moment, raises its particular town to the rank of +capital, thanks to the all-powerful favour of the public. + +The beginnings and devolution of power, questions which have so deeply +agitated humanity of yore, arise with us in the most natural way in the +world. There is always amid the crowd of our genius, a superior genius +who is hailed as such by the almost unanimous acclamation of his pupils +at first, and next of his comrades. A man is judged in fact by his peers +and according to his productions, not by the incompetent or according to +his electoral exploits. In the light of the intimate sense of corporate +life which binds and cements us one to another, the elevation of such a +dictator to the supreme magistracy has nothing humiliating about it for +the pride of the senators who have elected him, and who are the chiefs +of all the leading schools they themselves have created. The elector who +is a pupil, the elector who is an intelligent and sympathetic admirer +identifies himself with the object of his choice. Now it is the +particular characteristic of a "Geniocratic" Republic to be based on +admiration, not on envy, on sympathy, and not on dislike--on +enlightenment, not on illusion. + +Nothing is more delightful than a tour through our domains. Our towns, +which are quite close to one another are severally connected by broad +roads which are always illuminated and dotted with light and graceful +monocycles, with trains without smoke or whistle, with pretty electric +carriages which glide silently along, like gondolas between walls +covered with admirable bas-reliefs, with charming inscriptions, with +immortal fancies, the outpourings and accumulations of ten generations +of wandering artists. Similarly one might have seen in the olden times +the scanty remains of some convent where, in the course of ages the +monks had translated their weariness of spirit into grinning figures, +with hooded heads, into beasts from the Apocalypse, clumsily sculptured +on the capitals of the little pilasters or around the stone chair of the +Abbot. But what a distance lies between this monkish nightmare and this +artistic revelation! At the very most the pretty little gallery which +joined across the Arno, the museum of the Pitti Palace, with that of the +Uffizi at Florence, could give our ancestors a faint idea of what we +see. + +If the corridors of our abode possess this wealth and splendour, what +shall we say of the dwelling-places, or of the cities? They are filled +with heaps of artistic marvels, of frescoes, enamels, gold and silver +plate, bronzes and pictures, the acme and quintessence of musical +emotions, of philosophic conceptions, of poetic dreams, enough to baffle +all description, and weary all admiration. We have difficulty in +believing that the labyrinth of galleries, subterranean palaces and +marble catacombs, all named and numbered, whose manifold nomenclature +recalls all the geography and history of the past, have been excavated +in so few centuries. That is what perseverance can do! However +accustomed we may be to this extraordinary sight, it still at times +happens when wandering alone, during the hours of the siesta, in this +sort of infinite cathedral, with its irregular and endless architecture, +through this forest of lofty columns, massive or in close formation, +displaying in turn the most diversified and grandiose styles, Egyptian, +Greek, Byzantine, Arab, Gothic, and reminiscent of all the vanished and +venerated floras and faunas, when it is not above all profoundly +original ... it happens, I repeat, that panting, and beside ourselves +with ecstasy, we come to a standstill, like the traveller of yore when +he entered the twilight of a virgin forest, or of the pillared hall of +Karnak. + +To those who on reading the ancient accounts of travels might perchance +have regretted the wanderings of caravans across the deserts or the +discoveries of new worlds, our universe can offer boundless excursions +under the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans frozen to their very lowest +depths. Venturesome explorers, I was going to say discoverers, have in +every direction and in the easiest imaginable fashion honeycombed these +immense ice-caps with endless passages much in the same way as the +termites, according to our palæontologists, bored through the floors of +our fathers. We extend at will these fantastic galleries of crystal, +which, wherever they cross one another, form so many crystal palaces, by +casting on the walls a ray of intense heat which makes them melt. We +take good care to drain the water due to the liquefaction into one of +those bottomless pits which here and there yawn hideously beneath our +feet. Thanks to this method and the improvements it has undergone we +have succeeded in cutting, hewing and carving the solidified sea-water. +We are able to glide through it, to manoeuvre in it, to course through +it on skates or velocipedes with an ease and agility that are always +admired in spite of our being accustomed to it. The severe cold of these +regions is scarcely tempered by millions of electric lamps which are +mirrored in these emerald-green icicles with their velvet-like tints and +renders a permanent stay impossible. It would even prevent us crossing +them if, by good luck, the earliest pioneers had not discovered in them +crowds of seals which had been caught while still alive by the freezing +of the waters in which they remain imprisoned. Their carefully prepared +skins have furnished us with warm clothing. Nothing is more curious than +thus suddenly to catch sight of, as it were through a mysterious glass +case, one of these huge marine animals, sometimes a whale, a shark or a +devil fish, and that star-like flora which carpets the seas. Though +appearing crystallized in its transparent prison, in its Elysium of pure +brine, it has lost none of its secret charm, that was quite unknown to +our ancestors. Idealised by its very lack of motion, immortalised by its +death, it dimly shines here and there with gleams of pearl and mother of +pearl in the twilight of the depths below, to the right, the left, +beneath the feet or above the head of the solitary skater who roams with +his lamp on his forehead in pursuit of the unknown. There is always +something new to look forward to from these miraculous soundings, so +different from the soundings of former time. Never a tourist has come +home without having discovered some interesting object--a piece of +wreckage, the steeple of some sunken town, a human skeleton to enrich +our prehistoric museums, sometimes a shoal of sardines or cod. These +splendid and timely reserves come in very handy for replenishing our +bill of fare. But the chief fascination of such adventurous exploration +is the sense of the boundless and the everlasting, of the unfathomable +and the changeless by which one is arrested and overwhelmed in these +bottomless depths. The savour of this silence and solitude, of this +profound peace, the sequel to so many tempests, of this almost starless +gloaming and twilight with its fleeting gleams, reposes the eye after +our underground illuminations. I will not speak of the surprises which +the hand of man has lavished there. At the moment when one least expects +it one sees the submarine tunnel along which one is gliding, enlarged +beyond all measure and transformed into a vast hall in which the fancy +of our sculptors has found full play, a temple of vast dimensions with +transparent pillars, with walls of enthralling beauty that the eye in +ecstasy attempts to fathom. That is often the trysting place of friends +and lovers, and the excursion begun in dreamy loneliness is continued in +loving companionship. + +But we have wandered long enough in these halls of mysteries. Let us +return to our cities. One would look, by the bye, in vain for a city of +lawyers there, or even, for a court of justice. There is no more arable +land and therefore no more lawsuits about property or ancient rights. +There are no more walls, and therefore no more lawsuits about party +walls. As for felonies and misdemeanours, we do not know exactly why, +but it is an obvious fact that with the spread of the cult of art they +have disappeared as by enchantment, while formerly the progress of +industrial life had tripled their numbers in half a century. + +Man in becoming a town dweller has become really human. From the time +that all sorts of trees and beasts, of flowers and insects no longer +interpose between men, and all sorts of vulgar wants no longer hinder +the progress of the truly human faculties, every one seems to be born +well-bred, just as every one is born a sculptor or musician, philosopher +or poet, and speaks the most correct language with the purest accent. An +indescribable courtesy, skilled to charm without falsehood, to please +without obsequiousness, the most free from fawning one has ever seen, is +united to a politeness which has at heart the feeling, not of a social +hierarchy to be respected, but of a social harmony to be maintained. It +is composed not of more or less degenerate airs of the court, but of +more or less faithful reflections of the heart. Its refinement is such +as the race who lived on the surface of earth never even dreamed of. It +permeates like a fragrant oil all the complicated and delicate machinery +of our existence. No unsociableness, no misanthropy can resist it. The +charm is too profound. The single threat of ostracism, I do not say of +expulsion to the realms above, which would be a death sentence, but of +banishment beyond the limits of the usual corporate life, is sufficient +to arrest the most criminal natures on the slope of crime. There is in +the slightest inflexion of voice, in the least inclination of the head +of our women a special charm, which is not only the charm of former +times, whether roguish kindness or kindly roguishness, but a refinement +at once more exquisite and more healthful in which the constant practice +of seeing and doing beautiful things or loving and being loved is +expressed in an ineffable fashion. + + + + +VI + +LOVE + + +Love, in fact, is the unseen and perennial source of this novel +courtesy. The capital importance it has assumed, the strange forms it +has worn, the unexpected heights to which it has risen, are perhaps the +most significant characteristics of our civilisation. In the glittering +and superficial epochs, age of paper and electro-plating, which +immediately preceded our present era, love was held in check by a +thousand childish needs, by the contagious mono-mania of unsightly and +cumbersome luxury or of ceaseless globe-trotting, and by that other form +of madness which has now disappeared, the so-called political ambition. +It suffered accordingly an immense decline, relatively speaking. To-day +it benefits from the destruction or gradual diminution of all the other +principal impulses of the heart which have taken refuge and concentrated +themselves in it as banished mankind has done in the warm bosom of the +earth. Patriotism is dead, since there is no longer any native land, but +only a native grot. Moreover the guilds which we enter as we please +according to our vocations have taken the place of Fatherlands. +Corporate spirit has exterminated patriotism. In the same fashion the +school is on the road not to exterminate but to transform the family, +which is only right and proper. The best that can be said for the +parents of old was that they were compulsory and not always cost-free +friends. One was not wrong in preferring in general to them friends who +are a species of optional and unselfish relations. Maternal love itself +has undergone a good many transformations among our women artists, and +one must admit, sundry partial set backs. + +But love is left to us. Or rather, be it said without vanity, it is we +who discovered and introduced it. Its name has preceded it by a good +many centuries. Our ancestors gave it its name, but they spoke of it as +the Hebrews spoke of the Messiah. It has revealed itself in our day. In +our day it has become incarnate, it has founded the true religion, +universal and enduring, that pure and austere moral which is +indistinguishable from art. It has been favoured at the outset, beyond +all doubt and beyond all expectation by the charm and beauty of our +women, who are all differently yet almost equally accomplished. There is +nothing _natural_ left in our world below if it be not they. But it +appears they have always been the most beautiful thing in nature even in +the most unfavourable and ill-favoured ages. For we are assured that +never was the graceful curve of hill or stream, of wave or rippling +cornfield, that never was the hue of the dawn or of the Mediterranean +equal in sweetness, in strength, in richness of visible music and +harmony to the female form. There must therefore have been a special +instinct which is quite incomprehensible which formerly retained the +poor beside their natal river or rock and prevented their emigrating to +the big towns, where they might well have hoped to admire at their ease +tints and outlines of beauty assuredly far superior to the charm of the +locality to whose attractions they fell a victim. At present there is no +other country than the woman of one's affections; there is no other +home-sickness than that caused by her absence. + +But the foregoing is insufficient to explain the unparalleled power and +persistence of our love which time intensifies more than it wears out, +and consummates as it consumes it. Love, we now at last know, is like +air, essential to life; we must look to it for health and not for mere +nourishment. It is as the sun once was, we must use it to give us light, +not allow it to dazzle us. It resembles that imposing temple that the +fervour of our fathers raised in its honour when they worshipped it, +unwittingly, at the Paris Opera-house. The most beautiful part of it is +the staircase--when one mounts it. We have therefore attempted to make +the staircase monopolise the whole edifice without leaving the tiniest +room for the hall. The wise man, an ancient writer has said, is to the +woman what the asymptote is to the curve, it draws ever nearer but never +touches. It was a half crazy fellow named Rousseau who uttered this +splendid aphorism and our society flatters itself that it has practised +it far better than he. All the same the ideal thus outlined, we are +compelled to confess, is rarely attained in all its entity. This degree +of perfection is reserved for the most saintly souls, the ascetics, men +and women, who wander together, two and two, in the most marvellous +cloisters, in the most Raphaelesque cells in the city of painters, in a +sort of artificial dusk produced by a coloured twilight in the midst of +a throng of similar couples, and on the banks of a stream so to say of +audacious and splendid revelations of the nude. They pass their life in +feasting their eyes on these waves of beauty, the living bank of which +is their own passion. Together they climb the fiery steps of the +heavenly staircase to the very summit on which they halt. Then supremely +inspired they set to work and produce masterpieces. Heroic lovers are +they whose whole pleasure in love consists in the sublime joy of feeling +their love growing within them, blissful because it is shared, inspiring +because it is chaste. + +But for the greater number of us it has been necessary to come down to +the level of the insurmountable weakness of the old Adam. None the less +the inelastic limits of our food supplies have made it a duty for us +rigorously to guard against a possible excess in our population which +has reached to-day fifty millions, a figure it can never exceed without +danger. We have been obliged to forbid in general under the most severe +penalties a practice which apparently was very common and indulged in +_ad libitum_ by our forefathers. Is it possible that after manufacturing +the rubbish heaps of law with which our libraries are lumbered up, they +precisely omitted to regulate the only matter considered worthy to-day +of regulation? Can we conceive that it could ever have been permissible +to the first comer without due authorisation to expose society to the +arrival of a new hungry and wailing member--above all at a time when it +was not possible to kill a partridge without a game licence, or to +import a sack of corn without paying duty? Wiser and more far-sighted, +we degrade, and in case of a second offence we condemn to be thrown into +a lake of petroleum, whoever allows himself to infringe our +constitutional law on this point, or rather we should say, should allow +himself, for the force of public opinion has got the better of the crime +and has rendered our penalties unnecessary. We sometimes, nay very +often, see lovers who go mad from love and die in consequence. Others +courageously get themselves hoisted by a lift to the gaping mouth of an +extinct volcano and reach the outer air which in a moment freezes them +to death. They have scarcely time to regard the azure sky--a magnificent +spectacle, so they say--and the twilight hues of the still dying sun or +the vast and unstudied disorder of the stars; then locked in each +other's arms they fall dead upon the ice! The summit of their favourite +volcano is completely crowned with their corpses which are admirably +preserved always in twos, stark and livid, a living image still of love +and agony, of despair and frenzy, but more often of ecstatic repose. +They recently made an indelible impression on a celebrated traveller who +was bold enough to make the ascent in order to get a glimpse of them. We +all know how he has since died from the effects. + +But what is unheard of and unexampled in our day is for a woman in love +to abandon herself to her lover before the latter has under her +inspiration produced a masterpiece which is adjudged and proclaimed as +such by his rivals. For here we have the indispensable condition to +which legitimate marriage is subordinated. The right to have children is +the monopoly and supreme recompense of genius. It is besides a powerful +lever for the uplifting and exaltation of the race. Futhermore a man can +only exercise it exactly the same number of times as he produces works +worthy of a master. But in this respect some indulgence is shown. It +even happens pretty frequently that touched by pity for some grand +passion that disposes only of a mediocre talent, the affected admiration +of the public partly from sympathy and partly from condescension accords +a favourable verdict to works of no intrinsic value. Perhaps there are +also (in fact there is no doubt about it) for common use other methods +of getting round the law. + +Ancient society reposed on the fear of punishment, on a penal system +which has had its day. Ours, it is clear, is based on the expectation of +happiness. The enthusiasm and creative fire aroused by such a +perspective are attested by our exhibitions, and borne witness to by the +rich luxuriance of our annual art harvests. When we think of the +precisely opposite effects of ancient marriage, that institution of our +ancestors, more ridiculous still than their umbrellas, one can measure +the distance between this excessive and pretended exclusive _debitum +conjugale_ and our mode of union, at once free and regulated, energetic +and intermittent, passionate and restrained, the true corner-stone of +our regenerated humanity. The sufferings it imposes on those who are +sacrificed, the unsuccessful artists, is not for the latter a cause of +complaint. Their despair itself is dear to the desperate; for if they do +not die of it, they draw life and immortality from it and from the +bottomless pit of their inner depth of woe, they gather deathless +flowers, flowers of art or poesy for some, mystic roses for others. To +the latter perhaps is given at that moment, as they grope in their +inward darkness to touch most nearly the essence of things, and these +delights are so vivid that our artists and our metaphysical mystics +wonder whether art and philosophy were made to console love or if the +sole reason for love's existence is not to inspire art and the pursuit +of ultimate truth. This last opinion has generally prevailed. + +The extent to which love has refined our habits, and to which our +civilisation based on love is superior in morality to the former +civilisation based on ambition and covetousness, was proved at the time +of the great discovery which took place in the Year of Salvation 194. +Guided by some mysterious inkling, some electric sense of direction, a +bold sapper by dint of forcing his way through the flanks of the earth +beyond the ordinary galleries suddenly penetrated into a strange open +space buzzing with human voices and swarming with human faces. But what +squeaky voices! What sallow complexions! What an impossible language +with no connection with our Greek! It was, without doubt, a veritable +underground America, quite as vast and still more curious. It was the +work of a little tribe of burrowing Chinese who had had, one imagines, +the same idea as our Miltiades. Much more practical than he, they had +hastily crawled underground without encumbering themselves with museums +and libraries, and there they had multiplied enormously. Instead of +confining themselves as we to turning to account the deposits of animal +carcasses, they had shamelessly given themselves up to ancestral +cannibalism. They were thus enabled, seeing the thousand of millions of +Chinese destroyed and buried beneath the snow, to give full vent to +their prolific instincts. Alas! who knows if our own descendants will +not one day be reduced to this extremity? In what promiscuity, in what a +slough of greed, falsehood and robbery were these unfortunates living! +The words of our language refuse to depict their filth and coarseness. +With infinite pains they raised underground diminutive vegetables in +diminutive beds of soil they had brought thither together with +diminutive pigs and dogs.... These ancient servants of mankind appeared +very disgusting to our new Christopher Columbus. These degraded beings +(I speak of the masters and not of the animals, for the latter belong to +a breed that has been much improved by those who raised them) had lost +all recollection of the Middle Empire and even of the surface of the +earth. They heartily laughed when some of our _savants_ sent on a +mission to them spoke to them of the firmament, the sun, the moon and +the stars.... They listened, however, to the end of these accounts, then +in an ironical tone they asked our envoys: "Have you seen all that?" And +the latter unfortunately could not reply to the question, since no one +among us has seen the sky except the lovers who go to die together. + +Now, what did our settlers do at the sight of such cerebral atrophy? +Several proposed, it is true, to exterminate these savages who might +well become dangerous owing to their cunning and to their numbers, and +to appropriate their dwelling-place after a certain amount of cleaning +and painting and the removal of numerous little bells. Others proposed +to reduce them to the status of slaves or servants in order to shift on +to them all our menial work. But these two proposals were rejected. An +attempt was made to civilize and to render less savage these poor +cousins, and once the impossibility of any success in that direction had +been ascertained the partition was carefully blocked up. + + + + +VII + +THE ÆSTHETIC LIFE + + +Such is the moral miracle wrought by our excellence which itself is +begotten of love and beauty. But the intellectual marvels which have +issued from the same source, merit a still more extended notice. It will +be enough for me to indicate them as I go along. + +Let us first speak of the sciences. One might have thought that from the +day that the stars and celestial bodies, the faunas and floras, ceased +to play a certain part in our lives or that the manifold sources of +observation and experience ceased to flow, astronomy and meteorology +would henceforth be brought to a standstill while zoology and botany +would have become palæontology pure and simple, without speaking of +their application to the navy, army and agriculture, which are all +to-day entirely obsolete; in fact, that they would have ceased to make a +step forward and would have fallen into complete oblivion. Luckily these +apprehensions proved groundless. Let us admire the extent to which the +sciences which the past has bequeathed to us, formerly eminently useful +and inductive, have for the first time had the advantage of passionately +interesting and exciting the general public since they have acquired +this double characteristic of being an object of luxury and a deductive +subject. The past has accumulated such undigested masses of astronomical +tables, papers and proceedings dealing with measurements, vivisections, +and innumerable experiments, that the human mind can live on this +capital till the end of time. It was high time that it began at last to +arrange and utilize these materials. Now, for the sciences of which I am +speaking, the advantage is great from the point of view of their success +that they are entirely based on written testimony, and in no way on +sense perception, and that they on all occasions invoke the authority of +books (for we talk to-day of whole bibliographies when formerly people +spoke of a single Bible--evidently an immense difference). This great +and inestimable advantage consists in the extraordinary riches of our +libraries in documents of the most diverse kinds which never leaves an +ingenious theorist in the lurch, and is equal to supporting in a plenary +and authoritative fashion the most contradictory opinions at one and the +same symposium. Its abundance recalls the admirable wealth of antique +legislation and jurisprudence in texts and decisions of every hue which +rendered the lawsuits so interesting, almost as much as the battles of +the populace of Alexandria on the subject of a theological iota. The +debates of our _savants_, their polemics relative to the Vitellin yolk +of the egg of the Arachneida, or the digestive apparatus of the +Infusoria, constitute the burning questions which distress us, and which +if we had the misfortune to possess a regular press, would not fail to +drench our streets in gore. For the questions which are useless and even +harmful have always the knack of rousing the passions, provided they are +insoluble. + +These are our religious quarrels. In fact the sum total of the sciences +bequeathed to us by the past has become definitely and inevitably a +religion. Our _savants_ to-day who work deductively on these data from +henceforth changeless and inviolate, exactly recall on a much larger +scale the theologians of the ancient world. This new encyclopædic +theology, not less fertile than others in schisms and heresies, is the +unique but inexhaustible source of divisions in the bosom of our Church +which is otherwise so compact. It is perhaps the most profound and +fascinating charm of our intellectual leaders. + +"All the same, they are dead sciences!" say certain malcontents. Let us +accept the epithet. They are dead, if one likes, but after the fashion +of those languages in which a whole people chanted its hymns although no +one speaks them any longer. This is also the case with certain faces +whose beauty only appears in its fulness when their last sleep has come. +Let none therefore be surprised if our love fastens on these majestic +dogmas, by which we are more and more overshadowed, on these higher +inutilities which are our vocation. Above all, mathematics, as being the +most perfect type of the new sciences, has progressed with giant steps. +Descending to fabulous depths, analysis has allowed the astronomers at +length to attack and to solve problems whose mere statement would have +provoked an incredulous smile in their predecessors. And so they +discover every day, chalk in hand, not with the telescope to the eye, I +know not how many intra-mercurial or extra-neptunian planets, and begin +to distinguish the planets of the nearer stars. There are in this +department, in the comparative anatomy and physiology of numerous solar +systems, the most novel and profound views. Our Leverriers are reckoned +by hundreds. Being all the better acquainted with the sky because they +no longer see it, they resemble Beethoven, who only wrote his finest +symphonies when he had lost his hearing. Our Claude Bernards and +Pasteurs are almost as numerous. Although we are careful as a matter of +fact not to accord to the natural sciences the exaggerated and +fundamentally anti-social importance they formerly usurped during two or +three centuries, we do not completely neglect them. Even the applied +sciences have their votaries. Recently one of the latter has at last +discovered--such is the irony of destiny--the practical means of +steering balloons. These discoveries are useless, I admit, yet are ever +beautiful and fertile, fertile in new, if superfluous, beauties. They +are welcomed with transports of feverish enthusiasm and win for their +originators something better than glory,--the happiness that we know so +well. + +But among the sciences there are two which are still experimental and +inductive and in addition pre-eminently useful. It is to this +exceptional standing that they perhaps owe, we must admit, the +unparalled rapidity with which they have grown. These two sciences which +were formerly the antipodes of one another, are to-day on the high road +to becoming identical by dint of pushing their joint researches ever +deeper and crushing to atoms the last problems left. Their names are +chemistry and psychology. + +Our chemists, inspired perhaps by love and better instructed in the +nature of affinities, force their way into the inner life of the +molecules and reveal to us their desires, their ideas, and under a +fallacious air of conformity, their individual physiognomy. While they +thus construct for us the psychology of the atom, our psychologists +explain to us the atomic theory of self, I was going to say the +sociology of self. They enable us to perceive, even in its most minute +detail, the most admirable of all societies, this hierarchy of +consciousness, this feudal system of vassal souls, of which our +personality is the summit. We are indebted to them both for priceless +benefits. Thanks to the former we are no longer alone in a frozen world. +We are conscious that these rocks are alive and animated, we are +conscious that these hard metals which protect and warm us are likewise +a prolific brotherhood. Through their mediation these living stones have +some message for our heart, something at once alien and intimate, which +neither the stars nor the flowers of the field ever told to our +forefathers. And by their mediation also, and the service is not to be +despised--we have learnt certain processes which allow us (in a scanty +measure, it is true, for the moment) to supplement the insufficiency of +our ordinary food supplies, or to vary their monotony by several +substances agreeable to the taste and entirely compounded by artificial +means. But if our chemists have thus reassured us against the danger of +dying of hunger, our psychologists have acquired still further claims on +our gratitude in freeing us from the fear of death. Permeated by their +doctrines we have followed their consequences to their final conclusion +with the deductive vigour that is second nature with us. Death appears +to us as a dethronement that leads to freedom. It restores to itself the +fallen or abdicated self that retires anew into its inner consciousness, +where it finds in depths more than the equivalent of the outward empire +it has lost. In thinking of the terrors of former man, face to face with +the tomb, we compare them with the dread experienced by the comrades of +Miltiades when they were compelled to bid adieu to the fields of ice, to +the snowy horizons, in order to enter for ever the gloomy abysses in +which such a myriad of glittering and marvellous surprises awaited them. + +That is a well-established doctrine and one on which no discussion would +be tolerated. It is, with our devotion to beauty and our faith in the +divine omnipotence of love, the foundation of our peace of mind and the +starting point of our enthusiasms. Our philosophers themselves avoid +touching on it, as on all which is fundamental in our institutions. To +this perhaps may be traced an agreeable air of harmlessness which adds +to the charm of their refinement and contributes to their success in +public. With such certainties as ballast we can spring with a light +heart into the æther of systems, and so we do not fail to do so. One may +be surprised, however, that I made a distinction between our +philosophers and those deductive _savants_ of whom I have spoken above. +Their subject-matter and their methods are identical. They chew the +cud--if I may be allowed the expression--in the same fashion at the same +mangers. But the one group, I mean the _savants_, are ordinary +ruminants, that is, slow and clumsy. The others have the peculiar +quality of being at once ruminants and nimble, like the antelope. And +this difference of temperament is indelible. + +There is not, I have already said, a city, but there is a grotto of +philosophers, a natural one to which they come, and sit apart from one +another or in groups, according to their schools, on chairs formed of +granite blocks beside a petrifying well. This spacious grotto contains +astounding stalactites, the slow product of continuous droppings which +vaguely imitate, in the eyes of those who are not too critical, all +kinds of beautiful objects, cups and chandeliers, cathedrals and +mirrors--cups which quench no man's thirst, chandeliers which give no +light, cathedrals in which no one prays, but mirrors in which one sees +oneself more or less faithfully and pleasantly portrayed. There also is +to be seen a gloomy and bottomless lake over which hang like so many +question-marks, the pendants in the sombre roof and the beards of the +thinkers. Such is the ample cave which is exactly identical to the +philosophy it shelters, with its crystals sparkling amid its uncertain +shadows--full of precipices, it is true. It recalls better than anything +else to the new race of men, but with a still greater portion of +mirage-like fascination, that diurnal miracle of our forefathers--the +starry night. Now the crowd of systematic ideas which slowly form and +crystallise there in each brain like mental stalactites is indescribably +enormous. While all the former stalactites of thought are for ever +ramifying and changing their shape, turning as it were from a table into +an altar, or from an eagle into a griffin, new ideas appear here and +there still more surprising. There are always, of course, +Neo-Aristotelians, Neo-Kantians, Neo-Cartesians, and Neo-Pythagoricians. +Let us not forget the commentators of Empedocles to whom his passion for +the volcanic underworld has procured an unexpected rejuvenation of his +antique authority on the minds of men, above all since an archæologist +has maintained he has found the skeleton of this grand man in pushing an +exploring gallery to the very foot of Ætna which to-day is completely +extinct. But there is ever arising some great reformer with an +unpublished gospel that each attempts to enrich with a new version +destined to take its place. I will cite for example the greatest +intellect of our time, the chief of the fashionable school in sociology. +According to this profound thinker the social development of humanity, +starting on the outer rind of the earth and continuing to-day beneath +its crust, at no great distance from the surface, is destined in +proportion to the growing solar and planetary cooling, to pursue its +course from strata to strata down to the very centre of the earth, while +the population forcibly contracts and civilisation on the contrary +expands at each new descent. It is worth seeing the vigour and +Dante-like precision with which he characterises the social type +peculiar to each of these humanities, immured within its own circle, +growing ever nobler and richer, happier and better balanced. One should +read the portrait which he has limned with a bold brush of the last man, +sole survivor and heir of a hundred successive civilisations, left to +himself yet self-sufficient in the midst of his immense stores of +science and art. He is happy as a god because he is omniscient and +omnipotent, because he has just discovered the true answer of the Great +Enigma, yet dying because he cannot survive humanity. By means of an +explosive substance of extraordinary potency he blows up the globe with +himself in order to sow the immensity of space with the last remnants of +mankind. This system very naturally has a good many adherents. The +graceful Hypatias, however, who form his female followers, idly lying +round the master's stone, are agreed it would be proper to associate +with the last man, the last woman, not less ideal than he. + +But what shall I say of art and poetry? Here to be just, praise must +become panegyric. Let us limit ourselves to indicating the general +tendency of the transformations that have taken place. I have related +what has become of our architecture which has been turned "outside in", +so to say, and brought into keeping with its surroundings, the idealised +image in stone, the essence and consummation of former Nature. I shall +not return to the subject. But I must still say a word about this +immortal and overflowing population of statues, this wealth of frescoes, +enamels, and bronzes which in concert with our poetry celebrate in this +architectural transfiguration of the nether world the apotheosis of +love. There would be an interesting study to make on the gradual +metamorphoses that the genius of our painters and sculptors has imposed +for the last three centuries on these traditional types of lions, +horses, tigers, birds, trees and flowers, with which it is never weary +of disporting itself, without being either helped or hindered by the +sight of any animal or any plant. Never, in fact, have our artists, who +protest strongly against being taken for photographers, depicted so many +plants, animals and landscapes, than since these were no more. +Similarly, they have never painted or sculptured so many draperies, +since everyone goes about almost naked, while formerly at the time when +humanity wore clothes the nude abounded in art. Does it mean that +nature, now dead and formerly alive, from which our great masters drew +their subjects and themes, has become a simple hieroglyphic and coldly +conventional alphabet? No. Daughter to-day of tradition and no longer of +productive nature, humanised and harmonised, she has a still firmer hold +on the heart. If she recalls to each his day-dreams rather than his +recollections, his imaginings rather than his impressions, his +admiration as an artist rather than his terror as a child, she is only +the better calculated to fascinate and subdue. She has for us the +profound and intimate charm of an old legend, but it is a legend in +which one believes. + +Nothing is more inspiring. Such must have been the mythology of the +worthy Homer when his hearers in the Cyclades still believed in +Aphrodite and Pallas, in the Dioscuri and the Centaurs, of whom he spoke +to them and wrung from them tears of sheer delight. Thus our poets make +us weep, when they speak to us now of azure skies, of the sea-girt +horizon, of the perfume of roses, of the song of birds, of all those +objects that our eye has never seen, our ear has never heard, of which +all our senses are ignorant, yet our mind conjures them up within us by +a strange instinct at the least suggestion of love. + +And when our painters show us these horses whose legs grow ever slimmer, +these swans whose necks become ever rounder and longer, these vines +whose leaves and branches grow ever more intricate with their lace-like +edges and arabesques interwoven round still more exquisite birds, a +matchless emotion rises within us such as a young Greek might have felt +before a bas-relief crowded with fauns and nymphs or with Argonautes +bearing off the Golden Fleece, or with Nereids sporting around the cup +of Amphitrite. + +If our architecture in spite of all its splendours seems but a simple +foil of our other fine arts, they in their turn, however admirable, have +the air of being barely worthy to illustrate our poetry and literature +graven on stone. But in our poetry and even in our literature there are +glories which in comparison with less obvious beauty are as the corona +is to the ovary, or the frame to the picture. Read our romantic dramas +and epics in which all ancient history is magically unrolled down to the +heroic struggle and love story of Miltiades. You will decide that +nothing more sublime could ever be written. Read also our idylls, our +elegies, our epigrams inspired by antiquity, and our poetry of every +kind written in a dozen dead languages which when desired revive in +order to vivify with their clear notes and their manifold harmonies, the +pleasure of our ear, to accompany, so to say, with their rich +orchestration in English, German, Swedish, Arabic, Italian and French, +the music of our pure Attic. You will imagine nothing more fascinating +than this renaissance and transfiguration of forgotten idioms, once the +glory of antiquity. As for our dramas and our poems which are often at +once the collective and individual work of a school, incarnate in its +chief and animated with a single idea like the sculptures of the +Parthenon, there is nothing comparable in the masterpieces of Sophocles +or Homer. What the extinct species of nature formerly alive are to our +painters and sculptors, the no less extinct sentiments of former human +nature are to our dramatists. Jealousy, ambition, patriotism, +fanaticism, the mad lust of battle, the exalted love of family, the +pride of an illustrious name, all the vanished passions of the heart +when called up upon the stage, no longer cause tears or terror in a +single soul, any more than the heraldic tigers and lions painted up on +our public squares frighten our children. But in a new accent with quite +a different ring, they speak to us their ancient language; and to tell +the truth, they are only a grand piano on which our new passions play. +Now there is but a single passion for all its thousand names, as there +is above but a single sun. It is love, the soul of our soul and source +of our art. That is the true sun which will never fail us, which is +never weary of touching and reanimating with the light of its +countenance its lower creations of yore, the first-born incarnations of +the heart, in order to make them young once more, in order to re-gild +them with its dawns, and reincarnadine them with its setting splendours; +almost in the same fashion as it sufficed the other sun to compass with +a single ray that august summons to deck the earth, addressed to every +ancient plant of the field, awakening it to bloom anew, that grand +yearly transformation scene, so deceptive and entrancing, which they +named the Spring, when there was still a Spring to name! + +And so for our highly refined writers, all that I have just praised a +moment ago has no value if their heart is left untouched. They would +give for one true and personal note all these feats of skill and sleight +of hand. What they look for under the most grandiose conceptions and +stage effects, and under the most audacious novelties in rhyme; what +they adore on bended knee when they have found it, is a short passage, a +line, half a line, on which an imperceptible hint of profound passion, +or the most fleeting phase, though unexpressed, of love in joy, in +suffering or in death has left its impress. Thus at the beginning of +humanity each tint of the dawn or the dusk, each hour of the day was, +for the first man who gave it a name, a new solar god who soon possessed +worshippers, priests and temples of his own. But to analyse sensations +after the manner of the old-fashioned erotic writers gives us no +trouble. The real difficulty and merit lie in gathering along with our +mystics, from the lowest depths of sorrow, its flowers of ecstasy, the +pearls and coral that lie at the bottom of its sea, and to enrich the +soul in its own eyes. Our purest poetry thus joins hands with our most +profound psychology. One is the oracle, the other the dogma of one and +the same religion. + +And yet is it credible? In spite of its beauty, harmony and incomparable +charm, our society has also its malcontents. There are here and there +certain recusants who declare they are soaked and saturated with the +essence, so remarkably pure and so much above proof, of our excessive +and compulsory society. They find our realm of beauty too static, our +atmosphere of happiness too tranquil. In vain to please them we vary +from time to time the intensity and colouring of our illuminations and +ventilate our colonnades with a kind of refreshing breeze. They persist +in condemning as monotonous our day devoid of clouds or night; our year, +devoid of seasons; our towns devoid of country-life. Very curiously when +the month of May comes round, this feeling of restlessness which they +alone experience at ordinary times, becomes contagious and well-nigh +general. And so it is the most melancholy and least busy month of the +year. One would say that the Spring driven from every place, from the +gloomy immensity of the heavens and from the frozen surface of the earth +has, as we, sought refuge under ground; or rather that her wandering +ghost returns at stated seasons to visit us and tantalise us by her +haunting presence. It is then that the city of the musicians grows full +and their music becomes so sweet, pathetic, mournful, and desperately +harrowing that we see lovers by hundreds at a time take each other by +the hand and go up to gaze upon the death-dealing sky.... In reference +to this I ought to say that there was recently a false alarm caused by a +madman who pretended he had seen the sun coming back to life and melting +the ice. At this news which had not been otherwise confirmed, quite a +considerable portion of the population became unsettled and gave itself +up to the pleasing task of forming plans for an early exodus. Such +unhealthy and revolutionary dreams evidently only serve to foment +artificial discontent. + +Luckily a scholar in rummaging in a forgotten corner of the archives put +his hand on a big collection of phonographic and cinematographic records +which had been amassed by an ancient collector. Interpreted by the +phonograph and cinematograph together, these cylinders and films have +enabled us suddenly to hear all the former sounds in nature accompanied +by their corresponding sights, the thunder, the winds, the mountain +torrents, the murmurs that accompany the dawn, the monotonous cry of the +osprey and the long drawn out lament of the nightingale amid the +manifold whisperings of night. At this resurrection of another age to +the ear and eye, of extinct species and vanished phenomena, an immense +astonishment quickly followed by an immense disillusion arose among the +most ardent partisans of a return to the ancient regime. For that was +not what one had hitherto believed on the strength of what even the most +realist poets and novelists had told us. It was something infinitely +less ravishing and less worthy of our regret. The song of the +nightingale above all provoked a most unpleasant surprise. We were all +angry with it for showing itself so inferior to its reputation. +Assuredly the worst of our concerts is more musical than this so-called +symphony of nature with full orchestral accompaniment. + +Thus has been quelled by an ingenious expedient entirely unknown to +former governments, this first and only attempt at rebellion. May it be +the last. A certain leaven of discord is beginning, alas, to contaminate +our ranks, and our moralists observe not without apprehension sundry +symptoms which indicate the relaxation of our morals. The growth in our +population is very disquieting, notably since certain chemical +discoveries, following upon which we have been too much in a hurry to +declare that bread might be made of stones, and that it was no longer +worth while to husband our food supplies or to trouble ourselves to +maintain at a certain limit the number of mouths to feed. + +Simultaneously with the increase in the number of children, there is a +diminution in the number of masterpieces. Let us hope that this +lamentable movement will soon abate. If the sun once more, as after the +different glacial epochs, succeeds in awakening from his lethargy and +regains fresh strength, let us pray that only a small part of our +population, that which is the most light-headed, the most unruly, and +the most deeply attacked by incurable "matrimonialitis", will avail +itself of the seeming yet deceptive advantages offered by this open air +cure and will make a dash upwards for the freedom of those inclement +climes! But this is highly improbable if one reflects on the advanced +age of the sun and the danger of those relapses common to old age. It is +still less desirable. Let us repeat in the words of Miltiades our august +ancestor, blessed are those stars which are extinct, that is to say, the +almost entire number of those which people space. Radiance, as he truly +said, is to the stars what the flowering season is to the plants. After +having flowered, they begin to bear fruit. Thus, doubtless, weary of +expansion and the useless squandering of their strength through the +infinite void, the stars collect the germs of higher life in order to +fertilize them in the depth of their bosom. The deceptive brilliancy of +these widely scattered stars, so relatively few in number, which are +still alight, which have not finished sowing what Miltiades called their +wild oats of light and heat, prevented the first race of men from +thinking of this, to wit of the numberless and tranquil multitude of +dark stars to whom this radiance served as a cloak. But as for us, +delivered from their spell and freed from this immemorial optical +delusion, we continue firmly to believe that, among the stars as among +mankind, the most brilliant are not the best, and that the same causes +have brought about elsewhere the same results, compelling other races of +men to hide themselves in the bosom of their earth, and there in peace +to pursue the happy course of their destiny under unique conditions of +absolute independence and purity, that in short in the heavens as on the +earth true happiness lives concealed. + + + + +NOTE ON TARDE + + +Gabriel Tarde was originally a member of the legal profession. For a +long time he was examining magistrate at Sarlat. His works on sociology +and criminology revealed him to the public. He was appointed head of the +Statistical bureau at the Ministry of Justice, a post in which he was +able to obtain first hand the most precious documents for his social +studies. Later he was elected to the chair of modern philosophy at the +College of France, then he was elected member of the Academy of moral +and political sciences in the philosophical section. He died in 1904. + +Tarde wrote a great deal. His flexibility of spirit and style add charm +to his work on technical subjects. In criminology his principal works +are: "The Philosophy of Punishment", "The Professional Criminal", +"Comparative Criminality" (1898);--then come the political works, such +as "The Transformation of Power" (1899). His "Transformation of Law" +dates from 1894. His study in social psychology entitled "Opinion and +the Masses" appeared in 1901. His most celebrated work is perhaps "The +Laws of Imitation" (1900) which was preceded by his "Social Logic" +(1898) and his "Universal Opposition" (1897). + +According to Tarde the social phenomena proceed from individual +inventions which in their turn are the offspring of imitation: the +latter is for Tarde a capital factor in social life. Original ideas or +inventions germinate ceaselessly in the social _milieu_, but only some, +either by their superior adaptability or through the peculiar authority +of their inventor, are accepted by the public as a whole. Sociology is +thus reduced to a Psychology of the _processus_ of invention and +imitations. This explains why the great effort of Tarde has been to +discover the "Laws of Invention". Thereby he has given in sociology a +preponderating place to the individual, and the accidental, and has thus +separated himself from the most general tendencies of thought in our +times which are those of Comte. + +The style of Tarde is abstract but supple. This fragment of future +History forms a kind of exception to his general work which is very +abstract. Tarde reveals himself in it one of the masters of literary +French. The style is picturesque, intense, broad, even periodic, novel +in respect to the thought, and entirely classical in its purity. + +Joseph Manchon. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Underground Man, by Gabriel Tarde + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNDERGROUND MAN *** + +***** This file should be named 33549-8.txt or 33549-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/5/4/33549/ + +Produced by Christine Bell and Marc D'Hooghe at +http://www.freeliterature.org + + +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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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: Underground Man + +Author: Gabriel Tarde + +Translator: Cloudesley Brereton + +Release Date: August 27, 2010 [EBook #33549] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNDERGROUND MAN *** + + + + +Produced by Christine Bell and Marc D'Hooghe at +http://www.freeliterature.org + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1>UNDERGROUND MAN</h1> + +<h3>By</h3> + +<h2>GABRIEL TARDE</h2> + +<h3>(1843-1904)</h3> + +<h4>MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE<br /> +PROFESSOR AT THE COLLEGE OF FRANCE</h4> + +<h4>TRANSLATED BY<br /> +CLOUDESLEY BRERETON<br /> +M.A., L. ÈS L.</h4> + +<h4>WITH A PREFACE +BY H.G. WELLS</h4> + +<h4>LONDON</h4> + +<h4>DUCKWORTH & CO.</h4> + + +<h4>1905</h4> + + + +<p class="caption">The whole of Tarde is in this little book.</p> + +<p>He has put into it along with a charming fancy his genialness and depth +of spirit, his ideas on the influence of art and the importance of love, +in an exceptional social milieu.</p> + +<p>This agreeable day-dream is vigorously thought out. On reading it we +fancy we are again seeing and hearing Tarde. In order to indulge in a +repetition of the illusion, a pious friendship has desired to clothe +this fascinating work in an appropriate dress.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 27.5em;">A.L.</span></p> + + + +<p class="caption">CONTENTS</p> + + +<p>DEDICATION<br /> +PREFACE By H.G. WELLS<br /> +<a href="#INTRODUCTORY">INTRODUCTORY</a><br /> +<a href="#I">I.</a> PROSPERITY<br /> +<a href="#II">II.</a> THE CATASTROPHE<br /> +<a href="#III">III.</a> THE STRUGGLE<br /> +<a href="#IV">IV.</a> SAVED<br /> +<a href="#V">V.</a> REGENERATION<br /> +<a href="#VI">VI.</a> LOVE<br /> +<a href="#VII">VII.</a> THE ÆSTHETIC LIFE<br /> +<a href="#NOTE_ON_TARDE">NOTE</a> ON TARDE By JOSEPH MANCHON</p> + + + +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + + +<p>It reflects not at all on Mr Cloudesley Brereton's admirable work of +translation to remark how subtly the spirit of such work as this of M. +Tarde's changes in such a process. There are certain things peculiar, I +suppose, to every language in the world, certain distinctive +possibilities in each. To French far more than to English, belong the +intellectual liveliness, the cheerful, ironical note, the professorial +playfulness of this present work. English is a less nimble, more various +and moodier tongue, not only in the sound and form of its sentences but +in its forms of thought. It clots and coagulates, it proliferates and +darkens, one jests in it with difficulty and great danger to a sober +reputation, and one attempts in vain to figure Professor Giddings and Mr +Benjamin Kidd, Doctor Beattie Crozier and Mr Wordsworth Donisthorpe +glittering out into any so cheerful an exploit as this before us. Like +Mr Gilbert's elderly naval man, they "never larks nor plays", and if +indeed they did so far triumph over the turgid intricacies of our speech +and the conscientious gravity of our style of thought, there would still +be the English public to consider, a public easily offended by any lack +of straightforwardness in its humorists, preferring to be amused by +known and recognised specialists in that line, in relation to themes of +recognised humorous tendency, and requiring in its professors as the +concomitant of a certain dignified inaccessibility of thought and +language, an honourable abstinence from the treacheries, as it would +consider them, of irony and satire. Imagine a Story of the Future from +Mr Herbert Spencer! America and the north of England would have swept +him out of all respect.... But M. Tarde being not only a Member of the +Institute and Professor at the College of France, but a Frenchman, was +free to give these fancies that entertained him, public, literary, and +witty expression, without self-destruction, and produce what has, in its +English dress, a curiously unfamiliar effect. Yet the English reader who +can overcome his natural disinclination to this union of intelligence +and jesting will find a vast amount of suggestion in M. Tarde's +fantastic abundance, and bringing his habitual gravity to bear may even +succeed in digesting off the humour altogether, and emerging with +edification of—it must be admitted—a rather miscellaneous sort.</p> + +<p>It is perhaps remarkable that for so many people, so tremendous a theme +as the material future of mankind should only be approachable either +through a method of conscientiously technical, pseudo-scientific +discussion that is in effect scarcely an approach at all or else in this +mood of levity. I know of no book in this direction that can claim to be +a permanent success which combines a tolerable intelligibility with a +simple good faith in the reader. One may speculate how this comes about? +The subject it would seem is so grave and great as to be incompatibly +out of proportion to the affairs and conditions of the individual life +about which our workaday thinking goes on. We are interested indeed, but +at the same time we feel it is outside us and beyond us. To turn one's +attention to it is at once to get an effect of presumption, strain, and +extravagant absurdity. It is like picking up a spade to attack a +mountain, and one's instinct is to put oneself right in the eyes of +one's fellow-men at once, by a few unmistakably facetious flourishes. It +is the same instinct really as that protective "foolery" in which +schoolboys indulge when they embark upon some hopeless undertaking, or +find themselves entirely outclassed at a game.</p> + +<p>The same instinct one finds in the facetious "parley vous Francey" of a +low class Englishman who would in secret like very much to speak French, +but in practice only admits such an idea as a laughable absurdity. To +give a concrete form to your sociological speculations is to strip them +of all their poor pretensions, and leave them shivering in palpable +inadequacy. It is not because the question is unimportant, but because +it is so overwhelmingly important that this jesting about the Future, +this fantastic and "ironical" fiction goes on. It is the only medium to +express the vague, ill-formed, new ideas with which we are all +labouring. It does not give any measure of our real sense of the +proportion of things that the Future should appear in our literature as +a sort of comic rally and harlequinade after the serious drama of the +Present—in which the heroes and heroines of the latter turn up again in +novel and undignified positions; but it seems to be the only method at +present available by which we may talk about our race's material Destiny +at all.</p> + +<p>M. Tarde, in this special case before us, pursues a course of elusive +ironies; sometimes he jests at contemporary ideas by imagining them in +burlesque realisation, sometimes he jests at contemporary facts by +transposing them into strange surroundings, sometimes he broaches +fancies of his own chiefly for their own sake, yet with the well-managed +literary equivalent of the palliating laugh of conversational +diffidence. It is interesting to remark upon the clearness, the French +reasonableness and order of his conceptions throughout. He thinks, as +the French seem always to think, in terms of a humanity at once more +lucid and more limited than the mankind with which we English have to +deal. There are no lapses, no fogs and mysteries, no total inadequacies, +no brutalities and left-handedness—and no dark gleams of the divinity, +about these amused bright people of five hundred years ahead, who are +overtaken by the great solar catastrophe. They have established a world +state and eliminated the ugly and feeble. You imagine the gentlemen in +that Utopia moving gracefully—with beautifully trimmed nails and +beards—about the most elegant and ravishing of ladies, their charm +greatly enhanced by the <i>pince-nez</i>, that is in universal wear. They all +speak not Esperanto—but Greek, which strikes one as a little out of the +picture—and all being more or less wealthy and pretty women and +handsome men, "as common as blackberries" and as available, "human +desire rushed with all its might towards the only field that remained +open to it",—politics. From that it was presently turned back again by +a certain philosophical financier, who, most delightfully, secured his +work for ever, as the reader may learn in detail, by erecting a statue +of Louis Philippe in wrought aluminium against any return of the +flood—and then what remained? The most brilliant efflorescence of +poetry and art!</p> + +<p>One does not quite know how far M. Tarde is in this first part of his +story jesting at his common countrymen's precisions and finalities and +unenterprising, exact arrangements, and how far he is sharing them. +Throughout he seems to assume that men can really make finished plans, +and carry them out, and settle things for ever, and so assure us this +state of elegant promenading among the arts, whereas the whole charm and +interest of making plans and carrying out, lies to the more typical kind +of Englishman, in his ineradicable, his innate, instinctive conviction, +that he will, try as he may, never carry them out at all, but something +else adventurously and happily unexpected and different. M. Tarde gives +his world the unexpected, but it comes, not insidiously as a unique +difference in every individual and item concerned, but from without. +Just as Humanity, handsome and charming, has grouped itself pleasantly, +rationally, and in the best of taste for ever in its studios, in its +<i>salons</i>, at its little green tables, at its <i>tables d'hôte</i>, in its +<i>cabinets particuliers</i>—the sun goes out!</p> + +<p>In the idea of that solar extinction there are extraordinary imaginative +possibilities, and M. Tarde must have exercised considerable restraint +to prevent their running away with him and so jarring with the ironical +lightness of his earlier passages. The conception of the sun seized in a +mysterious, chill grip and flickering from hue to hue in the skies of a +darkened, amazed and terrified world, could be presented in images of +stupendous majesty and splendour. There arise visions of darkened cities +and indistinct, multitudinous, fleeing crowds, of wide country-sides of +chill dismay, of beasts silent with the fear of this last eclipse, and +bats and night-birds abroad amidst the lost daylight creatures and +fluttering perplexed on noiseless wings. Then the abrupt sight of the +countless stars made visible by this great abdication, the thickening of +the sky to stormy masses of cloud so that these are hidden again, the +soughing of a world-wide wind, and then first little flakes and then the +drift and driving of the multiplying snow into the dim illumination of +lamps, of windows, of street lights lit untimely. Then again, the shiver +of the cold, the clutching of hands at coats and wraps, the blind +hurrying to shelter and the comfort of a fire—the blaze of fires. One +sees the red-lit faces about the fires, sees the furtive glances at the +wind-tormented windows, hears the furious knocking of those other +strangers barred out, for, "we cannot have everyone in here". The +darkness deepens, the cries without die away, and nothing is left but +the shift and falling of the incessant snow from roof to ground. Every +now and then the disjointed talk would cease altogether, and in the +stillness one would hear the faint yet insistent creeping sound of the +snowfall. "There is a little food downstairs," one would say. "The +servants must not eat it.... We had better lock it upstairs. We may be +here—for days." Grim stuff, indeed, one might make of it all, if one +dealt with it in realistic fashion, and great and increasing toil one +would find to carry on the tale. M. Tarde was well advised to let his +hand pass lightly over this episode, to give us a simply pyrotechnic +effect of red, yellow, green and pale blue, to let his people flee and +die like marionettes beneath the paper snows of a shop window dressed +for Christmas, and to emerge after the change with his urbanity +unimpaired. His apt jest at the endurance of artists' models, his easy +allusion to the hardening effects of fashionable decolletage, is the +measure of his dexterous success; his mention of hotel furniture on the +terminal moraines of the returning Alpine glaciers, just a happy touch +of that flavouring of reality which in abundance would have altogether +overwhelmed his purpose.</p> + +<p>Directly one thinks at all seriously of such a thing as this solar +extinction, one perceives how preposterously hopeless it is to imagine +that mankind would make any head against so swift and absolute a fate. +Our race would behave just as any single man behaves when death takes +him suddenly through some cardiac failure. It would feel very queer, it +would want to sit down and alleviate its strange discomfort, it would +say something stupid or inarticulate, make an odd gesture or so, and +flicker out. But it is compatible with the fantastic and ironical style +for M. Tarde to mock our conceit in our race's capacity and pretend men +did all sorts of organized and wholesale things quite beyond their +capabilities. People flee in "hordes" to Arabia Petræa and the Sahara, +and there perform prodigies of resistance. There arises the heroic +leader and preserver, Miltiades, who preaches Neo-troglodytism and loves +the peerless Lydia, and leads the remnant of humanity underground. So M. +Tarde arrives at the idea he is most concerned in developing, the idea +of an introverted world, and people following the dwindling heat of the +interior, generation after generation, through gallery and tunnel to the +core. About that conception he weaves the finest and richest and most +suggestive of his fantastic filaments.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the best sustained thread in this admirably entertaining tissue +is the entire satisfaction of the imaginary historian at the new +conditions of life. The earth is made into an interminable honeycomb, +all other forms of life than man are eliminated, and our race has +developed into a community sustained at a high level of happiness and +satisfaction by a constant resort to "social tonics". Half mockingly, +half approvingly, M. Tarde here indicates a new conception of human +intercourse and criticises with a richly suggestive detachment, the +social relationships of to-day. He moves indicatively and lightly over +deeps of human possibility; it is in these later passages that our +author is essentially found. One may regret he did not further expand +his happy opportunity of treating all the social types to-day as ice +embedded fossils, his comments on the peasant and artisan are so fine as +to provoke the appetite. He rejects the proposition that "society +consists in an exchange of services" with the confidence of a man who +has thought it finely out. He gives out clearly what so many of us are +beginning dimly perhaps to apprehend, that "society consists in the +exchange of reflections". The passages subsequent to this pronouncement +will be the seed of many interesting developments in any mind +sufficiently attuned to his. They constitute the body, the serious +reality to which all the rest of this little book is so much dress, +adornment and concealment. Very many of us, I believe, are dreaming of +the possibility of human groupings based on interest and a common +creative impulse rather than on justice and a trade in help and +services; and I do not scruple therefore to put my heavy underline and +marginal note to M. Tarde's most intimate moment. A page or so further +on he is back below his ironical mask again, jesting at the "tribe of +sociologists"—the most unsociable of mankind. Thereafter jest, +picturesque suggestion, fantasy, philosophical whim, alternate in a +continuously delightful fashion to the end—but always with the gleam of +a definite intention coming and going within sight of the surface—and +one ends at last a half convinced Neo-troglodyte, invaded by a passion +of intellectual regret for the varied interests of that inaccessible +world and its irradiating love. The description of the development of +science, and particularly of troglodytic astronomy, robbed of its +material, is a delightful freak of intellectual fantasy, and the +philosophical dream of the slow concentration of human life into the +final form of a single culminating omniscient, and therefore a +completely retrospective and anticipatory being, a being that is, that +has cast aside the time garment, is one of these suggestions that have +at once something penetratingly plausible, and a sort of colossal and +absurd monstrosity. If I may be forgiven a personal intrusion at this +point, there is a singular parallelism between this foreshadowed Last +Man of M. Tarde's stalactitic philosopher, and a certain <i>Grand Lunar</i> I +once wrote about in a book called "The First Men in the Moon". And I +remember coming upon the same idea in a book by Merejkowski, the title +of which I am now totally unable to recall.... But I will not write +further on this curiously attractive and deep seated suggestion. My +proper business here is, I think, chiefly to direct the reader past the +lightness and cheerful superficiality of the opening portions of this +book, and its—at the first blush, rather disappointing but critically +justifiable, treatment of the actual catastrophe, to these obscure but +curiously stimulating and interesting caves, and tunnels, and galleries +in which the elusive real thought of M. Tarde lurks—for those who care +to follow it up and seize it and understand.</p> + +<p>H. G. WELLS.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="INTRODUCTORY" id="INTRODUCTORY"></a>INTRODUCTORY</h2> + + +<p>It was towards the end of the twentieth century of the prehistoric era, +formerly called the Christian, that took place, as is well known, the +unexpected catastrophe with which the present epoch began, that +fortunate disaster which compelled the overflowing flood of civilisation +to disappear for the benefit of mankind. I have briefly to relate this +universal cataclysm and the unhoped-for redemption so rapidly effected +within a few centuries of heroic and triumphant efforts. Of course, I +shall pass over in silence the particular details which are known to +everybody, and shall merely confine myself to the general outlines of +the story. But first of all it may be as well to recall in a few words +the degree of relative progress already attained by mankind, while still +living above ground and on the surface of the earth, on the eve of this +momentous event.</p> + + + +<h3><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h3> + +<h2>PROSPERITY</h2> + + +<p>The zenith of human prosperity seemed to have been reached in the +superficial and frivolous sense of the word. For the last fifty years, +the final establishment of the great Asiatic-American-European +confederacy, and its indisputable supremacy over what was still left, +here and there, in Oceania and central Africa of barbarous tribes +incapable of assimilation, had habituated all the nations, now converted +into provinces, to the delights of universal and henceforth inviolable +peace. It had required not less than 150 years of warfare to arrive at +this wonderful result. But all these horrors were forgotten. True, there +had been many terrific battles between armies of three and four million +men, between trains with armour-clad carriages, flung, at full speed, +against one another, and opening fire on every side; engagements between +squadrons of sub-marines which blew one another up with electric +discharges; between fleets of iron-clad balloons, harpooned and ripped +up by aerial torpedoes, hurled headlong from the clouds, with thousands +of parachutes which violently opened and enveloped each other in a storm +of grape-shot as they fell together to earth. Yet of all this warlike +mania there only remained a vague poetic remembrance. Forgetfulness is +the beginning of happiness, as fear is the beginning of wisdom.</p> + +<p>As a solitary exception to the general rule, the nations, after this +gigantic blood-letting, did not experience the lethargy that follows +from exhaustion, but the calm that the accession of strength produces. +The explanation is easy. For about a hundred years the military +selection committees had broken with the blind routine of the past and +made it a practice to pick out carefully the strongest and best made +among the young men, in order to exempt them from the burden of military +service which had become purely mechanical, and to send to the depot all +the weaklings who were good enough to fulfil the sorely diminished +functions of the soldier and even of the non-commissioned officer. That +was really a piece of intelligent selection; and the historian cannot +conscientiously refuse gratefully to praise this innovation, thanks to +which the incomparable beauty of the human race to-day has been +gradually developed. In fact, when we now look through the glass cases +of our museums of antiquities at those singular collections of +caricatures which our ancestors used to call their photographic albums, +we can confirm the vastness of the progress thus accomplished, if it is +really true that we are actually descended from these dwarfs and +scare-crows, as an otherwise trustworthy tradition attests.</p> + +<p>From this epoch dates the discovery of the last microbes, which had not +yet been analysed by the neo-Pasteurian school. Once the cause of every +disease was known, the remedy was not long in becoming known as well, +and from that moment, a consumptive or rheumatic patient, or an invalid +of any kind became as rare a phenomenon as a double-headed monster +formerly was, or an honest publican. Ever since that epoch we have +dropped the ridiculous employment of those inquiries about health with +which the conversations of our ancestors were needlessly interlarded, +such as "How are you?" or "How do you do?" Short-sightedness alone +continued its lamentable progress, being stimulated by the extraordinary +spread of journalism. There was not a woman or a child, who did not wear +a <i>pince-nez</i>. This drawback, which besides was only momentary, was +largely compensated for by the progress it caused in the optician's art.</p> + +<p>Alongside of the political unity which did away with the enmities of +nations, there appeared a linguistic unity which rapidly blotted out the +last differences between them. Already since the twentieth century the +need of a single common language, similar to Latin in the Middle Ages, +had become sufficiently intense among the learned throughout the whole +world to induce them to make use of an international idiom in all their +writings. At the end of a long struggle for supremacy with English and +Spanish, Greek finally established its claims, after the break-up of the +British Empire and the recapture of Constantinople by the Græco-Russian +Empire. Gradually, or rather with the rapidity characteristic of all +modern progress, its usage descended from strata to strata till it +reached the lowest layers of society, and from the middle of the +twenty-second century there was not a little child between the Loire and +the River Amour who could not express itself with ease in the language +of Demosthenes. Here and there a few isolated villages in the hollows of +the mountains still persisted, in spite of the protests of their +schoolmasters, to mangle the old dialect formerly called French, German, +or Italian, but the sound of this gibberish in the towns would have +raised a hearty laugh.</p> + +<p>All contemporary documents agree in bearing witness to the rapidity, the +depth, and the universality of the change which took place in the +customs, ideas, and needs, and in all the forms of social life, thus +reduced to a common level from one pole to the other, as a result of +this unification of language. It seemed as if the course of civilisation +had been hitherto confined within high banks and that now, when for the +first time all the banks had burst, it readily spread over the whole +globe. It was no longer millions but thousands of millions that the +least newly discovered improvement in industry brought in to its +inventor; for henceforth there was no barrier to stop in its star-like +radiation the expansion of any idea, no matter where it originated. For +the same reason it was no longer by hundreds but by thousands, that were +reckoned the editions of any book, which appealed but moderately to the +public taste, or the performance of a play which was ever so little +applauded. The rivalry between authors had therefore risen to its +fullest diapason. Their fancy, moreover, could find full scope, for the +first effect of this deluge of universalised neo-Hellenism had been to +overwhelm for ever all the pretended literatures of our rude ancestors. +They became unintelligible, even to the very titles of what they were +pleased to call their classical masterpieces, even to the barbarous +names of Shakespeare, Goethe, and Hugo, who are now forgotten, and whose +rugged verses are deciphered with such difficulty by our scholars. To +plagiarise these folks whom hardly anyone could henceforth read, was to +render them service, nay, to pay them too much honour. One did not fail +to do so; and prodigious was the success of these audacious imitations +which were offered as original works. The material thus to turn to +account was abundant, and indeed inexhaustible.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately for the young writers the ancient poets who had been dead +for centuries, Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, had returned to life, a +hundred times more hale and hearty than at the time of Pericles himself; +and this unexpected competition proved a singular thorn in the side of +the new-comers. It was in fact in vain that original geniuses produced +on the stage such sensational novelties as <i>Athalias, Hernanias, +Macbethès</i>; the public often turned its back on them to rush off to +performances of <i>Oedipus Rex</i> or the <i>Birds</i> (of Aristophanes). And +<i>Nanais</i>, though a vigorous sketch of a novelist of the new school, was +a complete failure owing to the frenzied success of a popular edition of +the Odyssey. The ears of the people were saturated with Alexandrines +classical, romantic, and the rest. They were bored by the childish +tricks of cæsura and rhyme which sometimes attempted a see-saw effect by +producing now a poor and now a full rhyme, or again made a pretence of +hiding away and keeping out of sight in order to induce the hearer to +hunt it out. The splendid, untrammelled, and exuberant hexameters of +Homer, the stanzas of Sappho, the iambics of Sophocles, furnished them +with unspeakable pleasure, which did the greatest harm to the music of a +certain Wagner. Music in general fell to the secondary position to which +it really belongs in the hierarchy of the fine arts. To make up for it, +in the midst of this scholarly renaissance of the human spirit, there +arose an occasion for an unexpected literary outburst which allowed +poetry to regain its legitimate rank, that is to say, the foremost. In +fact it never fails to flower again when language takes a new lease of +life, and all the more so when the latter undergoes a complete +metamorphosis, and the pleasure arises of expressing anew the eternal +truisms.</p> + +<p>It was not merely a simple means of diversion for the cultured. The +masses took their share in it with enthusiasm. Certainly they now had +leisure to read and appreciate the masterpieces of art. The transmission +of force at a distance by electricity, and its enlistment under a +thousand forms, for instance, in that of cylinders of compressed air, +which could be easily carried from place to place, had reduced manual +labour to a mere nothing. The waterfalls, the winds and the tides had +become the slaves of man, as steam had once been in the remote ages and +in an infinitely less degree. Intelligently distributed and turned to +account by means of improved machines, as simple as they were ingenious, +this enormous energy freely furnished by nature had long rendered +superfluous every kind of domestic servant and the greater number of +artisans. The voluntary workmen, who still existed, spent barely three +hours a day in the international factories, magnificent co-operative +workshops, in which the productivity of human energy, multiplied +tenfold, and even a hundredfold, surpassed the expectations of their +founders.</p> + +<p>This does not mean that the social problem had been thereby solved. In +default of want, it is true, there were no longer any quarrels; wealth +or a competence had become the lot of every man, with the result that +hardly anyone henceforth set any store by them. In default of ugliness, +also, love was scarcely an object of either appreciation or jealousy, +owing to the abundance of pretty women and handsome men who were as +common as blackberries and not difficult to please, in appearance at +least. Thus expelled from its two former principal paths, human desire +rushed with all its might towards the only field which remained open to +it, the conquest of political power, which grew vaster every day owing +to the progress of socialistic centralisation. Overflowing ambition, +swollen all at once with all the evil passions pouring into it alone, +with the covetousness, lust, envious hunger, and hungry envy of +preceding ages, reached at that time an appalling height. It was a +struggle as to who should make himself master of that <i>summum bonum</i>, +the State; as to who should make the omnipotence and omniscience of the +Universal State minister to the realisation of his personal programme or +his humanitarian dreams. The result was not, as had been prophesied, a +vast democratic republic. Such an immense outburst of pride could not +fail to set up a new throne, the highest, the mightiest, the most +glorious that has ever been. Besides, inasmuch as the population of the +Single State was reckoned by thousands of millions, universal suffrage +had become impracticable and illusory. To obviate the greater +inconvenience of deliberative assemblies, ten or a hundred times too +numerous, it had been found necessary so to increase the electoral +districts that each deputy represented at least ten million electors. +That is not surprising if one reflects that it was the first time that +the very simple idea had won acceptance of extending to women and +children the right of voting exercised in their name, naturally enough, +by their father or by their lawful or natural husband. Incidentally one +may note that this salutary and necessary reform, as much in accordance +with common sense as with logic, required alike by the principle of +national sovereignty and by the needs of social stability, nearly failed +to pass, incredible as it may seem, in the face of a coalition of +celibate electors.</p> + +<p>Tradition informs us that the bill relating to this indispensable +extension of the franchise would have been infallibly rejected, if, +luckily, the recent election of a multi-millionaire suspected of +imperialistic tendencies had not scared the assembly. It fancied it +would injure the popularity of this ambitious pretender by hastening to +welcome this proposal in which it only saw one thing, that is, that the +fathers and husbands, outraged or alarmed by the gallantries of the new +Cæsar, would be all the stronger for impeding his triumphant march. But +this expectation was, it appears, unrealised.</p> + +<p>Whatever may be the truth of this legend, it is certain that, owing to +the enlargement of the electoral districts, combined with the +suppression of the electoral privileges, the election of a deputy was a +veritable coronation, and ordinarily produced in the elect a species of +megalomania. This reconstituted feudalism was bound to end in a +reconstitution of monarchy. For a moment the learned wore this cosmic +crown, following the prophecy of an ancient philosopher, but they did +not keep it. The popularisation of knowledge through innumerable schools +had made science as common an object as a charming woman or an elegant +suite of furniture. It had been extraordinarily simplified by the +thorough way in which it had been worked out, complete as regards its +general outlines, in which no change could be expected, and its +henceforth rigid classification abundantly garnished with data. Only +advancing at an imperceptible pace, it held, in short, but an +insignificant place in the background of the brain, in which it simply +replaced the catechism of former days. The bulk of intellectual energy +was therefore to be found in another direction, as were also its glory +and prestige. Already the scientific bodies, venerable in their +antiquity, began, alas! to acquire a slight tinge and veneer of +ridicule, which raised a smile and recalled the synods of bonzes or +ecclesiastical conferences, such as are represented in very ancient +pictures. It is, therefore, not surprising that this first dynasty of +imperial physicists and geometricians, genial copies of the Antonines, +were promptly succeeded by a dynasty of artists who had deserted art to +wield the sceptre, as they lately had wielded the bow, the roughing +chisel, and the brush. The most famous of all, a man possessed of an +overflowing imagination which was yet well under control, and ministered +to by an unparalleled energy, was an architect who among other gigantic +projects formed the idea of rasing to the ground his capital, +Constantinople, in order to rebuild it elsewhere, on the site of ancient +Babylon, which for three thousand years had been a desert—a truly +luminous idea. In this incomparable plain of Chaldea watered by a second +Nile there was another still more beautiful and fertile Egypt awaiting +resurrection and metamorphosis, an infinite expanse extending as far as +the eye could see, to be covered with striking public buildings +constructed with magical speed, with a teeming and throbbing population, +with golden harvests beneath a sky of changeless blue, with an iron +net-work of railways radiating from the town of Nebuchadnesor to the +furthest ends of Europe, Africa and Asia, and crossing the Himalayas, +the Caucasus, and the Sahara. The stored energy, electrically conveyed, +of a hundred Abyssinian waterfalls, and of, I do not know, how many +cyclones, hardly sufficed to transport from the mountains of Armenia the +necessary stone, wood and iron for these numerous constructions. One day +an excursion train, composed of a thousand and one carriages, having +passed too close to the electric cable at the moment when the current +was at its maximum, was destroyed and reduced to ashes in the twinkling +of an eye. None the less Babylon, the proud city of muddy clay, with its +paltry splendours of unbaked and painted brick, found itself rebuilt in +marble and granite, to the utmost confusion of the Nabopolassars, the +Belshazzars, the Cyruses, and the Alexanders. It is needless to add that +the archæologists made on this occasion the most priceless discoveries, +in the several successive strata, of Babylonian and Assyrian +antiquities. The mania for Assyriology went so far that every sculptor's +studio, the palaces, and even the King's armorial bearings were invaded +by winged bulls with human heads, just as formerly the museums were full +of cupids or cherubims, "with their cravat-like wings". Certain school +books for primary schools were actually printed in cuneiform characters +in order to enhance their authority over the youthful imagination.</p> + +<p>This imperial orgy in bricks and mortar having unhappily occasioned the +seventh, eighth, and ninth bankruptcy of the State and several +consecutive inundations of paper-money, the people in general rejoiced +to see after this brilliant reign the crown borne by a philosophical +financier. Order had hardly been re-established in the finances, when he +made his preparation for applying on a grand scale his ideal of +government, which was of a highly remarkable nature. One was not long in +noticing, in fact, after his accession, that all the newly chosen ladies +of honour, who were otherwise very intelligent but entirely lacking in +wit, were chiefly conspicuous for their striking ugliness; that the +liveries of the court were of a grey and lifeless colour; that the court +balls reproduced by instantaneous cinematography to the tune of millions +of copies furnished a collection of the most honest and insignificant +faces and unappetising forms that one could possibly see; that the +candidates recently appointed, after a preliminary despatch of their +portraits, to the highest dignities of the Empire, were pre-eminently +distinguished by the commonness of their bearing; in short, that the +races and the public holidays (the date of which were notified in +advance by secret telegrams announcing the arrival of a cyclone from +America), happened nine times out of ten to take place on a day of thick +fog, or of pelting rain, which transformed them into an immense array of +waterproofs and umbrellas. Alike in his legislative proposals, as in his +appointments, the choice of the prince was always the following: the +most useful and the best among the most unattractive. An insufferable +sameness of colour, a depressing monotony, a sickening insipidity were +the distinctive note of all the acts of the government. People laughed, +grew excited, waxed indignant, and got used to it. The result was that +at the end of a certain time it was impossible to meet an office-seeker +or a politician, that is to say, an artist or literary man, out of his +element and in search of the beautiful in an alien sphere, who did not +turn his back on the pursuit of a government appointment in order to +return to rhyming, sculpture and painting. And from that moment the +following aphorism has won general acceptance, that the superiority of +the politician is only mediocrity raised to its highest power.</p> + +<p>This is the great benefit that we owe to this eminent monarch. The lofty +purpose of his reign has been revealed by the posthumous publication of +his memoirs. Of these writings with which we can so ill dispense, we +have only left this fragment which is well calculated to make us regret +the loss of the remainder: "Who is the true founder of Sociology? +Auguste Comte? No, Menenius Agrippa. This great man understood that +government is the stomach, not the head of the social organism. Now, the +merit of a stomach is to be good and ugly, useful and repulsive to the +eye, for if this indispensable organ were agreeable to look upon, it +would be much to be feared that people would meddle with it and nature +would not have taken such care to conceal and defend it. What sensible +person prides himself on having a beautiful digestive apparatus, a +lovely liver or elegant lungs? Such a pretension would, however, not be +more ridiculous than the foible of cutting a great dash in politics. +What wants cultivating is the substantial and the commonplace. My poor +predecessors." ... Here follows a blank; a little further on, we read: +"The best government is that which holds to being so perfectly humdrum, +regular, neuter, and even emasculated, that no one can henceforth get up +any enthusiasm either for or against it."</p> + +<p>Such was the last successor of Semiramis. On the re-discovered site of +the Hanging-gardens he caused to be erected, at the expense of the +State, a statue of Louis Philippe in wrought aluminium, in the middle of +a public garden planted with common laurels and cauliflowers.</p> + +<p>The Universe breathed again. It yawned a little no doubt, but it +revelled for the first time in the fulness of peace, in the almost +gratuitous abundance of every kind of wealth. It burst into the most +brilliant efflorescence, or rather display of poetry and art, but +especially of luxury, that the world had as yet seen. It was just at +that moment an extraordinary alarm of a novel kind, justly provoked by +the astronomical observations made on the tower of Babel, which had been +rebuilt as an Eiffel Tower on an enlarged scale, began to spread among +the terrified populations.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h3> + +<h2>THE CATASTROPHE</h2> + + +<p>On several occasions already the sun had given evident signs of +weakness. From year to year his spots increased in size and number, and +his heat sensibly diminished. People were lost in conjecture. Was his +fuel giving out? Had he just traversed in his journey through space an +exceptionally cold region? No one knew. Whatever the reason was, the +public concerned itself little about the matter, as in all that is +gradual and not sudden. The "solar anæmia," which moreover restored some +degree of animation to neglected astronomy, had merely become the +subject of several rather smart articles in the reviews. In general, the +<i>savants</i>, in their well-warmed studies, affected to disbelieve in the +fall of temperature, and, in spite of the formal indications of the +thermometer, they did not cease to repeat that the dogma of slow +evolution, and of the conservation of energy combined with the classical +nebular hypothesis, forbade the admission of a sufficiently rapid +cooling of the solar mass to make itself felt during the short duration +of a century, much more so during that of five years or a year. A few +unorthodox persons of heretical and pessimistic temperament remarked, it +is true, that at different epochs, if one believed the astronomers of +the remote past, certain stars had gradually burnt out in the heavens, +or had passed from the most dazzling brilliance to an almost complete +obscurity, during the course of barely a single year. They therefore +concluded that the case of our sun had nothing exceptional about it; +that the theory of slow-footed evolution was not perhaps universally +applicable; and that, sometimes, as an old visionary mystic called +Cuvier had ventured to put forward in legendary times, veritable +revolutions took place in the heavens as well as on earth. But orthodox +science combated with indignation these audacious theories.</p> + +<p>However, the winter of 2489 was so disastrous, it was actually necessary +to take the threatening predictions of the alarmists seriously. One +reached the point of fearing at any moment a "solar apoplexy." That was +the title of a sensational pamphlet which went through twenty thousand +editions. The return of the spring was anxiously awaited.</p> + +<p>The spring returned at last, and the starry monarch reappeared, but his +golden crown was gone, and he himself well-nigh unrecognisable. He was +entirely red. The meadows were no longer green, the sky was no longer +blue, the Chinese were no longer yellow, all had suddenly changed colour +as in a transformation scene. Then, by degrees, from the red that he was +he became orange. He might then have been compared to a golden apple in +the sky, and so during several years he was seen to pass, and all nature +with him, through a thousand magnificent or terrible tints—from orange +to yellow, from yellow to green, and from green at length to indigo and +pale blue. The meteorologists then recalled the fact, in the year 1883, +on the second of September, the sun had appeared in Venezuela the whole +day long as blue as the moon. So many colours, so many new decorations +of the chameleon-like universe which dazzled the terrified eye, which +revived and restored to its primitive sharpness the rejuvenated +sensation of the beauties of nature, and strongly stirred the depths of +men's souls by renewing the former aspect of things.</p> + +<p>At the same time disaster succeeded disaster. The entire population of +Norway, Northern Russia, and Siberia perished, frozen to death in a +single night; the temperate zone was decimated, and what was left of its +inhabitants fled before the enormous drifts of snow and ice, and +emigrated by hundreds of millions towards the tropics, crowding into the +panting trains, several of which, overtaken by tornadoes of snow, +disappeared for ever.</p> + +<p>The telegraph successively informed the capital, now that there was no +longer any news of immense trains caught in the tunnels under the +Pyrenees, the Alps, the Caucasus, or Himalayas, in which they were +imprisoned by enormous avalanches, which blocked simultaneously the two +issues; now that some of the largest rivers of the world—the Rhine, for +instance, and the Danube—had ceased to flow, completely frozen to the +bottom, from which resulted a drought, followed by an indescribable +famine, which obliged thousands of mothers to devour their own children. +From time to time a country or continent broke off suddenly its +communication with the central agency, the reason being that an entire +telegraphic section was buried under the snow, from which at intervals +emerged the uneven tops of their posts, with their little cups of +porcelain. Of this immense network of electricity which enveloped in its +close meshes the entire globe, as of that prodigious coat of mail with +which the complicated system of railways clothed the earth, there was +only left some scattered fragments, like the remnant of the Grand Army +of Napoleon during the retreat from Russia.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the glaciers of the Alps, the Andes, and of all the mountains +of the world hitherto vanquished by the sun, which for several thousand +centuries had been thrust back into their last entrenchments, resumed +their triumphant march. All the glaciers that had been dead since the +geological ages came to life again, more colossal than ever. From all +the valleys in the Alps or Pyrenees, that were lately green and peopled +with delightful health resorts, there issued these snowy hordes, these +streams of icy lava, with their frontal moraine advancing as it spread +over the plain, a moving cliff composed of rocks and overturned engines, +of the wreckage of bridges, stations, hotels and public edifices, +whirled along in the wildest confusion, a heart-breaking welter of +gigantic bric-à-brac, with which the triumphant invasion decked itself +out as with the loot of victory. Slowly, step by step, in spite of +sundry transient intervals of light and warmth, in spite of occasionally +scorching days which bore witness to the supreme convulsions of the sun +in its battle against death, which revived in men's souls misleading +hopes, athwart and even by means of these unexpected changes the pale +invaders advanced. They retook and recovered one by one all their +ancient realms in the glacial period, and if they found on the road some +gigantic vagrant block lying in sullen solitude, near some famous city, +a hundred leagues from its native hills, mysterious witness of the +immense catastrophe of former times, they raised it and bore it onward, +cradling it on their unyielding waves, as an advancing army recaptures +and enfurls its ancient flags, all covered with dust, which it has found +again in its enemies' sanctuaries.</p> + +<p>But what was the glacial period compared with this new crisis of the +globe and the sky? Doubtless it had been due to a similar attack of +weakness, to a similar failure of the sun, and many species of animals +had necessarily perished at the time, from being insufficiently clad. +That had been, however, but a warning bell, so to say, a simple +notification of the final and fatal attack. The glacial periods—for we +know there have been several—now explained themselves by their +reappearance on a large scale. But this clearing up of an obscure point +in geology was, one must admit, an insufficient compensation for the +public disasters which were its price.</p> + +<p>What calamities! What horrors! My pen confesses its impotence to retrace +them. Besides how can we tell the story of disasters which were so +complete they often simultaneously overwhelmed under snow-drifts a +hundred yards deep all that witnessed them, to the very last man. All +that we know for certain is what took place at the time towards the end +of the twenty-fifth century in a little district of Arabia Petræa.</p> + +<p>Thither had flocked for refuge, in one horde after another, wave after +wave, with host upon host frozen one on the top of another, as they +advanced, the few millions of human creatures who survived of the +hundreds of millions that had disappeared. Arabia Petræa had, therefore, +along with the Sahara, become the most populous country of the globe. +They transported hither by reason of the relative warmth of its climate, +I will not say the seat of Government—for, alas! Terror alone +reigned—but an immense stove which took its place, and whatever +remained of Babylon now covered over by a glacier. A new town was +constructed in a few months on the plans of an entirely new system of +architecture, marvellously adapted for the struggle against the cold. By +the most happy of chances some rich and unworked coal mines were +discovered on the spot. There was enough fuel there, it seems, to +provide warmth for many years to come. And as for food, it was not as +yet too pressing a question. The granaries contained several sacks of +corn, while waiting for the sun to revive and the corn to sprout again. +The sun had certainly revived after the glacial periods; why should it +not do so again? asked the optimists.</p> + +<p>It was but the hope of a day. The sun assumed a violet hue. The frozen +corn ceased to be eatable. The cold became so intense that the walls of +the houses as they contracted cracked and admitted blasts of air which +killed the inhabitants on the spot. A physicist affirmed that he saw +crystals of solid nitrogen and oxygen fall from the sky which gave rise +to the fear that the atmosphere would shortly become decomposed. The +seas were already frozen solid. A hundred thousand human creatures +huddling around the huge government stove, which was no longer equal to +restoring their circulation, were turned into icicles in a single night; +and the night following, a second hundred thousand perished likewise. Of +the beautiful human race, so strong and noble, formed by so many +centuries of effort and genius by such an intelligent and extended +selection, there would soon have been only left a few thousands, a few +hundreds of haggard and trembling specimens, unique trustees of the last +ruins of what had once been civilisation.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h3> + +<h2>THE STRUGGLE</h2> + + +<p>In this extremity a man arose who did not despair of humanity. His name +has been preserved for us. By a singular coincidence he was called +Miltiades, like another saviour of Hellenism. He was not, however, of +Hellenic race. A cross between a Slave and a Breton he had only half +sympathised with the prosperity of the Neo-Græcian world with its +levelling and enervating tendencies, and amid this wholesale +obliteration of previous civilisation, and universal triumph of a kind +of Byzantine renaissance brought up to date, he belonged to those who +reverently guarded in the depths of their heart the germs of recusancy. +But, like the barbarian stilicho, the last defender of the foundering +Roman world against the barbaric hordes, it was precisely this +disbeliever in civilisation who alone undertook to arrest it on the +brink of its vast downfall. Eloquent and handsome, but nearly always +taciturn, he was not without certain resemblances in pose and features, +so it was said, to Chateaubriand and Napoleon (two celebrities, as one +knows, who in their time were famous throughout an entire continent). +Worshipped by the women of whom he was the hope, and by the men who +stood greatly in awe of him, he had early kept the crowd at arm's +length, and a singular accident had doubled his natural shyness. Finding +the sea less monotonously dull at any rate than terra firma, and in any +case more unconfined, he had passed his youth on board the last +iron-clad of State of which he was captain, in patrolling the coasts of +continents, in dreaming of impossible adventures, and of conquests when +all was conquered, of discoveries of America when all was discovered, +and in cursing all former travellers, discoverers and conquerors, +fortunate reapers in all the fields of glory in which there was nothing +more left to glean. One day, however, he believed he had discovered a +new island—it was a mistake—and he had the joy of engaging in a fight, +the last of which ancient history makes mention, with an apparently +highly primitive tribe of savages, who spoke English and read the Bible. +In this fight he displayed such valour that he was unanimously +pronounced to be mad by his crew, and was in great danger of losing his +rank after a specialist in insanity, who had been called in, was on the +point of publicly confirming popular opinion by declaring he was +suffering from suicidal mono-mania of a novel kind. Luckily an +archæologist protested and showed by actual documents that this +phenomenon, which had become so unusual but was frequent in past ages +under the name of bravery, was a simple case of ancestral reversion +sufficiently serious to merit examination. As luck would have it, the +unfortunate Miltiades had been wounded in the face in the same +encounter; and the scar which all the art of the best surgeons never +succeeded in removing, drew down upon him the annoying and almost +insulting nick-name of "scarred face". It may be readily understood how +from this time forward, soured by the consciousness of his partial +disfigurement, as the ancient bard Byron had formerly been for a nearly +similar reason, he avoided appearing in public, and thereby giving the +crowd an opportunity of pointing the finger of scorn at the visible +traces of his former attack of madness. He was never seen again till the +day when, his vessel being hemmed in by the icebergs of the Gulf Stream, +he was obliged with his companions to finish the crossing on foot over +the solidly frozen Atlantic.</p> + +<p>In the middle of the central state shelter, a huge vaulted hall with +walls ten yards thick, without windows, surrounded with a hundred +gigantic furnaces, and perpetually lit up by their hundred flaming maws, +Miltiades one day appeared. The remnant of the flower of humanity, of +both sexes, splendid even in its misery, was huddled together there. +They did not consist of the great men of science with their bald pates, +nor even the great actresses, nor the great writers, whose inspiration +had deserted them, nor the consequential ones now past their prime, nor +of prim old ladies—broncho-pneumonia, alas! had made a clean sweep of +them all at the very first frost—but the enthusiastic heirs of their +traditions, their secrets, and also of their vacant chairs, that is to +say, their pupils, full of talent and promise. Not a single university +professor was there, but a crowd of deputies and assistants; not a +single minister, but a crowd of young secretaries of state. Not a single +mother of a family, but a bevy of artists' models, admirably formed, and +inured against the cold by the practice of posing for the nude; above +all, a number of fashionable beauties, who had been likewise saved by +the excellent hygienic effect of daily wearing low dresses, without +taking into account the warmth of their temperament. Among them it was +impossible not to notice the Princess Lydia, owing to her tall and +exquisite figure, the brilliancy of her dress and her wit, of her dark +eyes and fair complexion, owing in fact to the radiance of her whole +person. She had carried off the prize at the last grand international +beauty competition, and was accounted the reigning beauty of the +drawing-rooms of Babylon. What a different set of individuals from that +which the spectator formerly surveyed through his opera-glass from the +top of the galleries of the so-called Chamber of Deputies! Youth, +beauty, genius, love, infinite treasures of science and art, writers +whose pens were of pure gold, artists with marvellous technique, singers +one raved about, all that was left of refinement and culture on the +earth, was concentrated in this last knot of human beings, which +blossomed under the snow like a tuft of rhododendrons, or of Alpine +roses at the foot of some mountain summit. But what dejection had fallen +on these fair flowers! How sadly drooped these manifold graces!</p> + +<p>At the sudden apparition of Miltiades every brow was lifted, every eye +was fastened upon him. He was tall, lean, and wizened, in spite of the +false plumpness of his thick white furs. When he threw back his big +white hood, which recalled the Dominican cowl of antiquity, they caught +sight of his huge scar athwart the icicles on his beard and eyebrows. At +the sight of it first a smile and then a shudder, which was not due to +cold alone, ran through the ranks of the women. For must we confess it, +in spite of the efforts of a rational education, the inclination to +applaud bravery and its indications could not be entirely uprooted from +their hearts. Lydia, notably, remained imbued with this sentiment of +another age, by a kind of moral ancestral reversion which served as a +pendant to her physical atavism. She concealed so little her feelings of +admiration, that Miltiades himself was struck by it. Her admiration was +combined with astonishment, for he was believed to have been dead for +years. They asked one another by what accumulation of miracles he had +been able to escape the fate of his companions. He requested leave to +speak. It was granted him. He mounted a platform, and such a profound +silence ensued, one might have heard the snow falling outside, in spite +of the thickness of the walls. But let us at this point allow an +eye-witness to speak; let us copy an extract of the account that he +phonographed of this memorable scene. I pass over the part of Miltiades' +discourse in which he related the thrilling story of the dangers he had +encountered from the time he left his vessel. (<i>Continuous applause</i>.) +After stating that in passing by Paris on a sledge drawn by +reindeer—thanks to it being the season of the dog-days—he had +recognised the site of this buried city by the double-pointed mound of +snow which had formed over the spires of Notre-Dame—(<i>excitement in the +audience</i>)—the speaker continued:—</p> + +<p>"The situation is serious," said he, "nothing like it has been seen +since the geological epochs. Is it irretrievable? No! (<i>Hear! hear!</i>) +Desperate diseases require desperate remedies. An idea, a glimmer of +hope has flashed upon me, but it is so strange, I shall never dare to +reveal it to you. (<i>Speak! speak!</i>) No, I dare not, I shall never dare +to formulate this project. You would believe me to be still insane. You +desire it, you promise me to listen to the end to my absurd and +extravagant project? (<i>Yes! yes!</i>) Even to give it a fair trial? (<i>Yes! +yes!</i>) Well! I will speak. (<i>Silence!</i>)</p> + +<p>"The hour has come to ascertain to what extent it is true to say and to +keep on repeating, as has been the practice for the last three centuries +since the time of a certain Stephenson, that all our energy, all our +strength, whether physical or moral, comes to us from the sun.... +(<i>Numerous voices: 'That is so'</i>). The calculation has been made: in two +years, three months, and six days, if there still remains a morsel of +coal there will not remain a morsel of bread! (<i>Prolonged sensation</i>.) +Therefore, if the source of all force, of all motion, and all life is in +the sun, and in the sun alone, there is no ground for self-delusion: in +two years, three months, and six days, the genius of man will be +quenched, and through the gloomy heavens the corpse of mankind, like a +Siberian mammoth, will roll for everlasting, incapable for ever of +resurrection. (<i>Excitement</i>.)</p> + +<p>"But is that the case? No, it is not, it cannot be the case. With all +the energy of my heart, which does not come from the sun—that energy +which comes from the earth, from our mother earth buried there below, +far, far away, for ever hidden from our eyes—I protest against this +vain theory, and against so many articles of faith and religion which I +have been obliged hitherto to endure in silence. (<i>Slight murmurs from +the centre</i>.) The earth is the contemporary of the sun, and not its +daughter; the earth was formerly a luminous star like the sun, only +sooner extinct. It is only on the surface that the earth is devoid of +movement, frozen and paralysed. Its bosom is ever warm and burning. It +has only concentrated its fire within itself in order to preserve it +better. (<i>Signs of interest in the audience</i>.) There lies a virgin force +that is unexploited, a force superior to all that the sun has been able +to generate for our industry by waterfalls which to-day are frozen, by +cyclones which now have ceased, by tides which to-day are suspended; a +force in which our engineers, with a little initiative, will find a +hundredfold the equivalent of the motive power they have lost. It is no +more by this gesture (<i>the speaker raises his finger to heaven</i>), that +the hope of salvation should henceforth be expressed, it is by this one. +(<i>He lowers his right hand towards the earth.... Signs of astonishment: +a few murmurs of dissent which are immediately repressed by the women</i>.) +We must say no more: 'Up there!' but, 'below!' There, below, far below, +lies the promised Eden, the abode of deliverance and of bliss: there, +and there alone, there are still innumerable conquests and discoveries +to be made! (<i>Bravos on the left</i>.) Ought I to draw my conclusion? +(<i>Yes! yes!</i>) Let us descend into these depths; let us make these +abysses our sure retreat. The mystics had a sublime presentiment when +they said in their Latin: 'From the outward to the inward.' The earth +calls us to its inner self. For many centuries it has lived separated, +so to say, from its children, the living creatures it produced outside +during its period of fecundity before the cooling of its crust! After +its crust cooled, the rays of a distant star alone, it is true, have +maintained on this dead epidermis their artificial and superficial life +which has been a stranger to her own.</p> + +<p>"But this schism has lasted too long. It is imperative that it should +cease. It is time to follow Empedocles, Ulysses, Æneas, Dante, to the +gloomy abodes of the underworld, to plunge mankind again in the fountain +from which it sprang, to effect the complete restoration of the exiled +soul to the land of its birth! (<i>Applause here and there</i>.) Besides, +there is but this alternative: life underground or death. The sun is +failing us: let us dispense with the sun. The plan, which it remains for +me to propose, has been worked out for several months past by the most +eminent men. To-day it is finished; it is final. It is complete in all +its details. Does it interest you? (<i>On all sides: 'Read it, read it.'</i>) +You will see that with discipline, patience, and courage—yes, courage, +I risk this evil-sounding word (<i>'Risk it, risk it.'</i>)—and above all, +with the aid of that splendid heritage of science and art which comes to +us from the past, for which we are accountable to the most distant of +our descendants, to the boundless universe, and I was going to say, to +God (<i>signs of surprise</i>), we can be saved if we will." (<i>Thunder of +applause</i>.)</p> + +<p>The speaker next entered into lengthy details, which it is useless to +reproduce here, on the Neo-troglodytism which he pretended to inaugurate +as the acme of civilisation, "which had," said he, "began with caves, +and was destined to return to these subterranean retreats, but at a far +deeper level." He displayed designs, quantities and drawings. He had no +trouble in proving that, on condition of burrowing sufficiently deep +into the ground below, they would find a deliciously gentle warmth, an +Elysian temperature. It would be enough to excavate, enlarge, heighten, +and extend the galleries of already existing mines in order to render +them habitable and comfortable into the bargain. The electric light, +supplied entirely without expense by the scattered centres of the fire +within, would provide for the magnificent illumination both by day and +night of these colossal crypts, these marvellous cloisters, indefinitely +extended and embellished by successive generations. With a good system +of ventilation, all danger of suffocation or of foulness of air would be +avoided. In short, after a more or less long period of settling in, +civilised life could unfold anew in all its intellectual, artistic, and +fashionable splendour, as freely as it did in the capricious and +intermittent light or natural day, and even perhaps more surely. At +these last words, the Princess Lydia broke her fan, by dint of +applauding. An objection then came from the right, "With what shall we +be fed?" Miltiades smiled disdainfully and replied: "Nothing is simpler. +For ordinary drinking purposes we first of all shall have melted ice. +Every day we shall transport enormous blocks of it in order to keep the +orifices of the crypts free from obstruction, and to supply the public +fountains. I may add that chemists undertake to manufacture alcohol from +anything, even from mineralised rocks, and that it is the A.B.C. of the +grocer's trade to manufacture wine from alcohol and water. (<i>'Hear! +hear!' from all the benches</i>). As for food, is not chemistry also +capable of manufacturing butter, albumen, and milk from no matter what? +Besides, has the last word been said on the subject? Is it not highly +probable that before long, if it takes up the matter, it will succeed in +satisfying, both on the score of quantity and expense, the desires of +the most refined gastronomy? And, meanwhile.... (<i>a voice timidly: +'Meanwhile?'</i>) Meanwhile does not our disaster itself, by a kind of +providential occurrence, place within our reach the best stocked, the +most abundant, the most inexhaustible larder that the human race has +ever had? Immense stores, the most admirable which have hitherto been +laid down, are lying for us under the ice or the snow. Myriads of +domestic or wild animals—I dare not add, of men and women (<i>a general +shudder of horror</i>)—but at least of bullocks, sheep and poultry, frozen +instantaneously in a single mass, are lying here and there in the public +markets a few steps away. Let us collect, as long as such work is still +possible out of doors, this boundless quarry which was destined to feed +for years several hundreds of millions, and which will well suffice, in +consequence, to feed a few thousands only for ages, even should they +multiply unduly, in despite of Malthus. If stacked in the neighbourhood +of the orifice of the chief cavern, they will be easy to get at and will +provide a delightful fare for our fraternal love-feasts."</p> + +<p>Still further objections were formulated from different quarters. They +were forcibly disposed of with the same irresistible easy assurance. The +conclusion is worthy of a verbatim quotation: "However extraordinary the +catastrophe which has befallen us and the means of escape which is left +us may seem in appearance, a little reflection will suffice to prove to +us that the predicament in which we are, must have been repeated a +thousand times already in the immensity of the universe, and must have +been cleared up in the same fashion, being inevitably and normally the +final phase in the life-drama of every star. The astronomers know that +every sun is bound to become extinct; they know, therefore, that in +addition to the luminous and visible stars, there are in the heavens an +infinitely greater number of extinct and rayless stars which continue +endlessly to revolve with their train of planets, doomed to an eternity +of night and cold. Well, if this is the case, I ask you: Can we suppose +that life, thought, and love, are the exclusive privilege of an infinite +minority of solar systems still possessed of light and heat, and deny to +the immense majority of gloomy stars every manifestation of life and +animation, the very highest reason for their existence? Thus +lifelessness, death, the void in movement would be the rule; and life +the exception! Thus the nine-tenths, the ninety-nine hundredths, +perhaps, of the solar systems, would idly revolve like senseless and +gigantic mill-wheels, a useless encumbrance of space. That is impossible +and idiotic, that is blasphemous. Let us have more faith in the unknown! +Truth, here as everywhere else, is without doubt the antipodes of +appearance. All that glitters is not gold. These splendid constellations +which attempt to dazzle us are themselves relatively barren. Their +light, what is it? A transient glory, a ruinous luxury, an ostentatious +squandering of energy, born of illimitable senselessness. But when the +stars have sown their wild oats, then the serious task of their life +begins, they develop their inner resources. For frozen and sunless +without, they literally preserve in their inviolate centres their +unquenchable fire, defended by the very layers of ice. There, finally, +is to be relit the lamp of life, banished from the surface above. For a +last time, therefore, let us look upwards in order there to find hope. +Up there innumerable races of mankind under ground, buried, to their +supreme joy, in the catacombs of invisible stars, encourage us by their +example. Let us act like them, let us like them withdraw to the interior +of our planet. Like them, let us bury ourselves in order to rise again, +and like them let us carry with us into our tomb, all that is worthy to +survive of our previous existence. It is not merely bread alone that man +has need of. He must live to think, and not merely think to live.</p> + +<p>"Recall the legend of Noah: to escape from a disaster almost equal to +our own, and to dispute with it all that the earth had most precious in +his eyes; what did he do, though he was but a simple-minded fellow and +addicted to drink? He turned his ark into a museum, containing a +complete collection of plants and animals, even of poisonous plants, of +wild beasts, boa-constrictors, and scorpions, and by reason of this +picturesque but incongruous cargo of creatures mutually harmful and +seeking one and all to devour each other, of this miscellany of living +contradictions which for so long was so foolishly worshipped under the +name of Nature, he believed in good faith to have deserved well of the +future.</p> + +<p>"But we, in our new ark, mysterious, impenetrable, indestructible, shall +carry with us neither plants nor animals. These types of existence are +annihilated; these rough drafts in creation, these fumbling experiments +of Earth in quest of the human form are for ever blotted out. Let us not +regret it. In place of so many pairs of animals which take up so much +room, of so many useless seeds, we will carry with us into our retreat +the harmonious garland of all the truths in perfect accord with one +another; of all artistic and poetic beauties, which are all members one +of another, united like sisters, which human genius has brought to light +in the course of ages and multiplied thereafter in millions of copies: +all of which will be destroyed save a single one, which it will be our +task to guarantee against all danger of destruction. We shall establish +a vast library containing all the principal works, enriched with +cinematographic albums. We shall set up a vast museum composed of single +specimens of all the schools, of all the styles of the masters in +architecture, sculpture, painting, and even music. These are our real +treasures, our real seed for future harvests, our gods for whom we will +do battle till our latest breath."</p> + +<p>The speaker stepped down from the platform in the midst of indescribable +enthusiasm: the ladies crowded round him. They deputed Lydia to bestow +on him a kiss in the name of them all. Blushing with modesty the latter +obeyed—a further sign of moral atavism on her part—and the applause +redoubled. The thermometers of the shelter rose several degrees in a few +minutes.</p> + +<p>It is well to recall to the younger generation these resolute words, +between the lines of which they will read the gratitude they owe to the +heroic "Scarred face," who so nearly died with the reputation of a +mono-maniac. They, too, are beginning to grow enervated and accustomed +to the delights of their underground Elysium, to the luxurious +spaciousness of these endless catacombs, the legacy of gigantic toil on +the part of their fathers, they too, are, inclined to think that all +this happened of its own accord, or at least was inevitable, that after +all there was no other way of escaping from the cold above ground, and +that this simple expedient did not require a great outlay of +imagination. Profound error! At its first appearance, the idea of +Miltiades had been hailed, and rightly enough, as a flash of genius. But +for him, but for his energy, and his eloquence, which was placed at the +service of his imagination, but for his forcefulness, his charm, and his +perseverance, which seconded his energy, let us add, but for the +profound passion that Lydia, the noblest and most valiant of women, had +been able to inspire in him, and which increased his heroism tenfold, +humanity would have suffered the fate of all the other animal or +vegetable species. What strikes us to-day in his discourse is the +extraordinary and truly prophetic lucidity with which he sketched in +general terms the conditions of existence in the new world. Without +doubt, these expectations have been immensely surpassed. He did not +foresee, he could not foresee, the prodigious accessions which his +original idea has received owing to its development by thousands of +auxiliary geniuses. He was far more right than he fancied, like the +majority of reformers—who are generally wrongly accused, of being too +much wrapt up in their own ideas. But on the whole, never was so +magnificent a plan so promptly carried out.</p> + +<p>From that very day all these exquisite and delicate hands set to work, +aided, it is true, by incomparable machines. Everywhere, at the head of +all the workings, were to be found Lydia and Miltiades. Henceforth +inseparable, they vied with one another in ardour; and before a year was +out the galleries of the mines had become sufficiently large and +comfortable, sufficiently decorated even and brilliantly lighted, to +receive the vast and priceless collections of all kinds, which it was +their object to place in safety there, in view of the future.</p> + +<p>With infinite precautions they were lowered one after another, bale by +bale, into the bowels of the earth. This salvage of the goods and +chattels of humanity was methodically carried out. It included all the +quintessence of the ancient grand libraries of Paris, Berlin, and +London, which had been brought together at Babylon, and then carried for +safety into the desert with the rest. The cream of all former museums, +of all previous exhibitions of industry and art, was concentrated there +with considerable additions. There were manuscripts, books, bronzes, and +pictures. What an expenditure of energy and incessant toil, in spite of +the assistance of inter-terrestrial forces, had been necessary for +packing, transporting, and housing it all! And yet, for the greater +part, it was useless to those who voluntarily this task imposed upon +themselves. They all knew it. They were well aware that they were +probably condemned for the rest of their days to a hard and +matter-of-fact existence, for which their lives as artists, +philosophers, and men of letters, had scarcely prepared them. But—for +the first time—the idea of duty to be done found its way into these +hearts, the beauty of self-sacrifice subdued these dilettanti. They +sacrificed themselves to the Unknown, to that which is not yet, to the +posterity towards which were turned all the desires of their electrified +spirits, as all the atoms of the magnetised iron turn towards the pole. +It was thus that, at the time when there were still countries, in the +midst of some great national peril, a wave of heroism swept over the +most frivolous cities. However admirable may have been, at the epoch of +which I speak, this collective need of individual self-sacrifice, ought +we to be astonished at it, when we know from the treatises on natural +history that have been preserved, that mere insects giving the same +example of foresight and self-renunciation, used before their death to +employ their latest energies to collect provisions useless to +themselves, and only useful in the future to their larvæ at their birth.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h3> + +<h2>SAVED!</h2> + + +<p>The day at length arrived on which, all the intellectual inheritance of +the past, all the real capital of humanity having been rescued from the +general shipwreck, the castaways were able to go down in their turn, +having henceforth only to think of their own preservation. That day +which forms, as everyone knows, the starting point of our new era, +called the era of salvation, was a solemn holiday. The sun, however, as +if to arouse regret, indulged in a few last bursts of sunshine. On +casting a final glance on this brightness, which they were never to +behold again, the survivors of mankind could not, we are told, restrain +their tears. A young poet on the brink of the pit that yawned to swallow +them up, repeated in the musical language of Euripides, the farewell to +the light of the dying Iphigenia. But that was a short-lived moment of +very natural emotion which speedily changed into an outburst of +unspeakable delight.</p> + +<p>How great in fact was their amazement and their ecstasy! They expected a +tomb; they opened their eyes in the most brilliant and interminable +galleries of art they could possibly see, in <i>salons</i> more beautiful +than those of Versailles, in enchanted palaces, in which all extremes of +climate, rain, and wind, cold and torrid heat were unknown; where +innumerable lamps, veritable suns in brilliancy and moons in softness, +shed unceasingly through the blue depths their daylight that knew no +night. Assuredly the sight was far from what it has since become; we +need an effort of imagination in order to represent the psychological +condition of our poor ancestors, hitherto accustomed to the perpetual +and insufferable discomforts and inconveniences of life on the surface +of the globe, in order to realise their enthusiasm, at a moment, when +only counting on escaping from the most appalling of deaths by means of +the gloomiest of dungeons, they felt themselves delivered of all their +troubles, and of all their apprehensions at the same time! Have you +noticed in the retrospective museum that quaint bit of apparatus of our +fathers, which is called an umbrella? Look at it and reflect on the +heart-breaking element, in a situation, which condemned man to make use +of this ridiculous piece of furniture. Imagine yourself obliged to +protect yourselves against those gigantic downpours which would +unexpectedly arrive on the scene and drench you for three or four days +running. Think likewise of sailors caught in a whirling cyclone, of the +victims of sunstroke, of the 20,000 Indians annually devoured by tigers +or killed by the bite of venomous serpents; think of those struck by +lightning. I do not speak of the legions of parasites and insects, of +the acarus, the phylloxera, and the microscopic beings which drained the +blood, the sweat, and the life of man, inoculating him with typhus, +plague, and cholera. In truth, if our change of condition has demanded +some sacrifices, it is not an illusion to declare that the balance of +advantage is immensely greater. What in comparison with this +unparalleled revolution is the most renowned of the petty revolutions of +the past which to-day are treated so lightly, and rightly so, by our +historians. One wonders how the first inhabitants of these underground +dwellings could, even for a moment, regret the sun, a mode of lighting +that bristled with so many inconveniences. The sun was a capricious +luminary which went out and was relit at variable hours, shone when it +felt disposed, sometimes was eclipsed, or hid itself behind the clouds +when one had most need of it, or pitilessly blinded one at the very +moment one yearned for shade! Every night,—do we really realise the +full force of the inconvenience?—every night the sun commanded social +life to desist and social life desisted. Humanity was actually to that +extent the slave of nature! To think it never succeeded in, never even +dreamed of, freeing itself from this slavery which weighed so heavily +and unconsciously on its destinies, on the course of its progress thus +straitened and confined! Ah! Let us once more bless our fortunate +disaster!</p> + +<p>What excuses or explains the weakness of the first immigrants of the +inner world is the fact that their life was necessarily rough and full +of hardships, in spite of a notable improvement after their descent into +the caverns. They had perpetually to enlarge them, to adjust them to the +requirements of the two civilisations, ancient and modern. That was not +the work of a single day. I am well aware how happily fortune favoured +them; how they again and again had the good luck when driving their +tunnels to discover natural grottoes of the utmost beauty, in which it +was enough to illuminate with the usual methods of lighting (which was +absolutely cost-free, as Miltiades had foreseen) in order to render them +almost habitable: delightful squares, as it were, enshrined and sparsely +disseminated throughout the labyrinth of our brilliantly lighted +streets; mines of sparkling diamonds, lakes of quicksilver, mounds of +golden ingots. I am well aware that they had at their disposition a sum +of natural forces very superior to all that the preceding ages had been +acquainted with. That is very easy to understand. In fact, if they +lacked waterfalls, they replaced them very advantageously by the finest +falls in temperature that physicists have ever dreamed of. The central +heat of the globe could not, it is true, by itself alone be a mechanical +force, any more than formerly a large mass of water falling by +hypothesis to the greatest possible depth. It is in its passage from a +higher to a lower level that the mass of water becomes (or rather +became) available energy: it is in its descent from a higher to a lower +degree of the thermometer that heat likewise becomes so. The greater +distance between any two degrees the greater amount of surplus energy. +Now, the mining physicists had hardly descended into the bowels of the +earth ere they at once perceived that thus placed between the furnaces +of the central fire, as it were, a forge of the Cyclops, hot enough to +liquefy granite, and the outer cold, which was sufficient to solidify +oxygen and nitrogen, they had at their disposal the most enormous +extremes in temperature, and consequently thermic cataracts by the side +of which all the cataracts of Abyssinia and Niagara were only toys. What +caldrons did they own in the ancient volcanoes! What condensers in the +glaciers! At first sight they must have seen that if a few distributing +agencies of this prodigious energy were provided, they had power enough +there to perform the whole work of mankind—excavation, air supply, +water supply, sanitation, locomotion, descent and transport of +provisions, etc.</p> + +<p>I am well aware of that. I am further aware that ever favoured by +fortune, the inseparable friend of daring, the new Troglodytes have +never suffered from famine, nor from shortness of supplies. When one of +their snow-covered deposits of carcasses threatened to give out, they +used to make several trial borings, drive several shafts in an upward +direction. They never failed presently to meet with rich finds of food +reserves, extensive enough to close the mouths of the alarmists, whereby +there resulted on each occasion, according to the law of Malthus, a +sudden increase in the population, coupled with the excavation of new +underground cities, more flourishing than their older sisters. But, in +spite of all this, we remain overwhelmed with wonder when we consider +the incalculable degree of courage and intelligence lavished on such a +work, and solely called into being by an idea which, starting one day +from one individual brain, has leavened the whole globe. What giant +falls of earth, what murderous explosions, what a death-roll there must +have been at the outset of the enterprise! We shall never know what +bloodthirsty duels, what rapes, what doleful tragedies, took place in +this lawless society, which had not yet been reorganised. The history of +the early conquerors and colonists of America, if it could be told in +detail, would pale entirely beside it. Let us draw a veil over the +proceedings. But this pitch of horrors was perhaps necessary to teach us +that in the forced intimacy of a cave there is no mean between warfare +and love, between mutual slaughter or mutual embraces. We began by +fighting; to-day we fall on each other's necks. And in fact, what human +ear, nose, or stomach could have longer withstood the deafening roar and +smoke of melanite explosions beneath our crypts; the sight and stench of +mangled bodies piled up within our narrow confines? Hideous and odious, +revolting beyond all expression, the underground war finished by +becoming impossible.</p> + +<p>It is, however, painful to think that it lasted right up to the death of +our glorious preserver. Everyone is acquainted with the heroic adventure +in which Miltiades and his companion lost their lives. It has been so +often painted, sculptured, sung, and immortalised by the great masters, +that it is not allowable to pass it over in silence. The famous struggle +between the centralist and federalist cities, that is to say, at bottom, +between the industrial and artist cities, having ended in the triumph of +the latter, a still more bloodthirsty conflict sprang up between the +free thinking and the cellular cities. The former fought to assert the +freedom of love with its uncertain fecundity; the second, for its +prudent regulation. Miltiades, misled by his passion, committed the +fault of siding with the former, a pardonable error which posterity has +forgiven him. Besieged in his last grotto—a perfect marvel in +strongholds—and at the end of his provisions, the besiegers having +intercepted the arrival of all his convoys, he essayed a final effort: +he prepared a formidable explosion intended to blow up the vault of his +cavern, and forcibly to open a way upwards by which he might have the +chance of reaching a deposit of provisions. His hope was deceived. The +vault blew up, it is true, and disclosed a cavern above it, the most +colossal one had hitherto seen, that dimly resembled a Hindoo temple. +But the hero himself perished miserably, buried with Lydia beneath +enormous rocks on the very spot on which now stands their double statue +in marble, the masterpiece of our new Phidias, which is now the crowded +meeting-place of our national pilgrimages.</p> + +<p>From these fruitful though troublous times, and from this beneficial +disorder, an advantage has accrued to us which we shall never +sufficiently appreciate. Our race, already so beautiful, has been +further strengthened and purified by these numerous trials. +Short-sightedness itself has disappeared under the prolonged influence +of a light that is pleasing to the eye, and of the habit of reading +books which are written in very large characters. For, from lack of +paper, we are obliged to write on slates, on pillars, obelisks, on the +broad panels of marble, and this necessity, in addition to compelling us +to adopt a sober style and contributing to the formation of taste, +prevents the daily newspapers from reappearing, to the great benefit of +the optic nerves and the lobes of the brain. It was, by the way, an +immense misfortune for "pre-salvationist" man to possess textile plants +which allowed him to stereotype without the slightest trouble on rags of +paper without the slightest value, all his ideas, idle or serious, piled +indiscriminately one on the other. Now, before graving our thoughts on a +panel of rock, we take time to reflect on our subject. Yet another bane +among our primitive forefathers was tobacco. At present we no longer +smoke, we can no longer smoke. The public health is accordingly +magnificent.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h3> + +<h2>REGENERATION</h2> + + +<p>It does not fall within the scope of my rapid sketch to relate date by +date the laborious vicissitudes of humanity since its settlement within +the planet from the year 1 of the era of Salvation to the year 596, in +which I write these lines in chalk on slabs of schist. I should only +like to bring out for my contemporaries, who might very well fail to +notice them (for we barely observe what we have always before our eyes), +the distinctive and original features of this modern civilisation of +which we are so justly proud. Now that after many abortive trials and +agonizing convulsions it has succeeded in taking its final shape, we can +clearly establish its essential characteristics. It consists in the +complete elimination of living nature, whether animal or vegetable, man +only excepted. That has produced, so to say, a purification of society. +Secluded thus from every influence of the natural milieu into which it +was hitherto plunged and confined, the social milieu was for the first +time able to reveal and display its true virtues, and the real social +bond appeared in all its vigour and purity. It might be said that +destiny had desired to make in our case an extended sociological +experiment for its own edification by placing us in such extraordinarily +unique conditions.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> The problem, in a way, was to learn, what would +social man become if committed to his own keeping, yet left to +himself—furnished with all the intellectual acquisitions accumulated +through a remote past by human geniuses, but deprived of the assistance +of all other living beings, nay, even of those beings half endowed with +life, that we call rivers and seas and stars, and thrown back on the +conquered, yet passive forces of chemical, inorganic and lifeless +Nature, which is separated from man by too deep a chasm to exercise on +him any action from the social point of view. The problem was to learn +what this humanity would do when restricted to man, and obliged to +extract from its own resources, if not its food supplies, yet at least +all its pleasures, all its occupations, all its creative inspirations. +The answer has been given, and we have realised at the same time what an +unsuspected drag the terrestrial fauna and flora had hitherto been on +the progress of humanity.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> In appearance only: we must not forget that in accordance +with all probability many extinct stars must have served as the scene of +this normal and necessary phase of social life.</p></div> + +<p>At first human pride and the faith of man in himself hitherto held in +check by the constant presence, by the profound sense of the superiority +of the forces round it, rebounded with a force of elasticity really +appalling. We are a race of Titans. But, at the same time, whatever +enervating element there might have been in the air of our grottoes has +been thereby victoriously combated. Otherwise our air is the purest that +man has ever breathed; all the bad germs with which the atmosphere was +loaded were killed by the cold. Far from being attacked by anæmia as +some predicted, we live in a state of habitual excitement maintained by +the multiplicity of our relations and of our "social tonics" (friendly +shakes of the hand, talks, meetings with charming women, etc.). With a +certain number among us it passes into a state of unintermittent +delirium under the name of Troglodytic fever. This new malady, whose +microbe has not yet been discovered, was unknown to our forefathers, +thanks perhaps to the stupefying (or soothing, if you prefer it) +influence of natural and rural distractions. Rural! what a strange +anachronism! Fishermen, hunters, ploughmen, and shepherds—do we really +understand to-day the meaning of these words? Have we for a moment +reflected on the life of that fossil creature who is so frequently +mentioned in books of ancient history and who was called the peasant? +The habitual society of this curious creature which comprised half or +three-quarters of the population was not man, but four-footed beasts, +pot herbs and green crops, which, owing to the conditions necessary for +their production in the country (yet another word which has become +meaningless) condemned him to live a wild, solitary life, far from his +fellows. As for his herds, they were acquainted with the charms of +social life, but he had not the slightest inkling of what it meant.</p> + +<p>The towns, to which people were so astonished that there should be a +desire to emigrate, were the only centres, rare and widely scattered as +they were, in which life in society was then known. But to what extent +does it not appear to have been adulterated, and attenuated by animal +and vegetable life? Another fossil peculiar to these regions is the +artisan. Was the relation of the worker to his employer, of the artisan +class to the other classes of the population, of these classes between +themselves a really social relation? Not the least in the world! Certain +sophists, who were called economists, and who were to our sociologists +of to-day what the alchemists formerly were to the chemists or the +astrologers to the astronomers, had given credit, it is true, to this +error—that society essentially consists in an exchange of services. +From this point of view, which, moreover, is quite out of date, the +social bond could never be closer than that between the ass and the ass +driver, the ox and drover, the sheep and the shepherd. Society, we now +know, consists in the exchange of reflections. Mutually to ape one +another, and by dint of accumulated apings diversely combined to create +an originality is the important thing. Reciprocal service is only an +accessory. That is why the urban life of former days being principally +founded on the organic and natural, rather than on the social relation +of producer to consumer, or of workman to employer, was itself only a +very imperfect kind of social life, and accordingly the source of +endless disagreements.</p> + +<p>If it has been possible for us to realise the most perfect and the most +intense social life that has ever been seen, it is thanks to the extreme +simplicity of our strictly so-called wants. At a time when man was +"panivorous" and omnivorous, the craving for food was broken up into an +infinity of petty ramifications. To-day it is confined to eating meat +which has been preserved in the best of refrigerators. Within the space +of an hour each morning, a single member of society by the employment of +our ingenious transport machinery feeds a thousand of his kind. The need +of clothing has been pretty nearly abolished by the softness of an ever +constant climate, and, we must also admit it, by the absence of +silkworms and of textile plants. That would perhaps be a disadvantage +were it not for the incomparable beauty of our bodies, which lends a +real charm to this grand simplicity of costume. Let us observe, however, +that it is fairly customary to wear coats of asbestos spangled with +mica, of silver interwoven and enriched with gold, in which the refined +and delicate charms of our women appear as though moulded in metal, +rather than completely screened from view. This metallic iridescence +with its infinite tints has a most delightful effect. These are, +however, costumes that never wear out. How many clothiers, milliners, +tailors, and drapery establishments are thereby abolished at a single +stroke! The need of shelter remains, it is true, but it has been greatly +reduced. One is no longer obliged to sleep at "starlight-hotel". When a +young man grows weary of the life in common which has hitherto sufficed +him in the spacious working-drawing-room of his fellows, and desires for +matrimonial reasons to have a dwelling to himself, he has only to apply +the boring-machine somewhere against the rocky wall and his cell is +excavated in a few days. There is no rent and few articles of furniture. +The joint-stock furniture, which is magnificent, is almost the only one +of which the pair of lovers make use.</p> + +<p>The quota of absolute necessities being thus reduced to almost nothing, +the quota of superfluities has been able to be extended to almost +everything. Since we live on so little, there remains abundant time for +thought. A minimum of utilitarian work and a maximum of æsthetic, is +surely civilisation itself in its most essential element. The room left +vacant in the heart by the reduction of our wants is taken up by the +talents—those artistic, poetic, and scientific talents which, as they +day by day multiply and take deeper root, become really and truly +acquired wants. They really spring, however, from a necessity to +produce, and not from a necessity to consume. I underline this +difference. The manufacturer is ever toiling, not for his own pleasure +nor for that of the world about him, of his fellow-men or his natural +rivals, but for a society different from his own—on mutual terms, but +that is immaterial. His work, therefore, constitutes a non-social, an +almost anti-social relationship with those who are not of his kind, to +the great hurt and hindrance of his relations with those who are. The +increasing intensity of his work tends to accentuate and not to +attenuate the dissimilarities between the different grades of society, +which act as an obstacle to the general reunion. We have clearly seen +the truth of this in the course of the twentieth century of the ancient +era, when the whole population was divided into trades-unions of the +different professions, which waged desperate warfare on one another, and +whose members in the bosom of each union hated one another as only +brothers can.</p> + +<p>But for the scientist, the artist, the lover of beauty in all its forms, +to produce is a passion, to consume is only a taste. For every artist +has a dilettante double. But his dilettantism in respect to arts other +than his own only plays by comparison a secondary part in his life. The +artist creates through sheer delight, and he alone creates for such +motives.</p> + +<p>We can now comprehend the depth of the truly social revolution which was +accomplished from the days when the æsthetic activity, by dint of ever +growing, ended by vanquishing utilitarian activity. Henceforth in place +of the relation of producer to consumer has been substituted, as +preponderating element in human dealings, the relation of the artist to +the art-lover. The ancient social ideal was to seek amusement or +self-satisfaction apart and to render mutual service. For this we +substitute the following: to be one's own servant and mutually to +delight one another. Henceforward, to insist once more, society reposes, +not on the exchange of services, but on the exchange of admiration or +criticism, of favourable or unfavourable judgments. The anarchical +regime of greed in all its forms has been succeeded by the autocratic +government of enlightened opinion which has become supreme. For our +worthy ancestors deceived themselves finely when they persuaded +themselves that social progress led to what they termed freedom of +thought. We have something better; we possess the joy and the strength +of the mind which attains a certainty of its own, founded, as it is, on +its only sure basis, the unanimity of other minds on certain essential +matters. On this rock we can rear the highest constructions of thought, +nay, the most gigantic systems of philosophy.</p> + +<p>The error, at present recognised, of those ancient visionaries called +socialists was their failure to see that this life in common, this +intense social life, they dreamt of so ardently, had for its +indispensable condition the æsthetic life and the universal propagation +of the religion of truth and beauty. The latter assumes the drastic +lopping off of numerous personal wants. Consequently in rushing, as they +did, into an exaggerated development of commercial life, they were +marching in the opposite direction to their own goal.</p> + +<p>They must have begun, I am well aware, by uprooting the fatal habit of +eating bread, which made man a slave to the tyrannical whims of a plant, +of beasts which were necessary for the manuring of this plant, and of +other plants which served as fodder for their beasts.... But as long as +this unhappy craving was rampant and they refrained from combating it, +it was obligatory to abstain from arousing others which were not less +anti-social, that is to say, not less natural. It was far better to +leave men at the ploughtail than to attract them to the factory, for the +dispersion and isolation of individualist types are more preferable to +bringing them together, which can only result in setting them by the +ears. But let us hurry on. All the advantages for which we are indebted +to our anti-natural position are now clear. We alone have realised all +the quintessence of refinement and reality, of strength and of +sweetness, that the social life contains. Formerly, here and there, in a +few rare cases in the midst of deserts an individual had certainly had a +distant foretaste of this ineffable thing, not to mention three or four +salons in the eighteenth century under the ancient regime, two or three +painters' studios, one or two green-rooms. They represented, in a way, +imperceptible cores of social protoplasm lost amid a mass of foreign +matter. But this marrow has become the entire bone at present. Our +cities, all in all, are one vast workshop, household and reception hall. +And this has happened in the simplest and most inevitable manner in the +world. Following the law of separation of the old Herbert Spencer, the +selection of heterogeneous talents and vocations was bound to take place +of its own accord. In fact, at the end of a century there was already +underground in course of development and continuous excavation a city of +painters, a city of sculptors, a city of musicians, of poets, of +geometricians, of physicists, of chemists, even of naturalists, of +psychologists, of scientific or æsthetic specialists of every kind, +except, strictly speaking, in philosophy. For we were obliged after +several attempts to give up the idea of founding or maintaining a city +of philosophers, notably owing to the incessant trouble caused by the +tribe of sociologists who are the most unsociable of mankind.</p> + +<p>Let us not forget, by the way, to mention the city of "sappers" (we no +longer speak of architects), whose speciality is to work out the plans +for excavating and repairing all our crypts and to direct the carrying +out of the work by our machines. Quitting the hackneyed paths of former +architecture, they have created in every detail our modern architecture +so profoundly original of which nothing could give an idea to our +forefathers. The public building of the ancient architect was a kind of +massive and voluminous work of art. It was entirely a thing by itself. +Its exterior, and especially its front, occupied his attention far more +than the inside. For the modern architect the interior alone exists, and +each work is linked on to those which have gone before. None stands by +itself. They are only an extension and ramification, one of another, an +endless continuation like the epics of the East. The work of the ancient +architect with its misplaced individuality, with its symmetry, which +gave it a mock air of being a living thing, yet only rendered it more +out of keeping with the surrounding landscape, the more symmetrical and +more skilfully designed it was, produced the effect of a verse in prose, +or of a hackneyed theme in a fantasia. Its special function was to +represent correctness, coldness, and stiffness amid the luxuriant +disorder of nature and the freedom of the other arts. But to-day, +instead of being the most tight-laced of the arts, architecture is the +freest and most wanton of them all. It is the chief element of +picturesqueness in our life, its artificial and veritably artistic +scenery lends to all the masterpieces of our painters and sculptors the +horizon of its perspective, the sky of its vaults, the tangled +vegetation of its innumerable colonnades, whose shafts are a copy of the +idealised trunk of all the antique essence of tree-life, whose capitals +imitate the idealised form of all the antique flowers. Here is nature +winnowed and perfected, which has become human in order to delight +humanity, and which humanity has deified in order to shelter love +beneath its shade. This perfection has only been, however, attained +after much groping in the dark. Many falls of rock, occasioned by +foolhardy excavations, which unduly reduced the number of supports, +swallowed up whole towns during the first two centuries. They will serve +for our descendants as Pompeii to rediscover. At the least shock +produced by earthquakes (the only natural plague which engages our +attention), a few cases of crushing to death still occur here and there, +but such accidents are very rare.</p> + +<p>To return to our subject. Each of our cities in founding colonies in the +region round it, has become the mother of cities similar to itself, in +which its own peculiar colour has been multiplied in different tints +which reflect and render it more beautiful. It is thus with us that +nations are formed whose differences no longer correspond to +geographical accidents but to the diversity of the social aptitudes of +human nature and of nothing else. Nay, more, in each of them the +division of cities is founded on that of schools, the most flourishing +of which, at any given moment, raises its particular town to the rank of +capital, thanks to the all-powerful favour of the public.</p> + +<p>The beginnings and devolution of power, questions which have so deeply +agitated humanity of yore, arise with us in the most natural way in the +world. There is always amid the crowd of our genius, a superior genius +who is hailed as such by the almost unanimous acclamation of his pupils +at first, and next of his comrades. A man is judged in fact by his peers +and according to his productions, not by the incompetent or according to +his electoral exploits. In the light of the intimate sense of corporate +life which binds and cements us one to another, the elevation of such a +dictator to the supreme magistracy has nothing humiliating about it for +the pride of the senators who have elected him, and who are the chiefs +of all the leading schools they themselves have created. The elector who +is a pupil, the elector who is an intelligent and sympathetic admirer +identifies himself with the object of his choice. Now it is the +particular characteristic of a "Geniocratic" Republic to be based on +admiration, not on envy, on sympathy, and not on dislike—on +enlightenment, not on illusion.</p> + +<p>Nothing is more delightful than a tour through our domains. Our towns, +which are quite close to one another are severally connected by broad +roads which are always illuminated and dotted with light and graceful +monocycles, with trains without smoke or whistle, with pretty electric +carriages which glide silently along, like gondolas between walls +covered with admirable bas-reliefs, with charming inscriptions, with +immortal fancies, the outpourings and accumulations of ten generations +of wandering artists. Similarly one might have seen in the olden times +the scanty remains of some convent where, in the course of ages the +monks had translated their weariness of spirit into grinning figures, +with hooded heads, into beasts from the Apocalypse, clumsily sculptured +on the capitals of the little pilasters or around the stone chair of the +Abbot. But what a distance lies between this monkish nightmare and this +artistic revelation! At the very most the pretty little gallery which +joined across the Arno, the museum of the Pitti Palace, with that of the +Uffizi at Florence, could give our ancestors a faint idea of what we +see.</p> + +<p>If the corridors of our abode possess this wealth and splendour, what +shall we say of the dwelling-places, or of the cities? They are filled +with heaps of artistic marvels, of frescoes, enamels, gold and silver +plate, bronzes and pictures, the acme and quintessence of musical +emotions, of philosophic conceptions, of poetic dreams, enough to baffle +all description, and weary all admiration. We have difficulty in +believing that the labyrinth of galleries, subterranean palaces and +marble catacombs, all named and numbered, whose manifold nomenclature +recalls all the geography and history of the past, have been excavated +in so few centuries. That is what perseverance can do! However +accustomed we may be to this extraordinary sight, it still at times +happens when wandering alone, during the hours of the siesta, in this +sort of infinite cathedral, with its irregular and endless architecture, +through this forest of lofty columns, massive or in close formation, +displaying in turn the most diversified and grandiose styles, Egyptian, +Greek, Byzantine, Arab, Gothic, and reminiscent of all the vanished and +venerated floras and faunas, when it is not above all profoundly +original ... it happens, I repeat, that panting, and beside ourselves +with ecstasy, we come to a standstill, like the traveller of yore when +he entered the twilight of a virgin forest, or of the pillared hall of +Karnak.</p> + +<p>To those who on reading the ancient accounts of travels might perchance +have regretted the wanderings of caravans across the deserts or the +discoveries of new worlds, our universe can offer boundless excursions +under the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans frozen to their very lowest +depths. Venturesome explorers, I was going to say discoverers, have in +every direction and in the easiest imaginable fashion honeycombed these +immense ice-caps with endless passages much in the same way as the +termites, according to our palæontologists, bored through the floors of +our fathers. We extend at will these fantastic galleries of crystal, +which, wherever they cross one another, form so many crystal palaces, by +casting on the walls a ray of intense heat which makes them melt. We +take good care to drain the water due to the liquefaction into one of +those bottomless pits which here and there yawn hideously beneath our +feet. Thanks to this method and the improvements it has undergone we +have succeeded in cutting, hewing and carving the solidified sea-water. +We are able to glide through it, to manoeuvre in it, to course through +it on skates or velocipedes with an ease and agility that are always +admired in spite of our being accustomed to it. The severe cold of these +regions is scarcely tempered by millions of electric lamps which are +mirrored in these emerald-green icicles with their velvet-like tints and +renders a permanent stay impossible. It would even prevent us crossing +them if, by good luck, the earliest pioneers had not discovered in them +crowds of seals which had been caught while still alive by the freezing +of the waters in which they remain imprisoned. Their carefully prepared +skins have furnished us with warm clothing. Nothing is more curious than +thus suddenly to catch sight of, as it were through a mysterious glass +case, one of these huge marine animals, sometimes a whale, a shark or a +devil fish, and that star-like flora which carpets the seas. Though +appearing crystallized in its transparent prison, in its Elysium of pure +brine, it has lost none of its secret charm, that was quite unknown to +our ancestors. Idealised by its very lack of motion, immortalised by its +death, it dimly shines here and there with gleams of pearl and mother of +pearl in the twilight of the depths below, to the right, the left, +beneath the feet or above the head of the solitary skater who roams with +his lamp on his forehead in pursuit of the unknown. There is always +something new to look forward to from these miraculous soundings, so +different from the soundings of former time. Never a tourist has come +home without having discovered some interesting object—a piece of +wreckage, the steeple of some sunken town, a human skeleton to enrich +our prehistoric museums, sometimes a shoal of sardines or cod. These +splendid and timely reserves come in very handy for replenishing our +bill of fare. But the chief fascination of such adventurous exploration +is the sense of the boundless and the everlasting, of the unfathomable +and the changeless by which one is arrested and overwhelmed in these +bottomless depths. The savour of this silence and solitude, of this +profound peace, the sequel to so many tempests, of this almost starless +gloaming and twilight with its fleeting gleams, reposes the eye after +our underground illuminations. I will not speak of the surprises which +the hand of man has lavished there. At the moment when one least expects +it one sees the submarine tunnel along which one is gliding, enlarged +beyond all measure and transformed into a vast hall in which the fancy +of our sculptors has found full play, a temple of vast dimensions with +transparent pillars, with walls of enthralling beauty that the eye in +ecstasy attempts to fathom. That is often the trysting place of friends +and lovers, and the excursion begun in dreamy loneliness is continued in +loving companionship.</p> + +<p>But we have wandered long enough in these halls of mysteries. Let us +return to our cities. One would look, by the bye, in vain for a city of +lawyers there, or even, for a court of justice. There is no more arable +land and therefore no more lawsuits about property or ancient rights. +There are no more walls, and therefore no more lawsuits about party +walls. As for felonies and misdemeanours, we do not know exactly why, +but it is an obvious fact that with the spread of the cult of art they +have disappeared as by enchantment, while formerly the progress of +industrial life had tripled their numbers in half a century.</p> + +<p>Man in becoming a town dweller has become really human. From the time +that all sorts of trees and beasts, of flowers and insects no longer +interpose between men, and all sorts of vulgar wants no longer hinder +the progress of the truly human faculties, every one seems to be born +well-bred, just as every one is born a sculptor or musician, philosopher +or poet, and speaks the most correct language with the purest accent. An +indescribable courtesy, skilled to charm without falsehood, to please +without obsequiousness, the most free from fawning one has ever seen, is +united to a politeness which has at heart the feeling, not of a social +hierarchy to be respected, but of a social harmony to be maintained. It +is composed not of more or less degenerate airs of the court, but of +more or less faithful reflections of the heart. Its refinement is such +as the race who lived on the surface of earth never even dreamed of. It +permeates like a fragrant oil all the complicated and delicate machinery +of our existence. No unsociableness, no misanthropy can resist it. The +charm is too profound. The single threat of ostracism, I do not say of +expulsion to the realms above, which would be a death sentence, but of +banishment beyond the limits of the usual corporate life, is sufficient +to arrest the most criminal natures on the slope of crime. There is in +the slightest inflexion of voice, in the least inclination of the head +of our women a special charm, which is not only the charm of former +times, whether roguish kindness or kindly roguishness, but a refinement +at once more exquisite and more healthful in which the constant practice +of seeing and doing beautiful things or loving and being loved is +expressed in an ineffable fashion.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h3> + +<h2>LOVE</h2> + + +<p>Love, in fact, is the unseen and perennial source of this novel +courtesy. The capital importance it has assumed, the strange forms it +has worn, the unexpected heights to which it has risen, are perhaps the +most significant characteristics of our civilisation. In the glittering +and superficial epochs, age of paper and electro-plating, which +immediately preceded our present era, love was held in check by a +thousand childish needs, by the contagious mono-mania of unsightly and +cumbersome luxury or of ceaseless globe-trotting, and by that other form +of madness which has now disappeared, the so-called political ambition. +It suffered accordingly an immense decline, relatively speaking. To-day +it benefits from the destruction or gradual diminution of all the other +principal impulses of the heart which have taken refuge and concentrated +themselves in it as banished mankind has done in the warm bosom of the +earth. Patriotism is dead, since there is no longer any native land, but +only a native grot. Moreover the guilds which we enter as we please +according to our vocations have taken the place of Fatherlands. +Corporate spirit has exterminated patriotism. In the same fashion the +school is on the road not to exterminate but to transform the family, +which is only right and proper. The best that can be said for the +parents of old was that they were compulsory and not always cost-free +friends. One was not wrong in preferring in general to them friends who +are a species of optional and unselfish relations. Maternal love itself +has undergone a good many transformations among our women artists, and +one must admit, sundry partial set backs.</p> + +<p>But love is left to us. Or rather, be it said without vanity, it is we +who discovered and introduced it. Its name has preceded it by a good +many centuries. Our ancestors gave it its name, but they spoke of it as +the Hebrews spoke of the Messiah. It has revealed itself in our day. In +our day it has become incarnate, it has founded the true religion, +universal and enduring, that pure and austere moral which is +indistinguishable from art. It has been favoured at the outset, beyond +all doubt and beyond all expectation by the charm and beauty of our +women, who are all differently yet almost equally accomplished. There is +nothing <i>natural</i> left in our world below if it be not they. But it +appears they have always been the most beautiful thing in nature even in +the most unfavourable and ill-favoured ages. For we are assured that +never was the graceful curve of hill or stream, of wave or rippling +cornfield, that never was the hue of the dawn or of the Mediterranean +equal in sweetness, in strength, in richness of visible music and +harmony to the female form. There must therefore have been a special +instinct which is quite incomprehensible which formerly retained the +poor beside their natal river or rock and prevented their emigrating to +the big towns, where they might well have hoped to admire at their ease +tints and outlines of beauty assuredly far superior to the charm of the +locality to whose attractions they fell a victim. At present there is no +other country than the woman of one's affections; there is no other +home-sickness than that caused by her absence.</p> + +<p>But the foregoing is insufficient to explain the unparalleled power and +persistence of our love which time intensifies more than it wears out, +and consummates as it consumes it. Love, we now at last know, is like +air, essential to life; we must look to it for health and not for mere +nourishment. It is as the sun once was, we must use it to give us light, +not allow it to dazzle us. It resembles that imposing temple that the +fervour of our fathers raised in its honour when they worshipped it, +unwittingly, at the Paris Opera-house. The most beautiful part of it is +the staircase—when one mounts it. We have therefore attempted to make +the staircase monopolise the whole edifice without leaving the tiniest +room for the hall. The wise man, an ancient writer has said, is to the +woman what the asymptote is to the curve, it draws ever nearer but never +touches. It was a half crazy fellow named Rousseau who uttered this +splendid aphorism and our society flatters itself that it has practised +it far better than he. All the same the ideal thus outlined, we are +compelled to confess, is rarely attained in all its entity. This degree +of perfection is reserved for the most saintly souls, the ascetics, men +and women, who wander together, two and two, in the most marvellous +cloisters, in the most Raphaelesque cells in the city of painters, in a +sort of artificial dusk produced by a coloured twilight in the midst of +a throng of similar couples, and on the banks of a stream so to say of +audacious and splendid revelations of the nude. They pass their life in +feasting their eyes on these waves of beauty, the living bank of which +is their own passion. Together they climb the fiery steps of the +heavenly staircase to the very summit on which they halt. Then supremely +inspired they set to work and produce masterpieces. Heroic lovers are +they whose whole pleasure in love consists in the sublime joy of feeling +their love growing within them, blissful because it is shared, inspiring +because it is chaste.</p> + +<p>But for the greater number of us it has been necessary to come down to +the level of the insurmountable weakness of the old Adam. None the less +the inelastic limits of our food supplies have made it a duty for us +rigorously to guard against a possible excess in our population which +has reached to-day fifty millions, a figure it can never exceed without +danger. We have been obliged to forbid in general under the most severe +penalties a practice which apparently was very common and indulged in +<i>ad libitum</i> by our forefathers. Is it possible that after manufacturing +the rubbish heaps of law with which our libraries are lumbered up, they +precisely omitted to regulate the only matter considered worthy to-day +of regulation? Can we conceive that it could ever have been permissible +to the first comer without due authorisation to expose society to the +arrival of a new hungry and wailing member—above all at a time when it +was not possible to kill a partridge without a game licence, or to +import a sack of corn without paying duty? Wiser and more far-sighted, +we degrade, and in case of a second offence we condemn to be thrown into +a lake of petroleum, whoever allows himself to infringe our +constitutional law on this point, or rather we should say, should allow +himself, for the force of public opinion has got the better of the crime +and has rendered our penalties unnecessary. We sometimes, nay very +often, see lovers who go mad from love and die in consequence. Others +courageously get themselves hoisted by a lift to the gaping mouth of an +extinct volcano and reach the outer air which in a moment freezes them +to death. They have scarcely time to regard the azure sky—a magnificent +spectacle, so they say—and the twilight hues of the still dying sun or +the vast and unstudied disorder of the stars; then locked in each +other's arms they fall dead upon the ice! The summit of their favourite +volcano is completely crowned with their corpses which are admirably +preserved always in twos, stark and livid, a living image still of love +and agony, of despair and frenzy, but more often of ecstatic repose. +They recently made an indelible impression on a celebrated traveller who +was bold enough to make the ascent in order to get a glimpse of them. We +all know how he has since died from the effects.</p> + +<p>But what is unheard of and unexampled in our day is for a woman in love +to abandon herself to her lover before the latter has under her +inspiration produced a masterpiece which is adjudged and proclaimed as +such by his rivals. For here we have the indispensable condition to +which legitimate marriage is subordinated. The right to have children is +the monopoly and supreme recompense of genius. It is besides a powerful +lever for the uplifting and exaltation of the race. Futhermore a man can +only exercise it exactly the same number of times as he produces works +worthy of a master. But in this respect some indulgence is shown. It +even happens pretty frequently that touched by pity for some grand +passion that disposes only of a mediocre talent, the affected admiration +of the public partly from sympathy and partly from condescension accords +a favourable verdict to works of no intrinsic value. Perhaps there are +also (in fact there is no doubt about it) for common use other methods +of getting round the law.</p> + +<p>Ancient society reposed on the fear of punishment, on a penal system +which has had its day. Ours, it is clear, is based on the expectation of +happiness. The enthusiasm and creative fire aroused by such a +perspective are attested by our exhibitions, and borne witness to by the +rich luxuriance of our annual art harvests. When we think of the +precisely opposite effects of ancient marriage, that institution of our +ancestors, more ridiculous still than their umbrellas, one can measure +the distance between this excessive and pretended exclusive <i>debitum +conjugale</i> and our mode of union, at once free and regulated, energetic +and intermittent, passionate and restrained, the true corner-stone of +our regenerated humanity. The sufferings it imposes on those who are +sacrificed, the unsuccessful artists, is not for the latter a cause of +complaint. Their despair itself is dear to the desperate; for if they do +not die of it, they draw life and immortality from it and from the +bottomless pit of their inner depth of woe, they gather deathless +flowers, flowers of art or poesy for some, mystic roses for others. To +the latter perhaps is given at that moment, as they grope in their +inward darkness to touch most nearly the essence of things, and these +delights are so vivid that our artists and our metaphysical mystics +wonder whether art and philosophy were made to console love or if the +sole reason for love's existence is not to inspire art and the pursuit +of ultimate truth. This last opinion has generally prevailed.</p> + +<p>The extent to which love has refined our habits, and to which our +civilisation based on love is superior in morality to the former +civilisation based on ambition and covetousness, was proved at the time +of the great discovery which took place in the Year of Salvation 194. +Guided by some mysterious inkling, some electric sense of direction, a +bold sapper by dint of forcing his way through the flanks of the earth +beyond the ordinary galleries suddenly penetrated into a strange open +space buzzing with human voices and swarming with human faces. But what +squeaky voices! What sallow complexions! What an impossible language +with no connection with our Greek! It was, without doubt, a veritable +underground America, quite as vast and still more curious. It was the +work of a little tribe of burrowing Chinese who had had, one imagines, +the same idea as our Miltiades. Much more practical than he, they had +hastily crawled underground without encumbering themselves with museums +and libraries, and there they had multiplied enormously. Instead of +confining themselves as we to turning to account the deposits of animal +carcasses, they had shamelessly given themselves up to ancestral +cannibalism. They were thus enabled, seeing the thousand of millions of +Chinese destroyed and buried beneath the snow, to give full vent to +their prolific instincts. Alas! who knows if our own descendants will +not one day be reduced to this extremity? In what promiscuity, in what a +slough of greed, falsehood and robbery were these unfortunates living! +The words of our language refuse to depict their filth and coarseness. +With infinite pains they raised underground diminutive vegetables in +diminutive beds of soil they had brought thither together with +diminutive pigs and dogs.... These ancient servants of mankind appeared +very disgusting to our new Christopher Columbus. These degraded beings +(I speak of the masters and not of the animals, for the latter belong to +a breed that has been much improved by those who raised them) had lost +all recollection of the Middle Empire and even of the surface of the +earth. They heartily laughed when some of our <i>savants</i> sent on a +mission to them spoke to them of the firmament, the sun, the moon and +the stars.... They listened, however, to the end of these accounts, then +in an ironical tone they asked our envoys: "Have you seen all that?" And +the latter unfortunately could not reply to the question, since no one +among us has seen the sky except the lovers who go to die together.</p> + +<p>Now, what did our settlers do at the sight of such cerebral atrophy? +Several proposed, it is true, to exterminate these savages who might +well become dangerous owing to their cunning and to their numbers, and +to appropriate their dwelling-place after a certain amount of cleaning +and painting and the removal of numerous little bells. Others proposed +to reduce them to the status of slaves or servants in order to shift on +to them all our menial work. But these two proposals were rejected. An +attempt was made to civilize and to render less savage these poor +cousins, and once the impossibility of any success in that direction had +been ascertained the partition was carefully blocked up.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h3> + +<h2>THE ÆSTHETIC LIFE</h2> + + +<p>Such is the moral miracle wrought by our excellence which itself is +begotten of love and beauty. But the intellectual marvels which have +issued from the same source, merit a still more extended notice. It will +be enough for me to indicate them as I go along.</p> + +<p>Let us first speak of the sciences. One might have thought that from the +day that the stars and celestial bodies, the faunas and floras, ceased +to play a certain part in our lives or that the manifold sources of +observation and experience ceased to flow, astronomy and meteorology +would henceforth be brought to a standstill while zoology and botany +would have become palæontology pure and simple, without speaking of +their application to the navy, army and agriculture, which are all +to-day entirely obsolete; in fact, that they would have ceased to make a +step forward and would have fallen into complete oblivion. Luckily these +apprehensions proved groundless. Let us admire the extent to which the +sciences which the past has bequeathed to us, formerly eminently useful +and inductive, have for the first time had the advantage of passionately +interesting and exciting the general public since they have acquired +this double characteristic of being an object of luxury and a deductive +subject. The past has accumulated such undigested masses of astronomical +tables, papers and proceedings dealing with measurements, vivisections, +and innumerable experiments, that the human mind can live on this +capital till the end of time. It was high time that it began at last to +arrange and utilize these materials. Now, for the sciences of which I am +speaking, the advantage is great from the point of view of their success +that they are entirely based on written testimony, and in no way on +sense perception, and that they on all occasions invoke the authority of +books (for we talk to-day of whole bibliographies when formerly people +spoke of a single Bible—evidently an immense difference). This great +and inestimable advantage consists in the extraordinary riches of our +libraries in documents of the most diverse kinds which never leaves an +ingenious theorist in the lurch, and is equal to supporting in a plenary +and authoritative fashion the most contradictory opinions at one and the +same symposium. Its abundance recalls the admirable wealth of antique +legislation and jurisprudence in texts and decisions of every hue which +rendered the lawsuits so interesting, almost as much as the battles of +the populace of Alexandria on the subject of a theological iota. The +debates of our <i>savants</i>, their polemics relative to the Vitellin yolk +of the egg of the Arachneida, or the digestive apparatus of the +Infusoria, constitute the burning questions which distress us, and which +if we had the misfortune to possess a regular press, would not fail to +drench our streets in gore. For the questions which are useless and even +harmful have always the knack of rousing the passions, provided they are +insoluble.</p> + +<p>These are our religious quarrels. In fact the sum total of the sciences +bequeathed to us by the past has become definitely and inevitably a +religion. Our <i>savants</i> to-day who work deductively on these data from +henceforth changeless and inviolate, exactly recall on a much larger +scale the theologians of the ancient world. This new encyclopædic +theology, not less fertile than others in schisms and heresies, is the +unique but inexhaustible source of divisions in the bosom of our Church +which is otherwise so compact. It is perhaps the most profound and +fascinating charm of our intellectual leaders.</p> + +<p>"All the same, they are dead sciences!" say certain malcontents. Let us +accept the epithet. They are dead, if one likes, but after the fashion +of those languages in which a whole people chanted its hymns although no +one speaks them any longer. This is also the case with certain faces +whose beauty only appears in its fulness when their last sleep has come. +Let none therefore be surprised if our love fastens on these majestic +dogmas, by which we are more and more overshadowed, on these higher +inutilities which are our vocation. Above all, mathematics, as being the +most perfect type of the new sciences, has progressed with giant steps. +Descending to fabulous depths, analysis has allowed the astronomers at +length to attack and to solve problems whose mere statement would have +provoked an incredulous smile in their predecessors. And so they +discover every day, chalk in hand, not with the telescope to the eye, I +know not how many intra-mercurial or extra-neptunian planets, and begin +to distinguish the planets of the nearer stars. There are in this +department, in the comparative anatomy and physiology of numerous solar +systems, the most novel and profound views. Our Leverriers are reckoned +by hundreds. Being all the better acquainted with the sky because they +no longer see it, they resemble Beethoven, who only wrote his finest +symphonies when he had lost his hearing. Our Claude Bernards and +Pasteurs are almost as numerous. Although we are careful as a matter of +fact not to accord to the natural sciences the exaggerated and +fundamentally anti-social importance they formerly usurped during two or +three centuries, we do not completely neglect them. Even the applied +sciences have their votaries. Recently one of the latter has at last +discovered—such is the irony of destiny—the practical means of +steering balloons. These discoveries are useless, I admit, yet are ever +beautiful and fertile, fertile in new, if superfluous, beauties. They +are welcomed with transports of feverish enthusiasm and win for their +originators something better than glory,—the happiness that we know so +well.</p> + +<p>But among the sciences there are two which are still experimental and +inductive and in addition pre-eminently useful. It is to this +exceptional standing that they perhaps owe, we must admit, the +unparalled rapidity with which they have grown. These two sciences which +were formerly the antipodes of one another, are to-day on the high road +to becoming identical by dint of pushing their joint researches ever +deeper and crushing to atoms the last problems left. Their names are +chemistry and psychology.</p> + +<p>Our chemists, inspired perhaps by love and better instructed in the +nature of affinities, force their way into the inner life of the +molecules and reveal to us their desires, their ideas, and under a +fallacious air of conformity, their individual physiognomy. While they +thus construct for us the psychology of the atom, our psychologists +explain to us the atomic theory of self, I was going to say the +sociology of self. They enable us to perceive, even in its most minute +detail, the most admirable of all societies, this hierarchy of +consciousness, this feudal system of vassal souls, of which our +personality is the summit. We are indebted to them both for priceless +benefits. Thanks to the former we are no longer alone in a frozen world. +We are conscious that these rocks are alive and animated, we are +conscious that these hard metals which protect and warm us are likewise +a prolific brotherhood. Through their mediation these living stones have +some message for our heart, something at once alien and intimate, which +neither the stars nor the flowers of the field ever told to our +forefathers. And by their mediation also, and the service is not to be +despised—we have learnt certain processes which allow us (in a scanty +measure, it is true, for the moment) to supplement the insufficiency of +our ordinary food supplies, or to vary their monotony by several +substances agreeable to the taste and entirely compounded by artificial +means. But if our chemists have thus reassured us against the danger of +dying of hunger, our psychologists have acquired still further claims on +our gratitude in freeing us from the fear of death. Permeated by their +doctrines we have followed their consequences to their final conclusion +with the deductive vigour that is second nature with us. Death appears +to us as a dethronement that leads to freedom. It restores to itself the +fallen or abdicated self that retires anew into its inner consciousness, +where it finds in depths more than the equivalent of the outward empire +it has lost. In thinking of the terrors of former man, face to face with +the tomb, we compare them with the dread experienced by the comrades of +Miltiades when they were compelled to bid adieu to the fields of ice, to +the snowy horizons, in order to enter for ever the gloomy abysses in +which such a myriad of glittering and marvellous surprises awaited them.</p> + +<p>That is a well-established doctrine and one on which no discussion would +be tolerated. It is, with our devotion to beauty and our faith in the +divine omnipotence of love, the foundation of our peace of mind and the +starting point of our enthusiasms. Our philosophers themselves avoid +touching on it, as on all which is fundamental in our institutions. To +this perhaps may be traced an agreeable air of harmlessness which adds +to the charm of their refinement and contributes to their success in +public. With such certainties as ballast we can spring with a light +heart into the æther of systems, and so we do not fail to do so. One may +be surprised, however, that I made a distinction between our +philosophers and those deductive <i>savants</i> of whom I have spoken above. +Their subject-matter and their methods are identical. They chew the +cud—if I may be allowed the expression—in the same fashion at the same +mangers. But the one group, I mean the <i>savants</i>, are ordinary +ruminants, that is, slow and clumsy. The others have the peculiar +quality of being at once ruminants and nimble, like the antelope. And +this difference of temperament is indelible.</p> + +<p>There is not, I have already said, a city, but there is a grotto of +philosophers, a natural one to which they come, and sit apart from one +another or in groups, according to their schools, on chairs formed of +granite blocks beside a petrifying well. This spacious grotto contains +astounding stalactites, the slow product of continuous droppings which +vaguely imitate, in the eyes of those who are not too critical, all +kinds of beautiful objects, cups and chandeliers, cathedrals and +mirrors—cups which quench no man's thirst, chandeliers which give no +light, cathedrals in which no one prays, but mirrors in which one sees +oneself more or less faithfully and pleasantly portrayed. There also is +to be seen a gloomy and bottomless lake over which hang like so many +question-marks, the pendants in the sombre roof and the beards of the +thinkers. Such is the ample cave which is exactly identical to the +philosophy it shelters, with its crystals sparkling amid its uncertain +shadows—full of precipices, it is true. It recalls better than anything +else to the new race of men, but with a still greater portion of +mirage-like fascination, that diurnal miracle of our forefathers—the +starry night. Now the crowd of systematic ideas which slowly form and +crystallise there in each brain like mental stalactites is indescribably +enormous. While all the former stalactites of thought are for ever +ramifying and changing their shape, turning as it were from a table into +an altar, or from an eagle into a griffin, new ideas appear here and +there still more surprising. There are always, of course, +Neo-Aristotelians, Neo-Kantians, Neo-Cartesians, and Neo-Pythagoricians. +Let us not forget the commentators of Empedocles to whom his passion for +the volcanic underworld has procured an unexpected rejuvenation of his +antique authority on the minds of men, above all since an archæologist +has maintained he has found the skeleton of this grand man in pushing an +exploring gallery to the very foot of Ætna which to-day is completely +extinct. But there is ever arising some great reformer with an +unpublished gospel that each attempts to enrich with a new version +destined to take its place. I will cite for example the greatest +intellect of our time, the chief of the fashionable school in sociology. +According to this profound thinker the social development of humanity, +starting on the outer rind of the earth and continuing to-day beneath +its crust, at no great distance from the surface, is destined in +proportion to the growing solar and planetary cooling, to pursue its +course from strata to strata down to the very centre of the earth, while +the population forcibly contracts and civilisation on the contrary +expands at each new descent. It is worth seeing the vigour and +Dante-like precision with which he characterises the social type +peculiar to each of these humanities, immured within its own circle, +growing ever nobler and richer, happier and better balanced. One should +read the portrait which he has limned with a bold brush of the last man, +sole survivor and heir of a hundred successive civilisations, left to +himself yet self-sufficient in the midst of his immense stores of +science and art. He is happy as a god because he is omniscient and +omnipotent, because he has just discovered the true answer of the Great +Enigma, yet dying because he cannot survive humanity. By means of an +explosive substance of extraordinary potency he blows up the globe with +himself in order to sow the immensity of space with the last remnants of +mankind. This system very naturally has a good many adherents. The +graceful Hypatias, however, who form his female followers, idly lying +round the master's stone, are agreed it would be proper to associate +with the last man, the last woman, not less ideal than he.</p> + +<p>But what shall I say of art and poetry? Here to be just, praise must +become panegyric. Let us limit ourselves to indicating the general +tendency of the transformations that have taken place. I have related +what has become of our architecture which has been turned "outside in", +so to say, and brought into keeping with its surroundings, the idealised +image in stone, the essence and consummation of former Nature. I shall +not return to the subject. But I must still say a word about this +immortal and overflowing population of statues, this wealth of frescoes, +enamels, and bronzes which in concert with our poetry celebrate in this +architectural transfiguration of the nether world the apotheosis of +love. There would be an interesting study to make on the gradual +metamorphoses that the genius of our painters and sculptors has imposed +for the last three centuries on these traditional types of lions, +horses, tigers, birds, trees and flowers, with which it is never weary +of disporting itself, without being either helped or hindered by the +sight of any animal or any plant. Never, in fact, have our artists, who +protest strongly against being taken for photographers, depicted so many +plants, animals and landscapes, than since these were no more. +Similarly, they have never painted or sculptured so many draperies, +since everyone goes about almost naked, while formerly at the time when +humanity wore clothes the nude abounded in art. Does it mean that +nature, now dead and formerly alive, from which our great masters drew +their subjects and themes, has become a simple hieroglyphic and coldly +conventional alphabet? No. Daughter to-day of tradition and no longer of +productive nature, humanised and harmonised, she has a still firmer hold +on the heart. If she recalls to each his day-dreams rather than his +recollections, his imaginings rather than his impressions, his +admiration as an artist rather than his terror as a child, she is only +the better calculated to fascinate and subdue. She has for us the +profound and intimate charm of an old legend, but it is a legend in +which one believes.</p> + +<p>Nothing is more inspiring. Such must have been the mythology of the +worthy Homer when his hearers in the Cyclades still believed in +Aphrodite and Pallas, in the Dioscuri and the Centaurs, of whom he spoke +to them and wrung from them tears of sheer delight. Thus our poets make +us weep, when they speak to us now of azure skies, of the sea-girt +horizon, of the perfume of roses, of the song of birds, of all those +objects that our eye has never seen, our ear has never heard, of which +all our senses are ignorant, yet our mind conjures them up within us by +a strange instinct at the least suggestion of love.</p> + +<p>And when our painters show us these horses whose legs grow ever slimmer, +these swans whose necks become ever rounder and longer, these vines +whose leaves and branches grow ever more intricate with their lace-like +edges and arabesques interwoven round still more exquisite birds, a +matchless emotion rises within us such as a young Greek might have felt +before a bas-relief crowded with fauns and nymphs or with Argonautes +bearing off the Golden Fleece, or with Nereids sporting around the cup +of Amphitrite.</p> + +<p>If our architecture in spite of all its splendours seems but a simple +foil of our other fine arts, they in their turn, however admirable, have +the air of being barely worthy to illustrate our poetry and literature +graven on stone. But in our poetry and even in our literature there are +glories which in comparison with less obvious beauty are as the corona +is to the ovary, or the frame to the picture. Read our romantic dramas +and epics in which all ancient history is magically unrolled down to the +heroic struggle and love story of Miltiades. You will decide that +nothing more sublime could ever be written. Read also our idylls, our +elegies, our epigrams inspired by antiquity, and our poetry of every +kind written in a dozen dead languages which when desired revive in +order to vivify with their clear notes and their manifold harmonies, the +pleasure of our ear, to accompany, so to say, with their rich +orchestration in English, German, Swedish, Arabic, Italian and French, +the music of our pure Attic. You will imagine nothing more fascinating +than this renaissance and transfiguration of forgotten idioms, once the +glory of antiquity. As for our dramas and our poems which are often at +once the collective and individual work of a school, incarnate in its +chief and animated with a single idea like the sculptures of the +Parthenon, there is nothing comparable in the masterpieces of Sophocles +or Homer. What the extinct species of nature formerly alive are to our +painters and sculptors, the no less extinct sentiments of former human +nature are to our dramatists. Jealousy, ambition, patriotism, +fanaticism, the mad lust of battle, the exalted love of family, the +pride of an illustrious name, all the vanished passions of the heart +when called up upon the stage, no longer cause tears or terror in a +single soul, any more than the heraldic tigers and lions painted up on +our public squares frighten our children. But in a new accent with quite +a different ring, they speak to us their ancient language; and to tell +the truth, they are only a grand piano on which our new passions play. +Now there is but a single passion for all its thousand names, as there +is above but a single sun. It is love, the soul of our soul and source +of our art. That is the true sun which will never fail us, which is +never weary of touching and reanimating with the light of its +countenance its lower creations of yore, the first-born incarnations of +the heart, in order to make them young once more, in order to re-gild +them with its dawns, and reincarnadine them with its setting splendours; +almost in the same fashion as it sufficed the other sun to compass with +a single ray that august summons to deck the earth, addressed to every +ancient plant of the field, awakening it to bloom anew, that grand +yearly transformation scene, so deceptive and entrancing, which they +named the Spring, when there was still a Spring to name!</p> + +<p>And so for our highly refined writers, all that I have just praised a +moment ago has no value if their heart is left untouched. They would +give for one true and personal note all these feats of skill and sleight +of hand. What they look for under the most grandiose conceptions and +stage effects, and under the most audacious novelties in rhyme; what +they adore on bended knee when they have found it, is a short passage, a +line, half a line, on which an imperceptible hint of profound passion, +or the most fleeting phase, though unexpressed, of love in joy, in +suffering or in death has left its impress. Thus at the beginning of +humanity each tint of the dawn or the dusk, each hour of the day was, +for the first man who gave it a name, a new solar god who soon possessed +worshippers, priests and temples of his own. But to analyse sensations +after the manner of the old-fashioned erotic writers gives us no +trouble. The real difficulty and merit lie in gathering along with our +mystics, from the lowest depths of sorrow, its flowers of ecstasy, the +pearls and coral that lie at the bottom of its sea, and to enrich the +soul in its own eyes. Our purest poetry thus joins hands with our most +profound psychology. One is the oracle, the other the dogma of one and +the same religion.</p> + +<p>And yet is it credible? In spite of its beauty, harmony and incomparable +charm, our society has also its malcontents. There are here and there +certain recusants who declare they are soaked and saturated with the +essence, so remarkably pure and so much above proof, of our excessive +and compulsory society. They find our realm of beauty too static, our +atmosphere of happiness too tranquil. In vain to please them we vary +from time to time the intensity and colouring of our illuminations and +ventilate our colonnades with a kind of refreshing breeze. They persist +in condemning as monotonous our day devoid of clouds or night; our year, +devoid of seasons; our towns devoid of country-life. Very curiously when +the month of May comes round, this feeling of restlessness which they +alone experience at ordinary times, becomes contagious and well-nigh +general. And so it is the most melancholy and least busy month of the +year. One would say that the Spring driven from every place, from the +gloomy immensity of the heavens and from the frozen surface of the earth +has, as we, sought refuge under ground; or rather that her wandering +ghost returns at stated seasons to visit us and tantalise us by her +haunting presence. It is then that the city of the musicians grows full +and their music becomes so sweet, pathetic, mournful, and desperately +harrowing that we see lovers by hundreds at a time take each other by +the hand and go up to gaze upon the death-dealing sky.... In reference +to this I ought to say that there was recently a false alarm caused by a +madman who pretended he had seen the sun coming back to life and melting +the ice. At this news which had not been otherwise confirmed, quite a +considerable portion of the population became unsettled and gave itself +up to the pleasing task of forming plans for an early exodus. Such +unhealthy and revolutionary dreams evidently only serve to foment +artificial discontent.</p> + +<p>Luckily a scholar in rummaging in a forgotten corner of the archives put +his hand on a big collection of phonographic and cinematographic records +which had been amassed by an ancient collector. Interpreted by the +phonograph and cinematograph together, these cylinders and films have +enabled us suddenly to hear all the former sounds in nature accompanied +by their corresponding sights, the thunder, the winds, the mountain +torrents, the murmurs that accompany the dawn, the monotonous cry of the +osprey and the long drawn out lament of the nightingale amid the +manifold whisperings of night. At this resurrection of another age to +the ear and eye, of extinct species and vanished phenomena, an immense +astonishment quickly followed by an immense disillusion arose among the +most ardent partisans of a return to the ancient regime. For that was +not what one had hitherto believed on the strength of what even the most +realist poets and novelists had told us. It was something infinitely +less ravishing and less worthy of our regret. The song of the +nightingale above all provoked a most unpleasant surprise. We were all +angry with it for showing itself so inferior to its reputation. +Assuredly the worst of our concerts is more musical than this so-called +symphony of nature with full orchestral accompaniment.</p> + +<p>Thus has been quelled by an ingenious expedient entirely unknown to +former governments, this first and only attempt at rebellion. May it be +the last. A certain leaven of discord is beginning, alas, to contaminate +our ranks, and our moralists observe not without apprehension sundry +symptoms which indicate the relaxation of our morals. The growth in our +population is very disquieting, notably since certain chemical +discoveries, following upon which we have been too much in a hurry to +declare that bread might be made of stones, and that it was no longer +worth while to husband our food supplies or to trouble ourselves to +maintain at a certain limit the number of mouths to feed.</p> + +<p>Simultaneously with the increase in the number of children, there is a +diminution in the number of masterpieces. Let us hope that this +lamentable movement will soon abate. If the sun once more, as after the +different glacial epochs, succeeds in awakening from his lethargy and +regains fresh strength, let us pray that only a small part of our +population, that which is the most light-headed, the most unruly, and +the most deeply attacked by incurable "matrimonialitis", will avail +itself of the seeming yet deceptive advantages offered by this open air +cure and will make a dash upwards for the freedom of those inclement +climes! But this is highly improbable if one reflects on the advanced +age of the sun and the danger of those relapses common to old age. It is +still less desirable. Let us repeat in the words of Miltiades our august +ancestor, blessed are those stars which are extinct, that is to say, the +almost entire number of those which people space. Radiance, as he truly +said, is to the stars what the flowering season is to the plants. After +having flowered, they begin to bear fruit. Thus, doubtless, weary of +expansion and the useless squandering of their strength through the +infinite void, the stars collect the germs of higher life in order to +fertilize them in the depth of their bosom. The deceptive brilliancy of +these widely scattered stars, so relatively few in number, which are +still alight, which have not finished sowing what Miltiades called their +wild oats of light and heat, prevented the first race of men from +thinking of this, to wit of the numberless and tranquil multitude of +dark stars to whom this radiance served as a cloak. But as for us, +delivered from their spell and freed from this immemorial optical +delusion, we continue firmly to believe that, among the stars as among +mankind, the most brilliant are not the best, and that the same causes +have brought about elsewhere the same results, compelling other races of +men to hide themselves in the bosom of their earth, and there in peace +to pursue the happy course of their destiny under unique conditions of +absolute independence and purity, that in short in the heavens as on the +earth true happiness lives concealed.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="NOTE_ON_TARDE" id="NOTE_ON_TARDE"></a>NOTE ON TARDE</h2> + + +<p>Gabriel Tarde was originally a member of the legal profession. For a +long time he was examining magistrate at Sarlat. His works on sociology +and criminology revealed him to the public. He was appointed head of the +Statistical bureau at the Ministry of Justice, a post in which he was +able to obtain first hand the most precious documents for his social +studies. Later he was elected to the chair of modern philosophy at the +College of France, then he was elected member of the Academy of moral +and political sciences in the philosophical section. He died in 1904.</p> + +<p>Tarde wrote a great deal. His flexibility of spirit and style add charm +to his work on technical subjects. In criminology his principal works +are: "The Philosophy of Punishment", "The Professional Criminal", +"Comparative Criminality" (1898);—then come the political works, such +as "The Transformation of Power" (1899). His "Transformation of Law" +dates from 1894. His study in social psychology entitled "Opinion and +the Masses" appeared in 1901. His most celebrated work is perhaps "The +Laws of Imitation" (1900) which was preceded by his "Social Logic" +(1898) and his "Universal Opposition" (1897).</p> + +<p>According to Tarde the social phenomena proceed from individual +inventions which in their turn are the offspring of imitation: the +latter is for Tarde a capital factor in social life. Original ideas or +inventions germinate ceaselessly in the social <i>milieu</i>, but only some, +either by their superior adaptability or through the peculiar authority +of their inventor, are accepted by the public as a whole. Sociology is +thus reduced to a Psychology of the <i>processus</i> of invention and +imitations. This explains why the great effort of Tarde has been to +discover the "Laws of Invention". Thereby he has given in sociology a +preponderating place to the individual, and the accidental, and has thus +separated himself from the most general tendencies of thought in our +times which are those of Comte.</p> + +<p>The style of Tarde is abstract but supple. This fragment of future +History forms a kind of exception to his general work which is very +abstract. Tarde reveals himself in it one of the masters of literary +French. The style is picturesque, intense, broad, even periodic, novel +in respect to the thought, and entirely classical in its purity.</p> + +<p>Joseph Manchon.</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Underground Man, by Gabriel Tarde + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNDERGROUND MAN *** + +***** This file should be named 33549-h.htm or 33549-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/5/4/33549/ + +Produced by Christine Bell and Marc D'Hooghe at +http://www.freeliterature.org + + +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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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: Underground Man + +Author: Gabriel Tarde + +Translator: Cloudesley Brereton + +Release Date: August 27, 2010 [EBook #33549] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNDERGROUND MAN *** + + + + +Produced by Christine Bell and Marc D'Hooghe at +http://www.freeliterature.org + + + + + +UNDERGROUND MAN + +By + +GABRIEL TARDE + +(1843-1904) + +MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE +PROFESSOR AT THE COLLEGE OF FRANCE + +TRANSLATED BY CLOUDESLEY BRERETON +M.A., L. ES L. + +WITH A PREFACE BY H.G. WELLS + +LONDON + +DUCKWORTH & CO. + + +1905 + + + +The whole of Tarde is in this little book. + +He has put into it along with a charming fancy his genialness and depth +of spirit, his ideas on the influence of art and the importance of love, +in an exceptional social milieu. + +This agreeable day-dream is vigorously thought out. On reading it we +fancy we are again seeing and hearing Tarde. In order to indulge in a +repetition of the illusion, a pious friendship has desired to clothe +this fascinating work in an appropriate dress. + + A.L. + + + +CONTENTS + + +DEDICATION +PREFACE By H.G. WELLS +INTRODUCTORY +I. PROSPERITY +II. THE CATASTROPHE +III. THE STRUGGLE +IV. SAVED +V. REGENERATION +VI. LOVE +VII. THE AESTHETIC LIFE +NOTE ON TARDE By JOSEPH MANCHON + + + +PREFACE + + +It reflects not at all on Mr Cloudesley Brereton's admirable work of +translation to remark how subtly the spirit of such work as this of M. +Tarde's changes in such a process. There are certain things peculiar, I +suppose, to every language in the world, certain distinctive +possibilities in each. To French far more than to English, belong the +intellectual liveliness, the cheerful, ironical note, the professorial +playfulness of this present work. English is a less nimble, more various +and moodier tongue, not only in the sound and form of its sentences but +in its forms of thought. It clots and coagulates, it proliferates and +darkens, one jests in it with difficulty and great danger to a sober +reputation, and one attempts in vain to figure Professor Giddings and Mr +Benjamin Kidd, Doctor Beattie Crozier and Mr Wordsworth Donisthorpe +glittering out into any so cheerful an exploit as this before us. Like +Mr Gilbert's elderly naval man, they "never larks nor plays", and if +indeed they did so far triumph over the turgid intricacies of our speech +and the conscientious gravity of our style of thought, there would still +be the English public to consider, a public easily offended by any lack +of straightforwardness in its humorists, preferring to be amused by +known and recognised specialists in that line, in relation to themes of +recognised humorous tendency, and requiring in its professors as the +concomitant of a certain dignified inaccessibility of thought and +language, an honourable abstinence from the treacheries, as it would +consider them, of irony and satire. Imagine a Story of the Future from +Mr Herbert Spencer! America and the north of England would have swept +him out of all respect.... But M. Tarde being not only a Member of the +Institute and Professor at the College of France, but a Frenchman, was +free to give these fancies that entertained him, public, literary, and +witty expression, without self-destruction, and produce what has, in its +English dress, a curiously unfamiliar effect. Yet the English reader who +can overcome his natural disinclination to this union of intelligence +and jesting will find a vast amount of suggestion in M. Tarde's +fantastic abundance, and bringing his habitual gravity to bear may even +succeed in digesting off the humour altogether, and emerging with +edification of--it must be admitted--a rather miscellaneous sort. + +It is perhaps remarkable that for so many people, so tremendous a theme +as the material future of mankind should only be approachable either +through a method of conscientiously technical, pseudo-scientific +discussion that is in effect scarcely an approach at all or else in this +mood of levity. I know of no book in this direction that can claim to be +a permanent success which combines a tolerable intelligibility with a +simple good faith in the reader. One may speculate how this comes about? +The subject it would seem is so grave and great as to be incompatibly +out of proportion to the affairs and conditions of the individual life +about which our workaday thinking goes on. We are interested indeed, but +at the same time we feel it is outside us and beyond us. To turn one's +attention to it is at once to get an effect of presumption, strain, and +extravagant absurdity. It is like picking up a spade to attack a +mountain, and one's instinct is to put oneself right in the eyes of +one's fellow-men at once, by a few unmistakably facetious flourishes. It +is the same instinct really as that protective "foolery" in which +schoolboys indulge when they embark upon some hopeless undertaking, or +find themselves entirely outclassed at a game. + +The same instinct one finds in the facetious "parley vous Francey" of a +low class Englishman who would in secret like very much to speak French, +but in practice only admits such an idea as a laughable absurdity. To +give a concrete form to your sociological speculations is to strip them +of all their poor pretensions, and leave them shivering in palpable +inadequacy. It is not because the question is unimportant, but because +it is so overwhelmingly important that this jesting about the Future, +this fantastic and "ironical" fiction goes on. It is the only medium to +express the vague, ill-formed, new ideas with which we are all +labouring. It does not give any measure of our real sense of the +proportion of things that the Future should appear in our literature as +a sort of comic rally and harlequinade after the serious drama of the +Present--in which the heroes and heroines of the latter turn up again in +novel and undignified positions; but it seems to be the only method at +present available by which we may talk about our race's material Destiny +at all. + +M. Tarde, in this special case before us, pursues a course of elusive +ironies; sometimes he jests at contemporary ideas by imagining them in +burlesque realisation, sometimes he jests at contemporary facts by +transposing them into strange surroundings, sometimes he broaches +fancies of his own chiefly for their own sake, yet with the well-managed +literary equivalent of the palliating laugh of conversational +diffidence. It is interesting to remark upon the clearness, the French +reasonableness and order of his conceptions throughout. He thinks, as +the French seem always to think, in terms of a humanity at once more +lucid and more limited than the mankind with which we English have to +deal. There are no lapses, no fogs and mysteries, no total inadequacies, +no brutalities and left-handedness--and no dark gleams of the divinity, +about these amused bright people of five hundred years ahead, who are +overtaken by the great solar catastrophe. They have established a world +state and eliminated the ugly and feeble. You imagine the gentlemen in +that Utopia moving gracefully--with beautifully trimmed nails and +beards--about the most elegant and ravishing of ladies, their charm +greatly enhanced by the _pince-nez_, that is in universal wear. They all +speak not Esperanto--but Greek, which strikes one as a little out of the +picture--and all being more or less wealthy and pretty women and +handsome men, "as common as blackberries" and as available, "human +desire rushed with all its might towards the only field that remained +open to it",--politics. From that it was presently turned back again by +a certain philosophical financier, who, most delightfully, secured his +work for ever, as the reader may learn in detail, by erecting a statue +of Louis Philippe in wrought aluminium against any return of the +flood--and then what remained? The most brilliant efflorescence of +poetry and art! + +One does not quite know how far M. Tarde is in this first part of his +story jesting at his common countrymen's precisions and finalities and +unenterprising, exact arrangements, and how far he is sharing them. +Throughout he seems to assume that men can really make finished plans, +and carry them out, and settle things for ever, and so assure us this +state of elegant promenading among the arts, whereas the whole charm and +interest of making plans and carrying out, lies to the more typical kind +of Englishman, in his ineradicable, his innate, instinctive conviction, +that he will, try as he may, never carry them out at all, but something +else adventurously and happily unexpected and different. M. Tarde gives +his world the unexpected, but it comes, not insidiously as a unique +difference in every individual and item concerned, but from without. +Just as Humanity, handsome and charming, has grouped itself pleasantly, +rationally, and in the best of taste for ever in its studios, in its +_salons_, at its little green tables, at its _tables d'hote_, in its +_cabinets particuliers_--the sun goes out! + +In the idea of that solar extinction there are extraordinary imaginative +possibilities, and M. Tarde must have exercised considerable restraint +to prevent their running away with him and so jarring with the ironical +lightness of his earlier passages. The conception of the sun seized in a +mysterious, chill grip and flickering from hue to hue in the skies of a +darkened, amazed and terrified world, could be presented in images of +stupendous majesty and splendour. There arise visions of darkened cities +and indistinct, multitudinous, fleeing crowds, of wide country-sides of +chill dismay, of beasts silent with the fear of this last eclipse, and +bats and night-birds abroad amidst the lost daylight creatures and +fluttering perplexed on noiseless wings. Then the abrupt sight of the +countless stars made visible by this great abdication, the thickening of +the sky to stormy masses of cloud so that these are hidden again, the +soughing of a world-wide wind, and then first little flakes and then the +drift and driving of the multiplying snow into the dim illumination of +lamps, of windows, of street lights lit untimely. Then again, the shiver +of the cold, the clutching of hands at coats and wraps, the blind +hurrying to shelter and the comfort of a fire--the blaze of fires. One +sees the red-lit faces about the fires, sees the furtive glances at the +wind-tormented windows, hears the furious knocking of those other +strangers barred out, for, "we cannot have everyone in here". The +darkness deepens, the cries without die away, and nothing is left but +the shift and falling of the incessant snow from roof to ground. Every +now and then the disjointed talk would cease altogether, and in the +stillness one would hear the faint yet insistent creeping sound of the +snowfall. "There is a little food downstairs," one would say. "The +servants must not eat it.... We had better lock it upstairs. We may be +here--for days." Grim stuff, indeed, one might make of it all, if one +dealt with it in realistic fashion, and great and increasing toil one +would find to carry on the tale. M. Tarde was well advised to let his +hand pass lightly over this episode, to give us a simply pyrotechnic +effect of red, yellow, green and pale blue, to let his people flee and +die like marionettes beneath the paper snows of a shop window dressed +for Christmas, and to emerge after the change with his urbanity +unimpaired. His apt jest at the endurance of artists' models, his easy +allusion to the hardening effects of fashionable decolletage, is the +measure of his dexterous success; his mention of hotel furniture on the +terminal moraines of the returning Alpine glaciers, just a happy touch +of that flavouring of reality which in abundance would have altogether +overwhelmed his purpose. + +Directly one thinks at all seriously of such a thing as this solar +extinction, one perceives how preposterously hopeless it is to imagine +that mankind would make any head against so swift and absolute a fate. +Our race would behave just as any single man behaves when death takes +him suddenly through some cardiac failure. It would feel very queer, it +would want to sit down and alleviate its strange discomfort, it would +say something stupid or inarticulate, make an odd gesture or so, and +flicker out. But it is compatible with the fantastic and ironical style +for M. Tarde to mock our conceit in our race's capacity and pretend men +did all sorts of organized and wholesale things quite beyond their +capabilities. People flee in "hordes" to Arabia Petraea and the Sahara, +and there perform prodigies of resistance. There arises the heroic +leader and preserver, Miltiades, who preaches Neo-troglodytism and loves +the peerless Lydia, and leads the remnant of humanity underground. So M. +Tarde arrives at the idea he is most concerned in developing, the idea +of an introverted world, and people following the dwindling heat of the +interior, generation after generation, through gallery and tunnel to the +core. About that conception he weaves the finest and richest and most +suggestive of his fantastic filaments. + +Perhaps the best sustained thread in this admirably entertaining tissue +is the entire satisfaction of the imaginary historian at the new +conditions of life. The earth is made into an interminable honeycomb, +all other forms of life than man are eliminated, and our race has +developed into a community sustained at a high level of happiness and +satisfaction by a constant resort to "social tonics". Half mockingly, +half approvingly, M. Tarde here indicates a new conception of human +intercourse and criticises with a richly suggestive detachment, the +social relationships of to-day. He moves indicatively and lightly over +deeps of human possibility; it is in these later passages that our +author is essentially found. One may regret he did not further expand +his happy opportunity of treating all the social types to-day as ice +embedded fossils, his comments on the peasant and artisan are so fine as +to provoke the appetite. He rejects the proposition that "society +consists in an exchange of services" with the confidence of a man who +has thought it finely out. He gives out clearly what so many of us are +beginning dimly perhaps to apprehend, that "society consists in the +exchange of reflections". The passages subsequent to this pronouncement +will be the seed of many interesting developments in any mind +sufficiently attuned to his. They constitute the body, the serious +reality to which all the rest of this little book is so much dress, +adornment and concealment. Very many of us, I believe, are dreaming of +the possibility of human groupings based on interest and a common +creative impulse rather than on justice and a trade in help and +services; and I do not scruple therefore to put my heavy underline and +marginal note to M. Tarde's most intimate moment. A page or so further +on he is back below his ironical mask again, jesting at the "tribe of +sociologists"--the most unsociable of mankind. Thereafter jest, +picturesque suggestion, fantasy, philosophical whim, alternate in a +continuously delightful fashion to the end--but always with the gleam of +a definite intention coming and going within sight of the surface--and +one ends at last a half convinced Neo-troglodyte, invaded by a passion +of intellectual regret for the varied interests of that inaccessible +world and its irradiating love. The description of the development of +science, and particularly of troglodytic astronomy, robbed of its +material, is a delightful freak of intellectual fantasy, and the +philosophical dream of the slow concentration of human life into the +final form of a single culminating omniscient, and therefore a +completely retrospective and anticipatory being, a being that is, that +has cast aside the time garment, is one of these suggestions that have +at once something penetratingly plausible, and a sort of colossal and +absurd monstrosity. If I may be forgiven a personal intrusion at this +point, there is a singular parallelism between this foreshadowed Last +Man of M. Tarde's stalactitic philosopher, and a certain _Grand Lunar_ I +once wrote about in a book called "The First Men in the Moon". And I +remember coming upon the same idea in a book by Merejkowski, the title +of which I am now totally unable to recall.... But I will not write +further on this curiously attractive and deep seated suggestion. My +proper business here is, I think, chiefly to direct the reader past the +lightness and cheerful superficiality of the opening portions of this +book, and its--at the first blush, rather disappointing but critically +justifiable, treatment of the actual catastrophe, to these obscure but +curiously stimulating and interesting caves, and tunnels, and galleries +in which the elusive real thought of M. Tarde lurks--for those who care +to follow it up and seize it and understand. + +H.G. WELLS. + + + + +INTRODUCTORY + + +It was towards the end of the twentieth century of the prehistoric era, +formerly called the Christian, that took place, as is well known, the +unexpected catastrophe with which the present epoch began, that +fortunate disaster which compelled the overflowing flood of civilisation +to disappear for the benefit of mankind. I have briefly to relate this +universal cataclysm and the unhoped-for redemption so rapidly effected +within a few centuries of heroic and triumphant efforts. Of course, I +shall pass over in silence the particular details which are known to +everybody, and shall merely confine myself to the general outlines of +the story. But first of all it may be as well to recall in a few words +the degree of relative progress already attained by mankind, while still +living above ground and on the surface of the earth, on the eve of this +momentous event. + + + +I + +PROSPERITY + + +The zenith of human prosperity seemed to have been reached in the +superficial and frivolous sense of the word. For the last fifty years, +the final establishment of the great Asiatic-American-European +confederacy, and its indisputable supremacy over what was still left, +here and there, in Oceania and central Africa of barbarous tribes +incapable of assimilation, had habituated all the nations, now converted +into provinces, to the delights of universal and henceforth inviolable +peace. It had required not less than 150 years of warfare to arrive at +this wonderful result. But all these horrors were forgotten. True, there +had been many terrific battles between armies of three and four million +men, between trains with armour-clad carriages, flung, at full speed, +against one another, and opening fire on every side; engagements between +squadrons of sub-marines which blew one another up with electric +discharges; between fleets of iron-clad balloons, harpooned and ripped +up by aerial torpedoes, hurled headlong from the clouds, with thousands +of parachutes which violently opened and enveloped each other in a storm +of grape-shot as they fell together to earth. Yet of all this warlike +mania there only remained a vague poetic remembrance. Forgetfulness is +the beginning of happiness, as fear is the beginning of wisdom. + +As a solitary exception to the general rule, the nations, after this +gigantic blood-letting, did not experience the lethargy that follows +from exhaustion, but the calm that the accession of strength produces. +The explanation is easy. For about a hundred years the military +selection committees had broken with the blind routine of the past and +made it a practice to pick out carefully the strongest and best made +among the young men, in order to exempt them from the burden of military +service which had become purely mechanical, and to send to the depot all +the weaklings who were good enough to fulfil the sorely diminished +functions of the soldier and even of the non-commissioned officer. That +was really a piece of intelligent selection; and the historian cannot +conscientiously refuse gratefully to praise this innovation, thanks to +which the incomparable beauty of the human race to-day has been +gradually developed. In fact, when we now look through the glass cases +of our museums of antiquities at those singular collections of +caricatures which our ancestors used to call their photographic albums, +we can confirm the vastness of the progress thus accomplished, if it is +really true that we are actually descended from these dwarfs and +scare-crows, as an otherwise trustworthy tradition attests. + +From this epoch dates the discovery of the last microbes, which had not +yet been analysed by the neo-Pasteurian school. Once the cause of every +disease was known, the remedy was not long in becoming known as well, +and from that moment, a consumptive or rheumatic patient, or an invalid +of any kind became as rare a phenomenon as a double-headed monster +formerly was, or an honest publican. Ever since that epoch we have +dropped the ridiculous employment of those inquiries about health with +which the conversations of our ancestors were needlessly interlarded, +such as "How are you?" or "How do you do?" Short-sightedness alone +continued its lamentable progress, being stimulated by the extraordinary +spread of journalism. There was not a woman or a child, who did not wear +a _pince-nez_. This drawback, which besides was only momentary, was +largely compensated for by the progress it caused in the optician's art. + +Alongside of the political unity which did away with the enmities of +nations, there appeared a linguistic unity which rapidly blotted out the +last differences between them. Already since the twentieth century the +need of a single common language, similar to Latin in the Middle Ages, +had become sufficiently intense among the learned throughout the whole +world to induce them to make use of an international idiom in all their +writings. At the end of a long struggle for supremacy with English and +Spanish, Greek finally established its claims, after the break-up of the +British Empire and the recapture of Constantinople by the Graeco-Russian +Empire. Gradually, or rather with the rapidity characteristic of all +modern progress, its usage descended from strata to strata till it +reached the lowest layers of society, and from the middle of the +twenty-second century there was not a little child between the Loire and +the River Amour who could not express itself with ease in the language +of Demosthenes. Here and there a few isolated villages in the hollows of +the mountains still persisted, in spite of the protests of their +schoolmasters, to mangle the old dialect formerly called French, German, +or Italian, but the sound of this gibberish in the towns would have +raised a hearty laugh. + +All contemporary documents agree in bearing witness to the rapidity, the +depth, and the universality of the change which took place in the +customs, ideas, and needs, and in all the forms of social life, thus +reduced to a common level from one pole to the other, as a result of +this unification of language. It seemed as if the course of civilisation +had been hitherto confined within high banks and that now, when for the +first time all the banks had burst, it readily spread over the whole +globe. It was no longer millions but thousands of millions that the +least newly discovered improvement in industry brought in to its +inventor; for henceforth there was no barrier to stop in its star-like +radiation the expansion of any idea, no matter where it originated. For +the same reason it was no longer by hundreds but by thousands, that were +reckoned the editions of any book, which appealed but moderately to the +public taste, or the performance of a play which was ever so little +applauded. The rivalry between authors had therefore risen to its +fullest diapason. Their fancy, moreover, could find full scope, for the +first effect of this deluge of universalised neo-Hellenism had been to +overwhelm for ever all the pretended literatures of our rude ancestors. +They became unintelligible, even to the very titles of what they were +pleased to call their classical masterpieces, even to the barbarous +names of Shakespeare, Goethe, and Hugo, who are now forgotten, and whose +rugged verses are deciphered with such difficulty by our scholars. To +plagiarise these folks whom hardly anyone could henceforth read, was to +render them service, nay, to pay them too much honour. One did not fail +to do so; and prodigious was the success of these audacious imitations +which were offered as original works. The material thus to turn to +account was abundant, and indeed inexhaustible. + +Unfortunately for the young writers the ancient poets who had been dead +for centuries, Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, had returned to life, a +hundred times more hale and hearty than at the time of Pericles himself; +and this unexpected competition proved a singular thorn in the side of +the new-comers. It was in fact in vain that original geniuses produced +on the stage such sensational novelties as _Athalias, Hernanias, +Macbethes_; the public often turned its back on them to rush off to +performances of _Oedipus Rex_ or the _Birds_ (of Aristophanes). And +_Nanais_, though a vigorous sketch of a novelist of the new school, was +a complete failure owing to the frenzied success of a popular edition of +the Odyssey. The ears of the people were saturated with Alexandrines +classical, romantic, and the rest. They were bored by the childish +tricks of caesura and rhyme which sometimes attempted a see-saw effect by +producing now a poor and now a full rhyme, or again made a pretence of +hiding away and keeping out of sight in order to induce the hearer to +hunt it out. The splendid, untrammelled, and exuberant hexameters of +Homer, the stanzas of Sappho, the iambics of Sophocles, furnished them +with unspeakable pleasure, which did the greatest harm to the music of a +certain Wagner. Music in general fell to the secondary position to which +it really belongs in the hierarchy of the fine arts. To make up for it, +in the midst of this scholarly renaissance of the human spirit, there +arose an occasion for an unexpected literary outburst which allowed +poetry to regain its legitimate rank, that is to say, the foremost. In +fact it never fails to flower again when language takes a new lease of +life, and all the more so when the latter undergoes a complete +metamorphosis, and the pleasure arises of expressing anew the eternal +truisms. + +It was not merely a simple means of diversion for the cultured. The +masses took their share in it with enthusiasm. Certainly they now had +leisure to read and appreciate the masterpieces of art. The transmission +of force at a distance by electricity, and its enlistment under a +thousand forms, for instance, in that of cylinders of compressed air, +which could be easily carried from place to place, had reduced manual +labour to a mere nothing. The waterfalls, the winds and the tides had +become the slaves of man, as steam had once been in the remote ages and +in an infinitely less degree. Intelligently distributed and turned to +account by means of improved machines, as simple as they were ingenious, +this enormous energy freely furnished by nature had long rendered +superfluous every kind of domestic servant and the greater number of +artisans. The voluntary workmen, who still existed, spent barely three +hours a day in the international factories, magnificent co-operative +workshops, in which the productivity of human energy, multiplied +tenfold, and even a hundredfold, surpassed the expectations of their +founders. + +This does not mean that the social problem had been thereby solved. In +default of want, it is true, there were no longer any quarrels; wealth +or a competence had become the lot of every man, with the result that +hardly anyone henceforth set any store by them. In default of ugliness, +also, love was scarcely an object of either appreciation or jealousy, +owing to the abundance of pretty women and handsome men who were as +common as blackberries and not difficult to please, in appearance at +least. Thus expelled from its two former principal paths, human desire +rushed with all its might towards the only field which remained open to +it, the conquest of political power, which grew vaster every day owing +to the progress of socialistic centralisation. Overflowing ambition, +swollen all at once with all the evil passions pouring into it alone, +with the covetousness, lust, envious hunger, and hungry envy of +preceding ages, reached at that time an appalling height. It was a +struggle as to who should make himself master of that _summum bonum_, +the State; as to who should make the omnipotence and omniscience of the +Universal State minister to the realisation of his personal programme or +his humanitarian dreams. The result was not, as had been prophesied, a +vast democratic republic. Such an immense outburst of pride could not +fail to set up a new throne, the highest, the mightiest, the most +glorious that has ever been. Besides, inasmuch as the population of the +Single State was reckoned by thousands of millions, universal suffrage +had become impracticable and illusory. To obviate the greater +inconvenience of deliberative assemblies, ten or a hundred times too +numerous, it had been found necessary so to increase the electoral +districts that each deputy represented at least ten million electors. +That is not surprising if one reflects that it was the first time that +the very simple idea had won acceptance of extending to women and +children the right of voting exercised in their name, naturally enough, +by their father or by their lawful or natural husband. Incidentally one +may note that this salutary and necessary reform, as much in accordance +with common sense as with logic, required alike by the principle of +national sovereignty and by the needs of social stability, nearly failed +to pass, incredible as it may seem, in the face of a coalition of +celibate electors. + +Tradition informs us that the bill relating to this indispensable +extension of the franchise would have been infallibly rejected, if, +luckily, the recent election of a multi-millionaire suspected of +imperialistic tendencies had not scared the assembly. It fancied it +would injure the popularity of this ambitious pretender by hastening to +welcome this proposal in which it only saw one thing, that is, that the +fathers and husbands, outraged or alarmed by the gallantries of the new +Caesar, would be all the stronger for impeding his triumphant march. But +this expectation was, it appears, unrealised. + +Whatever may be the truth of this legend, it is certain that, owing to +the enlargement of the electoral districts, combined with the +suppression of the electoral privileges, the election of a deputy was a +veritable coronation, and ordinarily produced in the elect a species of +megalomania. This reconstituted feudalism was bound to end in a +reconstitution of monarchy. For a moment the learned wore this cosmic +crown, following the prophecy of an ancient philosopher, but they did +not keep it. The popularisation of knowledge through innumerable schools +had made science as common an object as a charming woman or an elegant +suite of furniture. It had been extraordinarily simplified by the +thorough way in which it had been worked out, complete as regards its +general outlines, in which no change could be expected, and its +henceforth rigid classification abundantly garnished with data. Only +advancing at an imperceptible pace, it held, in short, but an +insignificant place in the background of the brain, in which it simply +replaced the catechism of former days. The bulk of intellectual energy +was therefore to be found in another direction, as were also its glory +and prestige. Already the scientific bodies, venerable in their +antiquity, began, alas! to acquire a slight tinge and veneer of +ridicule, which raised a smile and recalled the synods of bonzes or +ecclesiastical conferences, such as are represented in very ancient +pictures. It is, therefore, not surprising that this first dynasty of +imperial physicists and geometricians, genial copies of the Antonines, +were promptly succeeded by a dynasty of artists who had deserted art to +wield the sceptre, as they lately had wielded the bow, the roughing +chisel, and the brush. The most famous of all, a man possessed of an +overflowing imagination which was yet well under control, and ministered +to by an unparalleled energy, was an architect who among other gigantic +projects formed the idea of rasing to the ground his capital, +Constantinople, in order to rebuild it elsewhere, on the site of ancient +Babylon, which for three thousand years had been a desert--a truly +luminous idea. In this incomparable plain of Chaldea watered by a second +Nile there was another still more beautiful and fertile Egypt awaiting +resurrection and metamorphosis, an infinite expanse extending as far as +the eye could see, to be covered with striking public buildings +constructed with magical speed, with a teeming and throbbing population, +with golden harvests beneath a sky of changeless blue, with an iron +net-work of railways radiating from the town of Nebuchadnesor to the +furthest ends of Europe, Africa and Asia, and crossing the Himalayas, +the Caucasus, and the Sahara. The stored energy, electrically conveyed, +of a hundred Abyssinian waterfalls, and of, I do not know, how many +cyclones, hardly sufficed to transport from the mountains of Armenia the +necessary stone, wood and iron for these numerous constructions. One day +an excursion train, composed of a thousand and one carriages, having +passed too close to the electric cable at the moment when the current +was at its maximum, was destroyed and reduced to ashes in the twinkling +of an eye. None the less Babylon, the proud city of muddy clay, with its +paltry splendours of unbaked and painted brick, found itself rebuilt in +marble and granite, to the utmost confusion of the Nabopolassars, the +Belshazzars, the Cyruses, and the Alexanders. It is needless to add that +the archaeologists made on this occasion the most priceless discoveries, +in the several successive strata, of Babylonian and Assyrian +antiquities. The mania for Assyriology went so far that every sculptor's +studio, the palaces, and even the King's armorial bearings were invaded +by winged bulls with human heads, just as formerly the museums were full +of cupids or cherubims, "with their cravat-like wings". Certain school +books for primary schools were actually printed in cuneiform characters +in order to enhance their authority over the youthful imagination. + +This imperial orgy in bricks and mortar having unhappily occasioned the +seventh, eighth, and ninth bankruptcy of the State and several +consecutive inundations of paper-money, the people in general rejoiced +to see after this brilliant reign the crown borne by a philosophical +financier. Order had hardly been re-established in the finances, when he +made his preparation for applying on a grand scale his ideal of +government, which was of a highly remarkable nature. One was not long in +noticing, in fact, after his accession, that all the newly chosen ladies +of honour, who were otherwise very intelligent but entirely lacking in +wit, were chiefly conspicuous for their striking ugliness; that the +liveries of the court were of a grey and lifeless colour; that the court +balls reproduced by instantaneous cinematography to the tune of millions +of copies furnished a collection of the most honest and insignificant +faces and unappetising forms that one could possibly see; that the +candidates recently appointed, after a preliminary despatch of their +portraits, to the highest dignities of the Empire, were pre-eminently +distinguished by the commonness of their bearing; in short, that the +races and the public holidays (the date of which were notified in +advance by secret telegrams announcing the arrival of a cyclone from +America), happened nine times out of ten to take place on a day of thick +fog, or of pelting rain, which transformed them into an immense array of +waterproofs and umbrellas. Alike in his legislative proposals, as in his +appointments, the choice of the prince was always the following: the +most useful and the best among the most unattractive. An insufferable +sameness of colour, a depressing monotony, a sickening insipidity were +the distinctive note of all the acts of the government. People laughed, +grew excited, waxed indignant, and got used to it. The result was that +at the end of a certain time it was impossible to meet an office-seeker +or a politician, that is to say, an artist or literary man, out of his +element and in search of the beautiful in an alien sphere, who did not +turn his back on the pursuit of a government appointment in order to +return to rhyming, sculpture and painting. And from that moment the +following aphorism has won general acceptance, that the superiority of +the politician is only mediocrity raised to its highest power. + +This is the great benefit that we owe to this eminent monarch. The lofty +purpose of his reign has been revealed by the posthumous publication of +his memoirs. Of these writings with which we can so ill dispense, we +have only left this fragment which is well calculated to make us regret +the loss of the remainder: "Who is the true founder of Sociology? +Auguste Comte? No, Menenius Agrippa. This great man understood that +government is the stomach, not the head of the social organism. Now, the +merit of a stomach is to be good and ugly, useful and repulsive to the +eye, for if this indispensable organ were agreeable to look upon, it +would be much to be feared that people would meddle with it and nature +would not have taken such care to conceal and defend it. What sensible +person prides himself on having a beautiful digestive apparatus, a +lovely liver or elegant lungs? Such a pretension would, however, not be +more ridiculous than the foible of cutting a great dash in politics. +What wants cultivating is the substantial and the commonplace. My poor +predecessors." ... Here follows a blank; a little further on, we read: +"The best government is that which holds to being so perfectly humdrum, +regular, neuter, and even emasculated, that no one can henceforth get up +any enthusiasm either for or against it." + +Such was the last successor of Semiramis. On the re-discovered site of +the Hanging-gardens he caused to be erected, at the expense of the +State, a statue of Louis Philippe in wrought aluminium, in the middle of +a public garden planted with common laurels and cauliflowers. + +The Universe breathed again. It yawned a little no doubt, but it +revelled for the first time in the fulness of peace, in the almost +gratuitous abundance of every kind of wealth. It burst into the most +brilliant efflorescence, or rather display of poetry and art, but +especially of luxury, that the world had as yet seen. It was just at +that moment an extraordinary alarm of a novel kind, justly provoked by +the astronomical observations made on the tower of Babel, which had been +rebuilt as an Eiffel Tower on an enlarged scale, began to spread among +the terrified populations. + + + + +II + +THE CATASTROPHE + + +On several occasions already the sun had given evident signs of +weakness. From year to year his spots increased in size and number, and +his heat sensibly diminished. People were lost in conjecture. Was his +fuel giving out? Had he just traversed in his journey through space an +exceptionally cold region? No one knew. Whatever the reason was, the +public concerned itself little about the matter, as in all that is +gradual and not sudden. The "solar anaemia," which moreover restored some +degree of animation to neglected astronomy, had merely become the +subject of several rather smart articles in the reviews. In general, the +_savants_, in their well-warmed studies, affected to disbelieve in the +fall of temperature, and, in spite of the formal indications of the +thermometer, they did not cease to repeat that the dogma of slow +evolution, and of the conservation of energy combined with the classical +nebular hypothesis, forbade the admission of a sufficiently rapid +cooling of the solar mass to make itself felt during the short duration +of a century, much more so during that of five years or a year. A few +unorthodox persons of heretical and pessimistic temperament remarked, it +is true, that at different epochs, if one believed the astronomers of +the remote past, certain stars had gradually burnt out in the heavens, +or had passed from the most dazzling brilliance to an almost complete +obscurity, during the course of barely a single year. They therefore +concluded that the case of our sun had nothing exceptional about it; +that the theory of slow-footed evolution was not perhaps universally +applicable; and that, sometimes, as an old visionary mystic called +Cuvier had ventured to put forward in legendary times, veritable +revolutions took place in the heavens as well as on earth. But orthodox +science combated with indignation these audacious theories. + +However, the winter of 2489 was so disastrous, it was actually necessary +to take the threatening predictions of the alarmists seriously. One +reached the point of fearing at any moment a "solar apoplexy." That was +the title of a sensational pamphlet which went through twenty thousand +editions. The return of the spring was anxiously awaited. + +The spring returned at last, and the starry monarch reappeared, but his +golden crown was gone, and he himself well-nigh unrecognisable. He was +entirely red. The meadows were no longer green, the sky was no longer +blue, the Chinese were no longer yellow, all had suddenly changed colour +as in a transformation scene. Then, by degrees, from the red that he was +he became orange. He might then have been compared to a golden apple in +the sky, and so during several years he was seen to pass, and all nature +with him, through a thousand magnificent or terrible tints--from orange +to yellow, from yellow to green, and from green at length to indigo and +pale blue. The meteorologists then recalled the fact, in the year 1883, +on the second of September, the sun had appeared in Venezuela the whole +day long as blue as the moon. So many colours, so many new decorations +of the chameleon-like universe which dazzled the terrified eye, which +revived and restored to its primitive sharpness the rejuvenated +sensation of the beauties of nature, and strongly stirred the depths of +men's souls by renewing the former aspect of things. + +At the same time disaster succeeded disaster. The entire population of +Norway, Northern Russia, and Siberia perished, frozen to death in a +single night; the temperate zone was decimated, and what was left of its +inhabitants fled before the enormous drifts of snow and ice, and +emigrated by hundreds of millions towards the tropics, crowding into the +panting trains, several of which, overtaken by tornadoes of snow, +disappeared for ever. + +The telegraph successively informed the capital, now that there was no +longer any news of immense trains caught in the tunnels under the +Pyrenees, the Alps, the Caucasus, or Himalayas, in which they were +imprisoned by enormous avalanches, which blocked simultaneously the two +issues; now that some of the largest rivers of the world--the Rhine, for +instance, and the Danube--had ceased to flow, completely frozen to the +bottom, from which resulted a drought, followed by an indescribable +famine, which obliged thousands of mothers to devour their own children. +From time to time a country or continent broke off suddenly its +communication with the central agency, the reason being that an entire +telegraphic section was buried under the snow, from which at intervals +emerged the uneven tops of their posts, with their little cups of +porcelain. Of this immense network of electricity which enveloped in its +close meshes the entire globe, as of that prodigious coat of mail with +which the complicated system of railways clothed the earth, there was +only left some scattered fragments, like the remnant of the Grand Army +of Napoleon during the retreat from Russia. + +Meanwhile, the glaciers of the Alps, the Andes, and of all the mountains +of the world hitherto vanquished by the sun, which for several thousand +centuries had been thrust back into their last entrenchments, resumed +their triumphant march. All the glaciers that had been dead since the +geological ages came to life again, more colossal than ever. From all +the valleys in the Alps or Pyrenees, that were lately green and peopled +with delightful health resorts, there issued these snowy hordes, these +streams of icy lava, with their frontal moraine advancing as it spread +over the plain, a moving cliff composed of rocks and overturned engines, +of the wreckage of bridges, stations, hotels and public edifices, +whirled along in the wildest confusion, a heart-breaking welter of +gigantic bric-a-brac, with which the triumphant invasion decked itself +out as with the loot of victory. Slowly, step by step, in spite of +sundry transient intervals of light and warmth, in spite of occasionally +scorching days which bore witness to the supreme convulsions of the sun +in its battle against death, which revived in men's souls misleading +hopes, athwart and even by means of these unexpected changes the pale +invaders advanced. They retook and recovered one by one all their +ancient realms in the glacial period, and if they found on the road some +gigantic vagrant block lying in sullen solitude, near some famous city, +a hundred leagues from its native hills, mysterious witness of the +immense catastrophe of former times, they raised it and bore it onward, +cradling it on their unyielding waves, as an advancing army recaptures +and enfurls its ancient flags, all covered with dust, which it has found +again in its enemies' sanctuaries. + +But what was the glacial period compared with this new crisis of the +globe and the sky? Doubtless it had been due to a similar attack of +weakness, to a similar failure of the sun, and many species of animals +had necessarily perished at the time, from being insufficiently clad. +That had been, however, but a warning bell, so to say, a simple +notification of the final and fatal attack. The glacial periods--for we +know there have been several--now explained themselves by their +reappearance on a large scale. But this clearing up of an obscure point +in geology was, one must admit, an insufficient compensation for the +public disasters which were its price. + +What calamities! What horrors! My pen confesses its impotence to retrace +them. Besides how can we tell the story of disasters which were so +complete they often simultaneously overwhelmed under snow-drifts a +hundred yards deep all that witnessed them, to the very last man. All +that we know for certain is what took place at the time towards the end +of the twenty-fifth century in a little district of Arabia Petraea. + +Thither had flocked for refuge, in one horde after another, wave after +wave, with host upon host frozen one on the top of another, as they +advanced, the few millions of human creatures who survived of the +hundreds of millions that had disappeared. Arabia Petraea had, therefore, +along with the Sahara, become the most populous country of the globe. +They transported hither by reason of the relative warmth of its climate, +I will not say the seat of Government--for, alas! Terror alone +reigned--but an immense stove which took its place, and whatever +remained of Babylon now covered over by a glacier. A new town was +constructed in a few months on the plans of an entirely new system of +architecture, marvellously adapted for the struggle against the cold. By +the most happy of chances some rich and unworked coal mines were +discovered on the spot. There was enough fuel there, it seems, to +provide warmth for many years to come. And as for food, it was not as +yet too pressing a question. The granaries contained several sacks of +corn, while waiting for the sun to revive and the corn to sprout again. +The sun had certainly revived after the glacial periods; why should it +not do so again? asked the optimists. + +It was but the hope of a day. The sun assumed a violet hue. The frozen +corn ceased to be eatable. The cold became so intense that the walls of +the houses as they contracted cracked and admitted blasts of air which +killed the inhabitants on the spot. A physicist affirmed that he saw +crystals of solid nitrogen and oxygen fall from the sky which gave rise +to the fear that the atmosphere would shortly become decomposed. The +seas were already frozen solid. A hundred thousand human creatures +huddling around the huge government stove, which was no longer equal to +restoring their circulation, were turned into icicles in a single night; +and the night following, a second hundred thousand perished likewise. Of +the beautiful human race, so strong and noble, formed by so many +centuries of effort and genius by such an intelligent and extended +selection, there would soon have been only left a few thousands, a few +hundreds of haggard and trembling specimens, unique trustees of the last +ruins of what had once been civilisation. + + + + +III + +THE STRUGGLE + + +In this extremity a man arose who did not despair of humanity. His name +has been preserved for us. By a singular coincidence he was called +Miltiades, like another saviour of Hellenism. He was not, however, of +Hellenic race. A cross between a Slave and a Breton he had only half +sympathised with the prosperity of the Neo-Graecian world with its +levelling and enervating tendencies, and amid this wholesale +obliteration of previous civilisation, and universal triumph of a kind +of Byzantine renaissance brought up to date, he belonged to those who +reverently guarded in the depths of their heart the germs of recusancy. +But, like the barbarian stilicho, the last defender of the foundering +Roman world against the barbaric hordes, it was precisely this +disbeliever in civilisation who alone undertook to arrest it on the +brink of its vast downfall. Eloquent and handsome, but nearly always +taciturn, he was not without certain resemblances in pose and features, +so it was said, to Chateaubriand and Napoleon (two celebrities, as one +knows, who in their time were famous throughout an entire continent). +Worshipped by the women of whom he was the hope, and by the men who +stood greatly in awe of him, he had early kept the crowd at arm's +length, and a singular accident had doubled his natural shyness. Finding +the sea less monotonously dull at any rate than terra firma, and in any +case more unconfined, he had passed his youth on board the last +iron-clad of State of which he was captain, in patrolling the coasts of +continents, in dreaming of impossible adventures, and of conquests when +all was conquered, of discoveries of America when all was discovered, +and in cursing all former travellers, discoverers and conquerors, +fortunate reapers in all the fields of glory in which there was nothing +more left to glean. One day, however, he believed he had discovered a +new island--it was a mistake--and he had the joy of engaging in a fight, +the last of which ancient history makes mention, with an apparently +highly primitive tribe of savages, who spoke English and read the Bible. +In this fight he displayed such valour that he was unanimously +pronounced to be mad by his crew, and was in great danger of losing his +rank after a specialist in insanity, who had been called in, was on the +point of publicly confirming popular opinion by declaring he was +suffering from suicidal mono-mania of a novel kind. Luckily an +archaeologist protested and showed by actual documents that this +phenomenon, which had become so unusual but was frequent in past ages +under the name of bravery, was a simple case of ancestral reversion +sufficiently serious to merit examination. As luck would have it, the +unfortunate Miltiades had been wounded in the face in the same +encounter; and the scar which all the art of the best surgeons never +succeeded in removing, drew down upon him the annoying and almost +insulting nick-name of "scarred face". It may be readily understood how +from this time forward, soured by the consciousness of his partial +disfigurement, as the ancient bard Byron had formerly been for a nearly +similar reason, he avoided appearing in public, and thereby giving the +crowd an opportunity of pointing the finger of scorn at the visible +traces of his former attack of madness. He was never seen again till the +day when, his vessel being hemmed in by the icebergs of the Gulf Stream, +he was obliged with his companions to finish the crossing on foot over +the solidly frozen Atlantic. + +In the middle of the central state shelter, a huge vaulted hall with +walls ten yards thick, without windows, surrounded with a hundred +gigantic furnaces, and perpetually lit up by their hundred flaming maws, +Miltiades one day appeared. The remnant of the flower of humanity, of +both sexes, splendid even in its misery, was huddled together there. +They did not consist of the great men of science with their bald pates, +nor even the great actresses, nor the great writers, whose inspiration +had deserted them, nor the consequential ones now past their prime, nor +of prim old ladies--broncho-pneumonia, alas! had made a clean sweep of +them all at the very first frost--but the enthusiastic heirs of their +traditions, their secrets, and also of their vacant chairs, that is to +say, their pupils, full of talent and promise. Not a single university +professor was there, but a crowd of deputies and assistants; not a +single minister, but a crowd of young secretaries of state. Not a single +mother of a family, but a bevy of artists' models, admirably formed, and +inured against the cold by the practice of posing for the nude; above +all, a number of fashionable beauties, who had been likewise saved by +the excellent hygienic effect of daily wearing low dresses, without +taking into account the warmth of their temperament. Among them it was +impossible not to notice the Princess Lydia, owing to her tall and +exquisite figure, the brilliancy of her dress and her wit, of her dark +eyes and fair complexion, owing in fact to the radiance of her whole +person. She had carried off the prize at the last grand international +beauty competition, and was accounted the reigning beauty of the +drawing-rooms of Babylon. What a different set of individuals from that +which the spectator formerly surveyed through his opera-glass from the +top of the galleries of the so-called Chamber of Deputies! Youth, +beauty, genius, love, infinite treasures of science and art, writers +whose pens were of pure gold, artists with marvellous technique, singers +one raved about, all that was left of refinement and culture on the +earth, was concentrated in this last knot of human beings, which +blossomed under the snow like a tuft of rhododendrons, or of Alpine +roses at the foot of some mountain summit. But what dejection had fallen +on these fair flowers! How sadly drooped these manifold graces! + +At the sudden apparition of Miltiades every brow was lifted, every eye +was fastened upon him. He was tall, lean, and wizened, in spite of the +false plumpness of his thick white furs. When he threw back his big +white hood, which recalled the Dominican cowl of antiquity, they caught +sight of his huge scar athwart the icicles on his beard and eyebrows. At +the sight of it first a smile and then a shudder, which was not due to +cold alone, ran through the ranks of the women. For must we confess it, +in spite of the efforts of a rational education, the inclination to +applaud bravery and its indications could not be entirely uprooted from +their hearts. Lydia, notably, remained imbued with this sentiment of +another age, by a kind of moral ancestral reversion which served as a +pendant to her physical atavism. She concealed so little her feelings of +admiration, that Miltiades himself was struck by it. Her admiration was +combined with astonishment, for he was believed to have been dead for +years. They asked one another by what accumulation of miracles he had +been able to escape the fate of his companions. He requested leave to +speak. It was granted him. He mounted a platform, and such a profound +silence ensued, one might have heard the snow falling outside, in spite +of the thickness of the walls. But let us at this point allow an +eye-witness to speak; let us copy an extract of the account that he +phonographed of this memorable scene. I pass over the part of Miltiades' +discourse in which he related the thrilling story of the dangers he had +encountered from the time he left his vessel. (_Continuous applause_.) +After stating that in passing by Paris on a sledge drawn by +reindeer--thanks to it being the season of the dog-days--he had +recognised the site of this buried city by the double-pointed mound of +snow which had formed over the spires of Notre-Dame--(_excitement in the +audience_)--the speaker continued:-- + +"The situation is serious," said he, "nothing like it has been seen +since the geological epochs. Is it irretrievable? No! (_Hear! hear!_) +Desperate diseases require desperate remedies. An idea, a glimmer of +hope has flashed upon me, but it is so strange, I shall never dare to +reveal it to you. (_Speak! speak!_) No, I dare not, I shall never dare +to formulate this project. You would believe me to be still insane. You +desire it, you promise me to listen to the end to my absurd and +extravagant project? (_Yes! yes!_) Even to give it a fair trial? (_Yes! +yes!_) Well! I will speak. (_Silence!_) + +"The hour has come to ascertain to what extent it is true to say and to +keep on repeating, as has been the practice for the last three centuries +since the time of a certain Stephenson, that all our energy, all our +strength, whether physical or moral, comes to us from the sun.... +(_Numerous voices: 'That is so'_). The calculation has been made: in two +years, three months, and six days, if there still remains a morsel of +coal there will not remain a morsel of bread! (_Prolonged sensation_.) +Therefore, if the source of all force, of all motion, and all life is in +the sun, and in the sun alone, there is no ground for self-delusion: in +two years, three months, and six days, the genius of man will be +quenched, and through the gloomy heavens the corpse of mankind, like a +Siberian mammoth, will roll for everlasting, incapable for ever of +resurrection. (_Excitement_.) + +"But is that the case? No, it is not, it cannot be the case. With all +the energy of my heart, which does not come from the sun--that energy +which comes from the earth, from our mother earth buried there below, +far, far away, for ever hidden from our eyes--I protest against this +vain theory, and against so many articles of faith and religion which I +have been obliged hitherto to endure in silence. (_Slight murmurs from +the centre_.) The earth is the contemporary of the sun, and not its +daughter; the earth was formerly a luminous star like the sun, only +sooner extinct. It is only on the surface that the earth is devoid of +movement, frozen and paralysed. Its bosom is ever warm and burning. It +has only concentrated its fire within itself in order to preserve it +better. (_Signs of interest in the audience_.) There lies a virgin force +that is unexploited, a force superior to all that the sun has been able +to generate for our industry by waterfalls which to-day are frozen, by +cyclones which now have ceased, by tides which to-day are suspended; a +force in which our engineers, with a little initiative, will find a +hundredfold the equivalent of the motive power they have lost. It is no +more by this gesture (_the speaker raises his finger to heaven_), that +the hope of salvation should henceforth be expressed, it is by this one. +(_He lowers his right hand towards the earth.... Signs of astonishment: +a few murmurs of dissent which are immediately repressed by the women_.) +We must say no more: 'Up there!' but, 'below!' There, below, far below, +lies the promised Eden, the abode of deliverance and of bliss: there, +and there alone, there are still innumerable conquests and discoveries +to be made! (_Bravos on the left_.) Ought I to draw my conclusion? +(_Yes! yes!_) Let us descend into these depths; let us make these +abysses our sure retreat. The mystics had a sublime presentiment when +they said in their Latin: 'From the outward to the inward.' The earth +calls us to its inner self. For many centuries it has lived separated, +so to say, from its children, the living creatures it produced outside +during its period of fecundity before the cooling of its crust! After +its crust cooled, the rays of a distant star alone, it is true, have +maintained on this dead epidermis their artificial and superficial life +which has been a stranger to her own. + +"But this schism has lasted too long. It is imperative that it should +cease. It is time to follow Empedocles, Ulysses, AEneas, Dante, to the +gloomy abodes of the underworld, to plunge mankind again in the fountain +from which it sprang, to effect the complete restoration of the exiled +soul to the land of its birth! (_Applause here and there_.) Besides, +there is but this alternative: life underground or death. The sun is +failing us: let us dispense with the sun. The plan, which it remains for +me to propose, has been worked out for several months past by the most +eminent men. To-day it is finished; it is final. It is complete in all +its details. Does it interest you? (_On all sides: 'Read it, read it.'_) +You will see that with discipline, patience, and courage--yes, courage, +I risk this evil-sounding word (_'Risk it, risk it.'_)--and above all, +with the aid of that splendid heritage of science and art which comes to +us from the past, for which we are accountable to the most distant of +our descendants, to the boundless universe, and I was going to say, to +God (_signs of surprise_), we can be saved if we will." (_Thunder of +applause_.) + +The speaker next entered into lengthy details, which it is useless to +reproduce here, on the Neo-troglodytism which he pretended to inaugurate +as the acme of civilisation, "which had," said he, "began with caves, +and was destined to return to these subterranean retreats, but at a far +deeper level." He displayed designs, quantities and drawings. He had no +trouble in proving that, on condition of burrowing sufficiently deep +into the ground below, they would find a deliciously gentle warmth, an +Elysian temperature. It would be enough to excavate, enlarge, heighten, +and extend the galleries of already existing mines in order to render +them habitable and comfortable into the bargain. The electric light, +supplied entirely without expense by the scattered centres of the fire +within, would provide for the magnificent illumination both by day and +night of these colossal crypts, these marvellous cloisters, indefinitely +extended and embellished by successive generations. With a good system +of ventilation, all danger of suffocation or of foulness of air would be +avoided. In short, after a more or less long period of settling in, +civilised life could unfold anew in all its intellectual, artistic, and +fashionable splendour, as freely as it did in the capricious and +intermittent light or natural day, and even perhaps more surely. At +these last words, the Princess Lydia broke her fan, by dint of +applauding. An objection then came from the right, "With what shall we +be fed?" Miltiades smiled disdainfully and replied: "Nothing is simpler. +For ordinary drinking purposes we first of all shall have melted ice. +Every day we shall transport enormous blocks of it in order to keep the +orifices of the crypts free from obstruction, and to supply the public +fountains. I may add that chemists undertake to manufacture alcohol from +anything, even from mineralised rocks, and that it is the A.B.C. of the +grocer's trade to manufacture wine from alcohol and water. (_'Hear! +hear!' from all the benches_). As for food, is not chemistry also +capable of manufacturing butter, albumen, and milk from no matter what? +Besides, has the last word been said on the subject? Is it not highly +probable that before long, if it takes up the matter, it will succeed in +satisfying, both on the score of quantity and expense, the desires of +the most refined gastronomy? And, meanwhile.... (_a voice timidly: +'Meanwhile?'_) Meanwhile does not our disaster itself, by a kind of +providential occurrence, place within our reach the best stocked, the +most abundant, the most inexhaustible larder that the human race has +ever had? Immense stores, the most admirable which have hitherto been +laid down, are lying for us under the ice or the snow. Myriads of +domestic or wild animals--I dare not add, of men and women (_a general +shudder of horror_)--but at least of bullocks, sheep and poultry, frozen +instantaneously in a single mass, are lying here and there in the public +markets a few steps away. Let us collect, as long as such work is still +possible out of doors, this boundless quarry which was destined to feed +for years several hundreds of millions, and which will well suffice, in +consequence, to feed a few thousands only for ages, even should they +multiply unduly, in despite of Malthus. If stacked in the neighbourhood +of the orifice of the chief cavern, they will be easy to get at and will +provide a delightful fare for our fraternal love-feasts." + +Still further objections were formulated from different quarters. They +were forcibly disposed of with the same irresistible easy assurance. The +conclusion is worthy of a verbatim quotation: "However extraordinary the +catastrophe which has befallen us and the means of escape which is left +us may seem in appearance, a little reflection will suffice to prove to +us that the predicament in which we are, must have been repeated a +thousand times already in the immensity of the universe, and must have +been cleared up in the same fashion, being inevitably and normally the +final phase in the life-drama of every star. The astronomers know that +every sun is bound to become extinct; they know, therefore, that in +addition to the luminous and visible stars, there are in the heavens an +infinitely greater number of extinct and rayless stars which continue +endlessly to revolve with their train of planets, doomed to an eternity +of night and cold. Well, if this is the case, I ask you: Can we suppose +that life, thought, and love, are the exclusive privilege of an infinite +minority of solar systems still possessed of light and heat, and deny to +the immense majority of gloomy stars every manifestation of life and +animation, the very highest reason for their existence? Thus +lifelessness, death, the void in movement would be the rule; and life +the exception! Thus the nine-tenths, the ninety-nine hundredths, +perhaps, of the solar systems, would idly revolve like senseless and +gigantic mill-wheels, a useless encumbrance of space. That is impossible +and idiotic, that is blasphemous. Let us have more faith in the unknown! +Truth, here as everywhere else, is without doubt the antipodes of +appearance. All that glitters is not gold. These splendid constellations +which attempt to dazzle us are themselves relatively barren. Their +light, what is it? A transient glory, a ruinous luxury, an ostentatious +squandering of energy, born of illimitable senselessness. But when the +stars have sown their wild oats, then the serious task of their life +begins, they develop their inner resources. For frozen and sunless +without, they literally preserve in their inviolate centres their +unquenchable fire, defended by the very layers of ice. There, finally, +is to be relit the lamp of life, banished from the surface above. For a +last time, therefore, let us look upwards in order there to find hope. +Up there innumerable races of mankind under ground, buried, to their +supreme joy, in the catacombs of invisible stars, encourage us by their +example. Let us act like them, let us like them withdraw to the interior +of our planet. Like them, let us bury ourselves in order to rise again, +and like them let us carry with us into our tomb, all that is worthy to +survive of our previous existence. It is not merely bread alone that man +has need of. He must live to think, and not merely think to live. + +"Recall the legend of Noah: to escape from a disaster almost equal to +our own, and to dispute with it all that the earth had most precious in +his eyes; what did he do, though he was but a simple-minded fellow and +addicted to drink? He turned his ark into a museum, containing a +complete collection of plants and animals, even of poisonous plants, of +wild beasts, boa-constrictors, and scorpions, and by reason of this +picturesque but incongruous cargo of creatures mutually harmful and +seeking one and all to devour each other, of this miscellany of living +contradictions which for so long was so foolishly worshipped under the +name of Nature, he believed in good faith to have deserved well of the +future. + +"But we, in our new ark, mysterious, impenetrable, indestructible, shall +carry with us neither plants nor animals. These types of existence are +annihilated; these rough drafts in creation, these fumbling experiments +of Earth in quest of the human form are for ever blotted out. Let us not +regret it. In place of so many pairs of animals which take up so much +room, of so many useless seeds, we will carry with us into our retreat +the harmonious garland of all the truths in perfect accord with one +another; of all artistic and poetic beauties, which are all members one +of another, united like sisters, which human genius has brought to light +in the course of ages and multiplied thereafter in millions of copies: +all of which will be destroyed save a single one, which it will be our +task to guarantee against all danger of destruction. We shall establish +a vast library containing all the principal works, enriched with +cinematographic albums. We shall set up a vast museum composed of single +specimens of all the schools, of all the styles of the masters in +architecture, sculpture, painting, and even music. These are our real +treasures, our real seed for future harvests, our gods for whom we will +do battle till our latest breath." + +The speaker stepped down from the platform in the midst of indescribable +enthusiasm: the ladies crowded round him. They deputed Lydia to bestow +on him a kiss in the name of them all. Blushing with modesty the latter +obeyed--a further sign of moral atavism on her part--and the applause +redoubled. The thermometers of the shelter rose several degrees in a few +minutes. + +It is well to recall to the younger generation these resolute words, +between the lines of which they will read the gratitude they owe to the +heroic "Scarred face," who so nearly died with the reputation of a +mono-maniac. They, too, are beginning to grow enervated and accustomed +to the delights of their underground Elysium, to the luxurious +spaciousness of these endless catacombs, the legacy of gigantic toil on +the part of their fathers, they too, are, inclined to think that all +this happened of its own accord, or at least was inevitable, that after +all there was no other way of escaping from the cold above ground, and +that this simple expedient did not require a great outlay of +imagination. Profound error! At its first appearance, the idea of +Miltiades had been hailed, and rightly enough, as a flash of genius. But +for him, but for his energy, and his eloquence, which was placed at the +service of his imagination, but for his forcefulness, his charm, and his +perseverance, which seconded his energy, let us add, but for the +profound passion that Lydia, the noblest and most valiant of women, had +been able to inspire in him, and which increased his heroism tenfold, +humanity would have suffered the fate of all the other animal or +vegetable species. What strikes us to-day in his discourse is the +extraordinary and truly prophetic lucidity with which he sketched in +general terms the conditions of existence in the new world. Without +doubt, these expectations have been immensely surpassed. He did not +foresee, he could not foresee, the prodigious accessions which his +original idea has received owing to its development by thousands of +auxiliary geniuses. He was far more right than he fancied, like the +majority of reformers--who are generally wrongly accused, of being too +much wrapt up in their own ideas. But on the whole, never was so +magnificent a plan so promptly carried out. + +From that very day all these exquisite and delicate hands set to work, +aided, it is true, by incomparable machines. Everywhere, at the head of +all the workings, were to be found Lydia and Miltiades. Henceforth +inseparable, they vied with one another in ardour; and before a year was +out the galleries of the mines had become sufficiently large and +comfortable, sufficiently decorated even and brilliantly lighted, to +receive the vast and priceless collections of all kinds, which it was +their object to place in safety there, in view of the future. + +With infinite precautions they were lowered one after another, bale by +bale, into the bowels of the earth. This salvage of the goods and +chattels of humanity was methodically carried out. It included all the +quintessence of the ancient grand libraries of Paris, Berlin, and +London, which had been brought together at Babylon, and then carried for +safety into the desert with the rest. The cream of all former museums, +of all previous exhibitions of industry and art, was concentrated there +with considerable additions. There were manuscripts, books, bronzes, and +pictures. What an expenditure of energy and incessant toil, in spite of +the assistance of inter-terrestrial forces, had been necessary for +packing, transporting, and housing it all! And yet, for the greater +part, it was useless to those who voluntarily this task imposed upon +themselves. They all knew it. They were well aware that they were +probably condemned for the rest of their days to a hard and +matter-of-fact existence, for which their lives as artists, +philosophers, and men of letters, had scarcely prepared them. But--for +the first time--the idea of duty to be done found its way into these +hearts, the beauty of self-sacrifice subdued these dilettanti. They +sacrificed themselves to the Unknown, to that which is not yet, to the +posterity towards which were turned all the desires of their electrified +spirits, as all the atoms of the magnetised iron turn towards the pole. +It was thus that, at the time when there were still countries, in the +midst of some great national peril, a wave of heroism swept over the +most frivolous cities. However admirable may have been, at the epoch of +which I speak, this collective need of individual self-sacrifice, ought +we to be astonished at it, when we know from the treatises on natural +history that have been preserved, that mere insects giving the same +example of foresight and self-renunciation, used before their death to +employ their latest energies to collect provisions useless to +themselves, and only useful in the future to their larvae at their birth. + + + + +IV + +SAVED! + + +The day at length arrived on which, all the intellectual inheritance of +the past, all the real capital of humanity having been rescued from the +general shipwreck, the castaways were able to go down in their turn, +having henceforth only to think of their own preservation. That day +which forms, as everyone knows, the starting point of our new era, +called the era of salvation, was a solemn holiday. The sun, however, as +if to arouse regret, indulged in a few last bursts of sunshine. On +casting a final glance on this brightness, which they were never to +behold again, the survivors of mankind could not, we are told, restrain +their tears. A young poet on the brink of the pit that yawned to swallow +them up, repeated in the musical language of Euripides, the farewell to +the light of the dying Iphigenia. But that was a short-lived moment of +very natural emotion which speedily changed into an outburst of +unspeakable delight. + +How great in fact was their amazement and their ecstasy! They expected a +tomb; they opened their eyes in the most brilliant and interminable +galleries of art they could possibly see, in _salons_ more beautiful +than those of Versailles, in enchanted palaces, in which all extremes of +climate, rain, and wind, cold and torrid heat were unknown; where +innumerable lamps, veritable suns in brilliancy and moons in softness, +shed unceasingly through the blue depths their daylight that knew no +night. Assuredly the sight was far from what it has since become; we +need an effort of imagination in order to represent the psychological +condition of our poor ancestors, hitherto accustomed to the perpetual +and insufferable discomforts and inconveniences of life on the surface +of the globe, in order to realise their enthusiasm, at a moment, when +only counting on escaping from the most appalling of deaths by means of +the gloomiest of dungeons, they felt themselves delivered of all their +troubles, and of all their apprehensions at the same time! Have you +noticed in the retrospective museum that quaint bit of apparatus of our +fathers, which is called an umbrella? Look at it and reflect on the +heart-breaking element, in a situation, which condemned man to make use +of this ridiculous piece of furniture. Imagine yourself obliged to +protect yourselves against those gigantic downpours which would +unexpectedly arrive on the scene and drench you for three or four days +running. Think likewise of sailors caught in a whirling cyclone, of the +victims of sunstroke, of the 20,000 Indians annually devoured by tigers +or killed by the bite of venomous serpents; think of those struck by +lightning. I do not speak of the legions of parasites and insects, of +the acarus, the phylloxera, and the microscopic beings which drained the +blood, the sweat, and the life of man, inoculating him with typhus, +plague, and cholera. In truth, if our change of condition has demanded +some sacrifices, it is not an illusion to declare that the balance of +advantage is immensely greater. What in comparison with this +unparalleled revolution is the most renowned of the petty revolutions of +the past which to-day are treated so lightly, and rightly so, by our +historians. One wonders how the first inhabitants of these underground +dwellings could, even for a moment, regret the sun, a mode of lighting +that bristled with so many inconveniences. The sun was a capricious +luminary which went out and was relit at variable hours, shone when it +felt disposed, sometimes was eclipsed, or hid itself behind the clouds +when one had most need of it, or pitilessly blinded one at the very +moment one yearned for shade! Every night,--do we really realise the +full force of the inconvenience?--every night the sun commanded social +life to desist and social life desisted. Humanity was actually to that +extent the slave of nature! To think it never succeeded in, never even +dreamed of, freeing itself from this slavery which weighed so heavily +and unconsciously on its destinies, on the course of its progress thus +straitened and confined! Ah! Let us once more bless our fortunate +disaster! + +What excuses or explains the weakness of the first immigrants of the +inner world is the fact that their life was necessarily rough and full +of hardships, in spite of a notable improvement after their descent into +the caverns. They had perpetually to enlarge them, to adjust them to the +requirements of the two civilisations, ancient and modern. That was not +the work of a single day. I am well aware how happily fortune favoured +them; how they again and again had the good luck when driving their +tunnels to discover natural grottoes of the utmost beauty, in which it +was enough to illuminate with the usual methods of lighting (which was +absolutely cost-free, as Miltiades had foreseen) in order to render them +almost habitable: delightful squares, as it were, enshrined and sparsely +disseminated throughout the labyrinth of our brilliantly lighted +streets; mines of sparkling diamonds, lakes of quicksilver, mounds of +golden ingots. I am well aware that they had at their disposition a sum +of natural forces very superior to all that the preceding ages had been +acquainted with. That is very easy to understand. In fact, if they +lacked waterfalls, they replaced them very advantageously by the finest +falls in temperature that physicists have ever dreamed of. The central +heat of the globe could not, it is true, by itself alone be a mechanical +force, any more than formerly a large mass of water falling by +hypothesis to the greatest possible depth. It is in its passage from a +higher to a lower level that the mass of water becomes (or rather +became) available energy: it is in its descent from a higher to a lower +degree of the thermometer that heat likewise becomes so. The greater +distance between any two degrees the greater amount of surplus energy. +Now, the mining physicists had hardly descended into the bowels of the +earth ere they at once perceived that thus placed between the furnaces +of the central fire, as it were, a forge of the Cyclops, hot enough to +liquefy granite, and the outer cold, which was sufficient to solidify +oxygen and nitrogen, they had at their disposal the most enormous +extremes in temperature, and consequently thermic cataracts by the side +of which all the cataracts of Abyssinia and Niagara were only toys. What +caldrons did they own in the ancient volcanoes! What condensers in the +glaciers! At first sight they must have seen that if a few distributing +agencies of this prodigious energy were provided, they had power enough +there to perform the whole work of mankind--excavation, air supply, +water supply, sanitation, locomotion, descent and transport of +provisions, etc. + +I am well aware of that. I am further aware that ever favoured by +fortune, the inseparable friend of daring, the new Troglodytes have +never suffered from famine, nor from shortness of supplies. When one of +their snow-covered deposits of carcasses threatened to give out, they +used to make several trial borings, drive several shafts in an upward +direction. They never failed presently to meet with rich finds of food +reserves, extensive enough to close the mouths of the alarmists, whereby +there resulted on each occasion, according to the law of Malthus, a +sudden increase in the population, coupled with the excavation of new +underground cities, more flourishing than their older sisters. But, in +spite of all this, we remain overwhelmed with wonder when we consider +the incalculable degree of courage and intelligence lavished on such a +work, and solely called into being by an idea which, starting one day +from one individual brain, has leavened the whole globe. What giant +falls of earth, what murderous explosions, what a death-roll there must +have been at the outset of the enterprise! We shall never know what +bloodthirsty duels, what rapes, what doleful tragedies, took place in +this lawless society, which had not yet been reorganised. The history of +the early conquerors and colonists of America, if it could be told in +detail, would pale entirely beside it. Let us draw a veil over the +proceedings. But this pitch of horrors was perhaps necessary to teach us +that in the forced intimacy of a cave there is no mean between warfare +and love, between mutual slaughter or mutual embraces. We began by +fighting; to-day we fall on each other's necks. And in fact, what human +ear, nose, or stomach could have longer withstood the deafening roar and +smoke of melanite explosions beneath our crypts; the sight and stench of +mangled bodies piled up within our narrow confines? Hideous and odious, +revolting beyond all expression, the underground war finished by +becoming impossible. + +It is, however, painful to think that it lasted right up to the death of +our glorious preserver. Everyone is acquainted with the heroic adventure +in which Miltiades and his companion lost their lives. It has been so +often painted, sculptured, sung, and immortalised by the great masters, +that it is not allowable to pass it over in silence. The famous struggle +between the centralist and federalist cities, that is to say, at bottom, +between the industrial and artist cities, having ended in the triumph of +the latter, a still more bloodthirsty conflict sprang up between the +free thinking and the cellular cities. The former fought to assert the +freedom of love with its uncertain fecundity; the second, for its +prudent regulation. Miltiades, misled by his passion, committed the +fault of siding with the former, a pardonable error which posterity has +forgiven him. Besieged in his last grotto--a perfect marvel in +strongholds--and at the end of his provisions, the besiegers having +intercepted the arrival of all his convoys, he essayed a final effort: +he prepared a formidable explosion intended to blow up the vault of his +cavern, and forcibly to open a way upwards by which he might have the +chance of reaching a deposit of provisions. His hope was deceived. The +vault blew up, it is true, and disclosed a cavern above it, the most +colossal one had hitherto seen, that dimly resembled a Hindoo temple. +But the hero himself perished miserably, buried with Lydia beneath +enormous rocks on the very spot on which now stands their double statue +in marble, the masterpiece of our new Phidias, which is now the crowded +meeting-place of our national pilgrimages. + +From these fruitful though troublous times, and from this beneficial +disorder, an advantage has accrued to us which we shall never +sufficiently appreciate. Our race, already so beautiful, has been +further strengthened and purified by these numerous trials. +Short-sightedness itself has disappeared under the prolonged influence +of a light that is pleasing to the eye, and of the habit of reading +books which are written in very large characters. For, from lack of +paper, we are obliged to write on slates, on pillars, obelisks, on the +broad panels of marble, and this necessity, in addition to compelling us +to adopt a sober style and contributing to the formation of taste, +prevents the daily newspapers from reappearing, to the great benefit of +the optic nerves and the lobes of the brain. It was, by the way, an +immense misfortune for "pre-salvationist" man to possess textile plants +which allowed him to stereotype without the slightest trouble on rags of +paper without the slightest value, all his ideas, idle or serious, piled +indiscriminately one on the other. Now, before graving our thoughts on a +panel of rock, we take time to reflect on our subject. Yet another bane +among our primitive forefathers was tobacco. At present we no longer +smoke, we can no longer smoke. The public health is accordingly +magnificent. + + + + +V + +REGENERATION + + +It does not fall within the scope of my rapid sketch to relate date by +date the laborious vicissitudes of humanity since its settlement within +the planet from the year 1 of the era of Salvation to the year 596, in +which I write these lines in chalk on slabs of schist. I should only +like to bring out for my contemporaries, who might very well fail to +notice them (for we barely observe what we have always before our eyes), +the distinctive and original features of this modern civilisation of +which we are so justly proud. Now that after many abortive trials and +agonizing convulsions it has succeeded in taking its final shape, we can +clearly establish its essential characteristics. It consists in the +complete elimination of living nature, whether animal or vegetable, man +only excepted. That has produced, so to say, a purification of society. +Secluded thus from every influence of the natural milieu into which it +was hitherto plunged and confined, the social milieu was for the first +time able to reveal and display its true virtues, and the real social +bond appeared in all its vigour and purity. It might be said that +destiny had desired to make in our case an extended sociological +experiment for its own edification by placing us in such extraordinarily +unique conditions.[1] The problem, in a way, was to learn, what would +social man become if committed to his own keeping, yet left to +himself--furnished with all the intellectual acquisitions accumulated +through a remote past by human geniuses, but deprived of the assistance +of all other living beings, nay, even of those beings half endowed with +life, that we call rivers and seas and stars, and thrown back on the +conquered, yet passive forces of chemical, inorganic and lifeless +Nature, which is separated from man by too deep a chasm to exercise on +him any action from the social point of view. The problem was to learn +what this humanity would do when restricted to man, and obliged to +extract from its own resources, if not its food supplies, yet at least +all its pleasures, all its occupations, all its creative inspirations. +The answer has been given, and we have realised at the same time what an +unsuspected drag the terrestrial fauna and flora had hitherto been on +the progress of humanity. + +[1] In appearance only: we must not forget that in accordance +with all probability many extinct stars must have served as the scene of +this normal and necessary phase of social life. + +At first human pride and the faith of man in himself hitherto held in +check by the constant presence, by the profound sense of the superiority +of the forces round it, rebounded with a force of elasticity really +appalling. We are a race of Titans. But, at the same time, whatever +enervating element there might have been in the air of our grottoes has +been thereby victoriously combated. Otherwise our air is the purest that +man has ever breathed; all the bad germs with which the atmosphere was +loaded were killed by the cold. Far from being attacked by anaemia as +some predicted, we live in a state of habitual excitement maintained by +the multiplicity of our relations and of our "social tonics" (friendly +shakes of the hand, talks, meetings with charming women, etc.). With a +certain number among us it passes into a state of unintermittent +delirium under the name of Troglodytic fever. This new malady, whose +microbe has not yet been discovered, was unknown to our forefathers, +thanks perhaps to the stupefying (or soothing, if you prefer it) +influence of natural and rural distractions. Rural! what a strange +anachronism! Fishermen, hunters, ploughmen, and shepherds--do we really +understand to-day the meaning of these words? Have we for a moment +reflected on the life of that fossil creature who is so frequently +mentioned in books of ancient history and who was called the peasant? +The habitual society of this curious creature which comprised half or +three-quarters of the population was not man, but four-footed beasts, +pot herbs and green crops, which, owing to the conditions necessary for +their production in the country (yet another word which has become +meaningless) condemned him to live a wild, solitary life, far from his +fellows. As for his herds, they were acquainted with the charms of +social life, but he had not the slightest inkling of what it meant. + +The towns, to which people were so astonished that there should be a +desire to emigrate, were the only centres, rare and widely scattered as +they were, in which life in society was then known. But to what extent +does it not appear to have been adulterated, and attenuated by animal +and vegetable life? Another fossil peculiar to these regions is the +artisan. Was the relation of the worker to his employer, of the artisan +class to the other classes of the population, of these classes between +themselves a really social relation? Not the least in the world! Certain +sophists, who were called economists, and who were to our sociologists +of to-day what the alchemists formerly were to the chemists or the +astrologers to the astronomers, had given credit, it is true, to this +error--that society essentially consists in an exchange of services. +From this point of view, which, moreover, is quite out of date, the +social bond could never be closer than that between the ass and the ass +driver, the ox and drover, the sheep and the shepherd. Society, we now +know, consists in the exchange of reflections. Mutually to ape one +another, and by dint of accumulated apings diversely combined to create +an originality is the important thing. Reciprocal service is only an +accessory. That is why the urban life of former days being principally +founded on the organic and natural, rather than on the social relation +of producer to consumer, or of workman to employer, was itself only a +very imperfect kind of social life, and accordingly the source of +endless disagreements. + +If it has been possible for us to realise the most perfect and the most +intense social life that has ever been seen, it is thanks to the extreme +simplicity of our strictly so-called wants. At a time when man was +"panivorous" and omnivorous, the craving for food was broken up into an +infinity of petty ramifications. To-day it is confined to eating meat +which has been preserved in the best of refrigerators. Within the space +of an hour each morning, a single member of society by the employment of +our ingenious transport machinery feeds a thousand of his kind. The need +of clothing has been pretty nearly abolished by the softness of an ever +constant climate, and, we must also admit it, by the absence of +silkworms and of textile plants. That would perhaps be a disadvantage +were it not for the incomparable beauty of our bodies, which lends a +real charm to this grand simplicity of costume. Let us observe, however, +that it is fairly customary to wear coats of asbestos spangled with +mica, of silver interwoven and enriched with gold, in which the refined +and delicate charms of our women appear as though moulded in metal, +rather than completely screened from view. This metallic iridescence +with its infinite tints has a most delightful effect. These are, +however, costumes that never wear out. How many clothiers, milliners, +tailors, and drapery establishments are thereby abolished at a single +stroke! The need of shelter remains, it is true, but it has been greatly +reduced. One is no longer obliged to sleep at "starlight-hotel". When a +young man grows weary of the life in common which has hitherto sufficed +him in the spacious working-drawing-room of his fellows, and desires for +matrimonial reasons to have a dwelling to himself, he has only to apply +the boring-machine somewhere against the rocky wall and his cell is +excavated in a few days. There is no rent and few articles of furniture. +The joint-stock furniture, which is magnificent, is almost the only one +of which the pair of lovers make use. + +The quota of absolute necessities being thus reduced to almost nothing, +the quota of superfluities has been able to be extended to almost +everything. Since we live on so little, there remains abundant time for +thought. A minimum of utilitarian work and a maximum of aesthetic, is +surely civilisation itself in its most essential element. The room left +vacant in the heart by the reduction of our wants is taken up by the +talents--those artistic, poetic, and scientific talents which, as they +day by day multiply and take deeper root, become really and truly +acquired wants. They really spring, however, from a necessity to +produce, and not from a necessity to consume. I underline this +difference. The manufacturer is ever toiling, not for his own pleasure +nor for that of the world about him, of his fellow-men or his natural +rivals, but for a society different from his own--on mutual terms, but +that is immaterial. His work, therefore, constitutes a non-social, an +almost anti-social relationship with those who are not of his kind, to +the great hurt and hindrance of his relations with those who are. The +increasing intensity of his work tends to accentuate and not to +attenuate the dissimilarities between the different grades of society, +which act as an obstacle to the general reunion. We have clearly seen +the truth of this in the course of the twentieth century of the ancient +era, when the whole population was divided into trades-unions of the +different professions, which waged desperate warfare on one another, and +whose members in the bosom of each union hated one another as only +brothers can. + +But for the scientist, the artist, the lover of beauty in all its forms, +to produce is a passion, to consume is only a taste. For every artist +has a dilettante double. But his dilettantism in respect to arts other +than his own only plays by comparison a secondary part in his life. The +artist creates through sheer delight, and he alone creates for such +motives. + +We can now comprehend the depth of the truly social revolution which was +accomplished from the days when the aesthetic activity, by dint of ever +growing, ended by vanquishing utilitarian activity. Henceforth in place +of the relation of producer to consumer has been substituted, as +preponderating element in human dealings, the relation of the artist to +the art-lover. The ancient social ideal was to seek amusement or +self-satisfaction apart and to render mutual service. For this we +substitute the following: to be one's own servant and mutually to +delight one another. Henceforward, to insist once more, society reposes, +not on the exchange of services, but on the exchange of admiration or +criticism, of favourable or unfavourable judgments. The anarchical +regime of greed in all its forms has been succeeded by the autocratic +government of enlightened opinion which has become supreme. For our +worthy ancestors deceived themselves finely when they persuaded +themselves that social progress led to what they termed freedom of +thought. We have something better; we possess the joy and the strength +of the mind which attains a certainty of its own, founded, as it is, on +its only sure basis, the unanimity of other minds on certain essential +matters. On this rock we can rear the highest constructions of thought, +nay, the most gigantic systems of philosophy. + +The error, at present recognised, of those ancient visionaries called +socialists was their failure to see that this life in common, this +intense social life, they dreamt of so ardently, had for its +indispensable condition the aesthetic life and the universal propagation +of the religion of truth and beauty. The latter assumes the drastic +lopping off of numerous personal wants. Consequently in rushing, as they +did, into an exaggerated development of commercial life, they were +marching in the opposite direction to their own goal. + +They must have begun, I am well aware, by uprooting the fatal habit of +eating bread, which made man a slave to the tyrannical whims of a plant, +of beasts which were necessary for the manuring of this plant, and of +other plants which served as fodder for their beasts.... But as long as +this unhappy craving was rampant and they refrained from combating it, +it was obligatory to abstain from arousing others which were not less +anti-social, that is to say, not less natural. It was far better to +leave men at the ploughtail than to attract them to the factory, for the +dispersion and isolation of individualist types are more preferable to +bringing them together, which can only result in setting them by the +ears. But let us hurry on. All the advantages for which we are indebted +to our anti-natural position are now clear. We alone have realised all +the quintessence of refinement and reality, of strength and of +sweetness, that the social life contains. Formerly, here and there, in a +few rare cases in the midst of deserts an individual had certainly had a +distant foretaste of this ineffable thing, not to mention three or four +salons in the eighteenth century under the ancient regime, two or three +painters' studios, one or two green-rooms. They represented, in a way, +imperceptible cores of social protoplasm lost amid a mass of foreign +matter. But this marrow has become the entire bone at present. Our +cities, all in all, are one vast workshop, household and reception hall. +And this has happened in the simplest and most inevitable manner in the +world. Following the law of separation of the old Herbert Spencer, the +selection of heterogeneous talents and vocations was bound to take place +of its own accord. In fact, at the end of a century there was already +underground in course of development and continuous excavation a city of +painters, a city of sculptors, a city of musicians, of poets, of +geometricians, of physicists, of chemists, even of naturalists, of +psychologists, of scientific or aesthetic specialists of every kind, +except, strictly speaking, in philosophy. For we were obliged after +several attempts to give up the idea of founding or maintaining a city +of philosophers, notably owing to the incessant trouble caused by the +tribe of sociologists who are the most unsociable of mankind. + +Let us not forget, by the way, to mention the city of "sappers" (we no +longer speak of architects), whose speciality is to work out the plans +for excavating and repairing all our crypts and to direct the carrying +out of the work by our machines. Quitting the hackneyed paths of former +architecture, they have created in every detail our modern architecture +so profoundly original of which nothing could give an idea to our +forefathers. The public building of the ancient architect was a kind of +massive and voluminous work of art. It was entirely a thing by itself. +Its exterior, and especially its front, occupied his attention far more +than the inside. For the modern architect the interior alone exists, and +each work is linked on to those which have gone before. None stands by +itself. They are only an extension and ramification, one of another, an +endless continuation like the epics of the East. The work of the ancient +architect with its misplaced individuality, with its symmetry, which +gave it a mock air of being a living thing, yet only rendered it more +out of keeping with the surrounding landscape, the more symmetrical and +more skilfully designed it was, produced the effect of a verse in prose, +or of a hackneyed theme in a fantasia. Its special function was to +represent correctness, coldness, and stiffness amid the luxuriant +disorder of nature and the freedom of the other arts. But to-day, +instead of being the most tight-laced of the arts, architecture is the +freest and most wanton of them all. It is the chief element of +picturesqueness in our life, its artificial and veritably artistic +scenery lends to all the masterpieces of our painters and sculptors the +horizon of its perspective, the sky of its vaults, the tangled +vegetation of its innumerable colonnades, whose shafts are a copy of the +idealised trunk of all the antique essence of tree-life, whose capitals +imitate the idealised form of all the antique flowers. Here is nature +winnowed and perfected, which has become human in order to delight +humanity, and which humanity has deified in order to shelter love +beneath its shade. This perfection has only been, however, attained +after much groping in the dark. Many falls of rock, occasioned by +foolhardy excavations, which unduly reduced the number of supports, +swallowed up whole towns during the first two centuries. They will serve +for our descendants as Pompeii to rediscover. At the least shock +produced by earthquakes (the only natural plague which engages our +attention), a few cases of crushing to death still occur here and there, +but such accidents are very rare. + +To return to our subject. Each of our cities in founding colonies in the +region round it, has become the mother of cities similar to itself, in +which its own peculiar colour has been multiplied in different tints +which reflect and render it more beautiful. It is thus with us that +nations are formed whose differences no longer correspond to +geographical accidents but to the diversity of the social aptitudes of +human nature and of nothing else. Nay, more, in each of them the +division of cities is founded on that of schools, the most flourishing +of which, at any given moment, raises its particular town to the rank of +capital, thanks to the all-powerful favour of the public. + +The beginnings and devolution of power, questions which have so deeply +agitated humanity of yore, arise with us in the most natural way in the +world. There is always amid the crowd of our genius, a superior genius +who is hailed as such by the almost unanimous acclamation of his pupils +at first, and next of his comrades. A man is judged in fact by his peers +and according to his productions, not by the incompetent or according to +his electoral exploits. In the light of the intimate sense of corporate +life which binds and cements us one to another, the elevation of such a +dictator to the supreme magistracy has nothing humiliating about it for +the pride of the senators who have elected him, and who are the chiefs +of all the leading schools they themselves have created. The elector who +is a pupil, the elector who is an intelligent and sympathetic admirer +identifies himself with the object of his choice. Now it is the +particular characteristic of a "Geniocratic" Republic to be based on +admiration, not on envy, on sympathy, and not on dislike--on +enlightenment, not on illusion. + +Nothing is more delightful than a tour through our domains. Our towns, +which are quite close to one another are severally connected by broad +roads which are always illuminated and dotted with light and graceful +monocycles, with trains without smoke or whistle, with pretty electric +carriages which glide silently along, like gondolas between walls +covered with admirable bas-reliefs, with charming inscriptions, with +immortal fancies, the outpourings and accumulations of ten generations +of wandering artists. Similarly one might have seen in the olden times +the scanty remains of some convent where, in the course of ages the +monks had translated their weariness of spirit into grinning figures, +with hooded heads, into beasts from the Apocalypse, clumsily sculptured +on the capitals of the little pilasters or around the stone chair of the +Abbot. But what a distance lies between this monkish nightmare and this +artistic revelation! At the very most the pretty little gallery which +joined across the Arno, the museum of the Pitti Palace, with that of the +Uffizi at Florence, could give our ancestors a faint idea of what we +see. + +If the corridors of our abode possess this wealth and splendour, what +shall we say of the dwelling-places, or of the cities? They are filled +with heaps of artistic marvels, of frescoes, enamels, gold and silver +plate, bronzes and pictures, the acme and quintessence of musical +emotions, of philosophic conceptions, of poetic dreams, enough to baffle +all description, and weary all admiration. We have difficulty in +believing that the labyrinth of galleries, subterranean palaces and +marble catacombs, all named and numbered, whose manifold nomenclature +recalls all the geography and history of the past, have been excavated +in so few centuries. That is what perseverance can do! However +accustomed we may be to this extraordinary sight, it still at times +happens when wandering alone, during the hours of the siesta, in this +sort of infinite cathedral, with its irregular and endless architecture, +through this forest of lofty columns, massive or in close formation, +displaying in turn the most diversified and grandiose styles, Egyptian, +Greek, Byzantine, Arab, Gothic, and reminiscent of all the vanished and +venerated floras and faunas, when it is not above all profoundly +original ... it happens, I repeat, that panting, and beside ourselves +with ecstasy, we come to a standstill, like the traveller of yore when +he entered the twilight of a virgin forest, or of the pillared hall of +Karnak. + +To those who on reading the ancient accounts of travels might perchance +have regretted the wanderings of caravans across the deserts or the +discoveries of new worlds, our universe can offer boundless excursions +under the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans frozen to their very lowest +depths. Venturesome explorers, I was going to say discoverers, have in +every direction and in the easiest imaginable fashion honeycombed these +immense ice-caps with endless passages much in the same way as the +termites, according to our palaeontologists, bored through the floors of +our fathers. We extend at will these fantastic galleries of crystal, +which, wherever they cross one another, form so many crystal palaces, by +casting on the walls a ray of intense heat which makes them melt. We +take good care to drain the water due to the liquefaction into one of +those bottomless pits which here and there yawn hideously beneath our +feet. Thanks to this method and the improvements it has undergone we +have succeeded in cutting, hewing and carving the solidified sea-water. +We are able to glide through it, to manoeuvre in it, to course through +it on skates or velocipedes with an ease and agility that are always +admired in spite of our being accustomed to it. The severe cold of these +regions is scarcely tempered by millions of electric lamps which are +mirrored in these emerald-green icicles with their velvet-like tints and +renders a permanent stay impossible. It would even prevent us crossing +them if, by good luck, the earliest pioneers had not discovered in them +crowds of seals which had been caught while still alive by the freezing +of the waters in which they remain imprisoned. Their carefully prepared +skins have furnished us with warm clothing. Nothing is more curious than +thus suddenly to catch sight of, as it were through a mysterious glass +case, one of these huge marine animals, sometimes a whale, a shark or a +devil fish, and that star-like flora which carpets the seas. Though +appearing crystallized in its transparent prison, in its Elysium of pure +brine, it has lost none of its secret charm, that was quite unknown to +our ancestors. Idealised by its very lack of motion, immortalised by its +death, it dimly shines here and there with gleams of pearl and mother of +pearl in the twilight of the depths below, to the right, the left, +beneath the feet or above the head of the solitary skater who roams with +his lamp on his forehead in pursuit of the unknown. There is always +something new to look forward to from these miraculous soundings, so +different from the soundings of former time. Never a tourist has come +home without having discovered some interesting object--a piece of +wreckage, the steeple of some sunken town, a human skeleton to enrich +our prehistoric museums, sometimes a shoal of sardines or cod. These +splendid and timely reserves come in very handy for replenishing our +bill of fare. But the chief fascination of such adventurous exploration +is the sense of the boundless and the everlasting, of the unfathomable +and the changeless by which one is arrested and overwhelmed in these +bottomless depths. The savour of this silence and solitude, of this +profound peace, the sequel to so many tempests, of this almost starless +gloaming and twilight with its fleeting gleams, reposes the eye after +our underground illuminations. I will not speak of the surprises which +the hand of man has lavished there. At the moment when one least expects +it one sees the submarine tunnel along which one is gliding, enlarged +beyond all measure and transformed into a vast hall in which the fancy +of our sculptors has found full play, a temple of vast dimensions with +transparent pillars, with walls of enthralling beauty that the eye in +ecstasy attempts to fathom. That is often the trysting place of friends +and lovers, and the excursion begun in dreamy loneliness is continued in +loving companionship. + +But we have wandered long enough in these halls of mysteries. Let us +return to our cities. One would look, by the bye, in vain for a city of +lawyers there, or even, for a court of justice. There is no more arable +land and therefore no more lawsuits about property or ancient rights. +There are no more walls, and therefore no more lawsuits about party +walls. As for felonies and misdemeanours, we do not know exactly why, +but it is an obvious fact that with the spread of the cult of art they +have disappeared as by enchantment, while formerly the progress of +industrial life had tripled their numbers in half a century. + +Man in becoming a town dweller has become really human. From the time +that all sorts of trees and beasts, of flowers and insects no longer +interpose between men, and all sorts of vulgar wants no longer hinder +the progress of the truly human faculties, every one seems to be born +well-bred, just as every one is born a sculptor or musician, philosopher +or poet, and speaks the most correct language with the purest accent. An +indescribable courtesy, skilled to charm without falsehood, to please +without obsequiousness, the most free from fawning one has ever seen, is +united to a politeness which has at heart the feeling, not of a social +hierarchy to be respected, but of a social harmony to be maintained. It +is composed not of more or less degenerate airs of the court, but of +more or less faithful reflections of the heart. Its refinement is such +as the race who lived on the surface of earth never even dreamed of. It +permeates like a fragrant oil all the complicated and delicate machinery +of our existence. No unsociableness, no misanthropy can resist it. The +charm is too profound. The single threat of ostracism, I do not say of +expulsion to the realms above, which would be a death sentence, but of +banishment beyond the limits of the usual corporate life, is sufficient +to arrest the most criminal natures on the slope of crime. There is in +the slightest inflexion of voice, in the least inclination of the head +of our women a special charm, which is not only the charm of former +times, whether roguish kindness or kindly roguishness, but a refinement +at once more exquisite and more healthful in which the constant practice +of seeing and doing beautiful things or loving and being loved is +expressed in an ineffable fashion. + + + + +VI + +LOVE + + +Love, in fact, is the unseen and perennial source of this novel +courtesy. The capital importance it has assumed, the strange forms it +has worn, the unexpected heights to which it has risen, are perhaps the +most significant characteristics of our civilisation. In the glittering +and superficial epochs, age of paper and electro-plating, which +immediately preceded our present era, love was held in check by a +thousand childish needs, by the contagious mono-mania of unsightly and +cumbersome luxury or of ceaseless globe-trotting, and by that other form +of madness which has now disappeared, the so-called political ambition. +It suffered accordingly an immense decline, relatively speaking. To-day +it benefits from the destruction or gradual diminution of all the other +principal impulses of the heart which have taken refuge and concentrated +themselves in it as banished mankind has done in the warm bosom of the +earth. Patriotism is dead, since there is no longer any native land, but +only a native grot. Moreover the guilds which we enter as we please +according to our vocations have taken the place of Fatherlands. +Corporate spirit has exterminated patriotism. In the same fashion the +school is on the road not to exterminate but to transform the family, +which is only right and proper. The best that can be said for the +parents of old was that they were compulsory and not always cost-free +friends. One was not wrong in preferring in general to them friends who +are a species of optional and unselfish relations. Maternal love itself +has undergone a good many transformations among our women artists, and +one must admit, sundry partial set backs. + +But love is left to us. Or rather, be it said without vanity, it is we +who discovered and introduced it. Its name has preceded it by a good +many centuries. Our ancestors gave it its name, but they spoke of it as +the Hebrews spoke of the Messiah. It has revealed itself in our day. In +our day it has become incarnate, it has founded the true religion, +universal and enduring, that pure and austere moral which is +indistinguishable from art. It has been favoured at the outset, beyond +all doubt and beyond all expectation by the charm and beauty of our +women, who are all differently yet almost equally accomplished. There is +nothing _natural_ left in our world below if it be not they. But it +appears they have always been the most beautiful thing in nature even in +the most unfavourable and ill-favoured ages. For we are assured that +never was the graceful curve of hill or stream, of wave or rippling +cornfield, that never was the hue of the dawn or of the Mediterranean +equal in sweetness, in strength, in richness of visible music and +harmony to the female form. There must therefore have been a special +instinct which is quite incomprehensible which formerly retained the +poor beside their natal river or rock and prevented their emigrating to +the big towns, where they might well have hoped to admire at their ease +tints and outlines of beauty assuredly far superior to the charm of the +locality to whose attractions they fell a victim. At present there is no +other country than the woman of one's affections; there is no other +home-sickness than that caused by her absence. + +But the foregoing is insufficient to explain the unparalleled power and +persistence of our love which time intensifies more than it wears out, +and consummates as it consumes it. Love, we now at last know, is like +air, essential to life; we must look to it for health and not for mere +nourishment. It is as the sun once was, we must use it to give us light, +not allow it to dazzle us. It resembles that imposing temple that the +fervour of our fathers raised in its honour when they worshipped it, +unwittingly, at the Paris Opera-house. The most beautiful part of it is +the staircase--when one mounts it. We have therefore attempted to make +the staircase monopolise the whole edifice without leaving the tiniest +room for the hall. The wise man, an ancient writer has said, is to the +woman what the asymptote is to the curve, it draws ever nearer but never +touches. It was a half crazy fellow named Rousseau who uttered this +splendid aphorism and our society flatters itself that it has practised +it far better than he. All the same the ideal thus outlined, we are +compelled to confess, is rarely attained in all its entity. This degree +of perfection is reserved for the most saintly souls, the ascetics, men +and women, who wander together, two and two, in the most marvellous +cloisters, in the most Raphaelesque cells in the city of painters, in a +sort of artificial dusk produced by a coloured twilight in the midst of +a throng of similar couples, and on the banks of a stream so to say of +audacious and splendid revelations of the nude. They pass their life in +feasting their eyes on these waves of beauty, the living bank of which +is their own passion. Together they climb the fiery steps of the +heavenly staircase to the very summit on which they halt. Then supremely +inspired they set to work and produce masterpieces. Heroic lovers are +they whose whole pleasure in love consists in the sublime joy of feeling +their love growing within them, blissful because it is shared, inspiring +because it is chaste. + +But for the greater number of us it has been necessary to come down to +the level of the insurmountable weakness of the old Adam. None the less +the inelastic limits of our food supplies have made it a duty for us +rigorously to guard against a possible excess in our population which +has reached to-day fifty millions, a figure it can never exceed without +danger. We have been obliged to forbid in general under the most severe +penalties a practice which apparently was very common and indulged in +_ad libitum_ by our forefathers. Is it possible that after manufacturing +the rubbish heaps of law with which our libraries are lumbered up, they +precisely omitted to regulate the only matter considered worthy to-day +of regulation? Can we conceive that it could ever have been permissible +to the first comer without due authorisation to expose society to the +arrival of a new hungry and wailing member--above all at a time when it +was not possible to kill a partridge without a game licence, or to +import a sack of corn without paying duty? Wiser and more far-sighted, +we degrade, and in case of a second offence we condemn to be thrown into +a lake of petroleum, whoever allows himself to infringe our +constitutional law on this point, or rather we should say, should allow +himself, for the force of public opinion has got the better of the crime +and has rendered our penalties unnecessary. We sometimes, nay very +often, see lovers who go mad from love and die in consequence. Others +courageously get themselves hoisted by a lift to the gaping mouth of an +extinct volcano and reach the outer air which in a moment freezes them +to death. They have scarcely time to regard the azure sky--a magnificent +spectacle, so they say--and the twilight hues of the still dying sun or +the vast and unstudied disorder of the stars; then locked in each +other's arms they fall dead upon the ice! The summit of their favourite +volcano is completely crowned with their corpses which are admirably +preserved always in twos, stark and livid, a living image still of love +and agony, of despair and frenzy, but more often of ecstatic repose. +They recently made an indelible impression on a celebrated traveller who +was bold enough to make the ascent in order to get a glimpse of them. We +all know how he has since died from the effects. + +But what is unheard of and unexampled in our day is for a woman in love +to abandon herself to her lover before the latter has under her +inspiration produced a masterpiece which is adjudged and proclaimed as +such by his rivals. For here we have the indispensable condition to +which legitimate marriage is subordinated. The right to have children is +the monopoly and supreme recompense of genius. It is besides a powerful +lever for the uplifting and exaltation of the race. Futhermore a man can +only exercise it exactly the same number of times as he produces works +worthy of a master. But in this respect some indulgence is shown. It +even happens pretty frequently that touched by pity for some grand +passion that disposes only of a mediocre talent, the affected admiration +of the public partly from sympathy and partly from condescension accords +a favourable verdict to works of no intrinsic value. Perhaps there are +also (in fact there is no doubt about it) for common use other methods +of getting round the law. + +Ancient society reposed on the fear of punishment, on a penal system +which has had its day. Ours, it is clear, is based on the expectation of +happiness. The enthusiasm and creative fire aroused by such a +perspective are attested by our exhibitions, and borne witness to by the +rich luxuriance of our annual art harvests. When we think of the +precisely opposite effects of ancient marriage, that institution of our +ancestors, more ridiculous still than their umbrellas, one can measure +the distance between this excessive and pretended exclusive _debitum +conjugale_ and our mode of union, at once free and regulated, energetic +and intermittent, passionate and restrained, the true corner-stone of +our regenerated humanity. The sufferings it imposes on those who are +sacrificed, the unsuccessful artists, is not for the latter a cause of +complaint. Their despair itself is dear to the desperate; for if they do +not die of it, they draw life and immortality from it and from the +bottomless pit of their inner depth of woe, they gather deathless +flowers, flowers of art or poesy for some, mystic roses for others. To +the latter perhaps is given at that moment, as they grope in their +inward darkness to touch most nearly the essence of things, and these +delights are so vivid that our artists and our metaphysical mystics +wonder whether art and philosophy were made to console love or if the +sole reason for love's existence is not to inspire art and the pursuit +of ultimate truth. This last opinion has generally prevailed. + +The extent to which love has refined our habits, and to which our +civilisation based on love is superior in morality to the former +civilisation based on ambition and covetousness, was proved at the time +of the great discovery which took place in the Year of Salvation 194. +Guided by some mysterious inkling, some electric sense of direction, a +bold sapper by dint of forcing his way through the flanks of the earth +beyond the ordinary galleries suddenly penetrated into a strange open +space buzzing with human voices and swarming with human faces. But what +squeaky voices! What sallow complexions! What an impossible language +with no connection with our Greek! It was, without doubt, a veritable +underground America, quite as vast and still more curious. It was the +work of a little tribe of burrowing Chinese who had had, one imagines, +the same idea as our Miltiades. Much more practical than he, they had +hastily crawled underground without encumbering themselves with museums +and libraries, and there they had multiplied enormously. Instead of +confining themselves as we to turning to account the deposits of animal +carcasses, they had shamelessly given themselves up to ancestral +cannibalism. They were thus enabled, seeing the thousand of millions of +Chinese destroyed and buried beneath the snow, to give full vent to +their prolific instincts. Alas! who knows if our own descendants will +not one day be reduced to this extremity? In what promiscuity, in what a +slough of greed, falsehood and robbery were these unfortunates living! +The words of our language refuse to depict their filth and coarseness. +With infinite pains they raised underground diminutive vegetables in +diminutive beds of soil they had brought thither together with +diminutive pigs and dogs.... These ancient servants of mankind appeared +very disgusting to our new Christopher Columbus. These degraded beings +(I speak of the masters and not of the animals, for the latter belong to +a breed that has been much improved by those who raised them) had lost +all recollection of the Middle Empire and even of the surface of the +earth. They heartily laughed when some of our _savants_ sent on a +mission to them spoke to them of the firmament, the sun, the moon and +the stars.... They listened, however, to the end of these accounts, then +in an ironical tone they asked our envoys: "Have you seen all that?" And +the latter unfortunately could not reply to the question, since no one +among us has seen the sky except the lovers who go to die together. + +Now, what did our settlers do at the sight of such cerebral atrophy? +Several proposed, it is true, to exterminate these savages who might +well become dangerous owing to their cunning and to their numbers, and +to appropriate their dwelling-place after a certain amount of cleaning +and painting and the removal of numerous little bells. Others proposed +to reduce them to the status of slaves or servants in order to shift on +to them all our menial work. But these two proposals were rejected. An +attempt was made to civilize and to render less savage these poor +cousins, and once the impossibility of any success in that direction had +been ascertained the partition was carefully blocked up. + + + + +VII + +THE AESTHETIC LIFE + + +Such is the moral miracle wrought by our excellence which itself is +begotten of love and beauty. But the intellectual marvels which have +issued from the same source, merit a still more extended notice. It will +be enough for me to indicate them as I go along. + +Let us first speak of the sciences. One might have thought that from the +day that the stars and celestial bodies, the faunas and floras, ceased +to play a certain part in our lives or that the manifold sources of +observation and experience ceased to flow, astronomy and meteorology +would henceforth be brought to a standstill while zoology and botany +would have become palaeontology pure and simple, without speaking of +their application to the navy, army and agriculture, which are all +to-day entirely obsolete; in fact, that they would have ceased to make a +step forward and would have fallen into complete oblivion. Luckily these +apprehensions proved groundless. Let us admire the extent to which the +sciences which the past has bequeathed to us, formerly eminently useful +and inductive, have for the first time had the advantage of passionately +interesting and exciting the general public since they have acquired +this double characteristic of being an object of luxury and a deductive +subject. The past has accumulated such undigested masses of astronomical +tables, papers and proceedings dealing with measurements, vivisections, +and innumerable experiments, that the human mind can live on this +capital till the end of time. It was high time that it began at last to +arrange and utilize these materials. Now, for the sciences of which I am +speaking, the advantage is great from the point of view of their success +that they are entirely based on written testimony, and in no way on +sense perception, and that they on all occasions invoke the authority of +books (for we talk to-day of whole bibliographies when formerly people +spoke of a single Bible--evidently an immense difference). This great +and inestimable advantage consists in the extraordinary riches of our +libraries in documents of the most diverse kinds which never leaves an +ingenious theorist in the lurch, and is equal to supporting in a plenary +and authoritative fashion the most contradictory opinions at one and the +same symposium. Its abundance recalls the admirable wealth of antique +legislation and jurisprudence in texts and decisions of every hue which +rendered the lawsuits so interesting, almost as much as the battles of +the populace of Alexandria on the subject of a theological iota. The +debates of our _savants_, their polemics relative to the Vitellin yolk +of the egg of the Arachneida, or the digestive apparatus of the +Infusoria, constitute the burning questions which distress us, and which +if we had the misfortune to possess a regular press, would not fail to +drench our streets in gore. For the questions which are useless and even +harmful have always the knack of rousing the passions, provided they are +insoluble. + +These are our religious quarrels. In fact the sum total of the sciences +bequeathed to us by the past has become definitely and inevitably a +religion. Our _savants_ to-day who work deductively on these data from +henceforth changeless and inviolate, exactly recall on a much larger +scale the theologians of the ancient world. This new encyclopaedic +theology, not less fertile than others in schisms and heresies, is the +unique but inexhaustible source of divisions in the bosom of our Church +which is otherwise so compact. It is perhaps the most profound and +fascinating charm of our intellectual leaders. + +"All the same, they are dead sciences!" say certain malcontents. Let us +accept the epithet. They are dead, if one likes, but after the fashion +of those languages in which a whole people chanted its hymns although no +one speaks them any longer. This is also the case with certain faces +whose beauty only appears in its fulness when their last sleep has come. +Let none therefore be surprised if our love fastens on these majestic +dogmas, by which we are more and more overshadowed, on these higher +inutilities which are our vocation. Above all, mathematics, as being the +most perfect type of the new sciences, has progressed with giant steps. +Descending to fabulous depths, analysis has allowed the astronomers at +length to attack and to solve problems whose mere statement would have +provoked an incredulous smile in their predecessors. And so they +discover every day, chalk in hand, not with the telescope to the eye, I +know not how many intra-mercurial or extra-neptunian planets, and begin +to distinguish the planets of the nearer stars. There are in this +department, in the comparative anatomy and physiology of numerous solar +systems, the most novel and profound views. Our Leverriers are reckoned +by hundreds. Being all the better acquainted with the sky because they +no longer see it, they resemble Beethoven, who only wrote his finest +symphonies when he had lost his hearing. Our Claude Bernards and +Pasteurs are almost as numerous. Although we are careful as a matter of +fact not to accord to the natural sciences the exaggerated and +fundamentally anti-social importance they formerly usurped during two or +three centuries, we do not completely neglect them. Even the applied +sciences have their votaries. Recently one of the latter has at last +discovered--such is the irony of destiny--the practical means of +steering balloons. These discoveries are useless, I admit, yet are ever +beautiful and fertile, fertile in new, if superfluous, beauties. They +are welcomed with transports of feverish enthusiasm and win for their +originators something better than glory,--the happiness that we know so +well. + +But among the sciences there are two which are still experimental and +inductive and in addition pre-eminently useful. It is to this +exceptional standing that they perhaps owe, we must admit, the +unparalled rapidity with which they have grown. These two sciences which +were formerly the antipodes of one another, are to-day on the high road +to becoming identical by dint of pushing their joint researches ever +deeper and crushing to atoms the last problems left. Their names are +chemistry and psychology. + +Our chemists, inspired perhaps by love and better instructed in the +nature of affinities, force their way into the inner life of the +molecules and reveal to us their desires, their ideas, and under a +fallacious air of conformity, their individual physiognomy. While they +thus construct for us the psychology of the atom, our psychologists +explain to us the atomic theory of self, I was going to say the +sociology of self. They enable us to perceive, even in its most minute +detail, the most admirable of all societies, this hierarchy of +consciousness, this feudal system of vassal souls, of which our +personality is the summit. We are indebted to them both for priceless +benefits. Thanks to the former we are no longer alone in a frozen world. +We are conscious that these rocks are alive and animated, we are +conscious that these hard metals which protect and warm us are likewise +a prolific brotherhood. Through their mediation these living stones have +some message for our heart, something at once alien and intimate, which +neither the stars nor the flowers of the field ever told to our +forefathers. And by their mediation also, and the service is not to be +despised--we have learnt certain processes which allow us (in a scanty +measure, it is true, for the moment) to supplement the insufficiency of +our ordinary food supplies, or to vary their monotony by several +substances agreeable to the taste and entirely compounded by artificial +means. But if our chemists have thus reassured us against the danger of +dying of hunger, our psychologists have acquired still further claims on +our gratitude in freeing us from the fear of death. Permeated by their +doctrines we have followed their consequences to their final conclusion +with the deductive vigour that is second nature with us. Death appears +to us as a dethronement that leads to freedom. It restores to itself the +fallen or abdicated self that retires anew into its inner consciousness, +where it finds in depths more than the equivalent of the outward empire +it has lost. In thinking of the terrors of former man, face to face with +the tomb, we compare them with the dread experienced by the comrades of +Miltiades when they were compelled to bid adieu to the fields of ice, to +the snowy horizons, in order to enter for ever the gloomy abysses in +which such a myriad of glittering and marvellous surprises awaited them. + +That is a well-established doctrine and one on which no discussion would +be tolerated. It is, with our devotion to beauty and our faith in the +divine omnipotence of love, the foundation of our peace of mind and the +starting point of our enthusiasms. Our philosophers themselves avoid +touching on it, as on all which is fundamental in our institutions. To +this perhaps may be traced an agreeable air of harmlessness which adds +to the charm of their refinement and contributes to their success in +public. With such certainties as ballast we can spring with a light +heart into the aether of systems, and so we do not fail to do so. One may +be surprised, however, that I made a distinction between our +philosophers and those deductive _savants_ of whom I have spoken above. +Their subject-matter and their methods are identical. They chew the +cud--if I may be allowed the expression--in the same fashion at the same +mangers. But the one group, I mean the _savants_, are ordinary +ruminants, that is, slow and clumsy. The others have the peculiar +quality of being at once ruminants and nimble, like the antelope. And +this difference of temperament is indelible. + +There is not, I have already said, a city, but there is a grotto of +philosophers, a natural one to which they come, and sit apart from one +another or in groups, according to their schools, on chairs formed of +granite blocks beside a petrifying well. This spacious grotto contains +astounding stalactites, the slow product of continuous droppings which +vaguely imitate, in the eyes of those who are not too critical, all +kinds of beautiful objects, cups and chandeliers, cathedrals and +mirrors--cups which quench no man's thirst, chandeliers which give no +light, cathedrals in which no one prays, but mirrors in which one sees +oneself more or less faithfully and pleasantly portrayed. There also is +to be seen a gloomy and bottomless lake over which hang like so many +question-marks, the pendants in the sombre roof and the beards of the +thinkers. Such is the ample cave which is exactly identical to the +philosophy it shelters, with its crystals sparkling amid its uncertain +shadows--full of precipices, it is true. It recalls better than anything +else to the new race of men, but with a still greater portion of +mirage-like fascination, that diurnal miracle of our forefathers--the +starry night. Now the crowd of systematic ideas which slowly form and +crystallise there in each brain like mental stalactites is indescribably +enormous. While all the former stalactites of thought are for ever +ramifying and changing their shape, turning as it were from a table into +an altar, or from an eagle into a griffin, new ideas appear here and +there still more surprising. There are always, of course, +Neo-Aristotelians, Neo-Kantians, Neo-Cartesians, and Neo-Pythagoricians. +Let us not forget the commentators of Empedocles to whom his passion for +the volcanic underworld has procured an unexpected rejuvenation of his +antique authority on the minds of men, above all since an archaeologist +has maintained he has found the skeleton of this grand man in pushing an +exploring gallery to the very foot of AEtna which to-day is completely +extinct. But there is ever arising some great reformer with an +unpublished gospel that each attempts to enrich with a new version +destined to take its place. I will cite for example the greatest +intellect of our time, the chief of the fashionable school in sociology. +According to this profound thinker the social development of humanity, +starting on the outer rind of the earth and continuing to-day beneath +its crust, at no great distance from the surface, is destined in +proportion to the growing solar and planetary cooling, to pursue its +course from strata to strata down to the very centre of the earth, while +the population forcibly contracts and civilisation on the contrary +expands at each new descent. It is worth seeing the vigour and +Dante-like precision with which he characterises the social type +peculiar to each of these humanities, immured within its own circle, +growing ever nobler and richer, happier and better balanced. One should +read the portrait which he has limned with a bold brush of the last man, +sole survivor and heir of a hundred successive civilisations, left to +himself yet self-sufficient in the midst of his immense stores of +science and art. He is happy as a god because he is omniscient and +omnipotent, because he has just discovered the true answer of the Great +Enigma, yet dying because he cannot survive humanity. By means of an +explosive substance of extraordinary potency he blows up the globe with +himself in order to sow the immensity of space with the last remnants of +mankind. This system very naturally has a good many adherents. The +graceful Hypatias, however, who form his female followers, idly lying +round the master's stone, are agreed it would be proper to associate +with the last man, the last woman, not less ideal than he. + +But what shall I say of art and poetry? Here to be just, praise must +become panegyric. Let us limit ourselves to indicating the general +tendency of the transformations that have taken place. I have related +what has become of our architecture which has been turned "outside in", +so to say, and brought into keeping with its surroundings, the idealised +image in stone, the essence and consummation of former Nature. I shall +not return to the subject. But I must still say a word about this +immortal and overflowing population of statues, this wealth of frescoes, +enamels, and bronzes which in concert with our poetry celebrate in this +architectural transfiguration of the nether world the apotheosis of +love. There would be an interesting study to make on the gradual +metamorphoses that the genius of our painters and sculptors has imposed +for the last three centuries on these traditional types of lions, +horses, tigers, birds, trees and flowers, with which it is never weary +of disporting itself, without being either helped or hindered by the +sight of any animal or any plant. Never, in fact, have our artists, who +protest strongly against being taken for photographers, depicted so many +plants, animals and landscapes, than since these were no more. +Similarly, they have never painted or sculptured so many draperies, +since everyone goes about almost naked, while formerly at the time when +humanity wore clothes the nude abounded in art. Does it mean that +nature, now dead and formerly alive, from which our great masters drew +their subjects and themes, has become a simple hieroglyphic and coldly +conventional alphabet? No. Daughter to-day of tradition and no longer of +productive nature, humanised and harmonised, she has a still firmer hold +on the heart. If she recalls to each his day-dreams rather than his +recollections, his imaginings rather than his impressions, his +admiration as an artist rather than his terror as a child, she is only +the better calculated to fascinate and subdue. She has for us the +profound and intimate charm of an old legend, but it is a legend in +which one believes. + +Nothing is more inspiring. Such must have been the mythology of the +worthy Homer when his hearers in the Cyclades still believed in +Aphrodite and Pallas, in the Dioscuri and the Centaurs, of whom he spoke +to them and wrung from them tears of sheer delight. Thus our poets make +us weep, when they speak to us now of azure skies, of the sea-girt +horizon, of the perfume of roses, of the song of birds, of all those +objects that our eye has never seen, our ear has never heard, of which +all our senses are ignorant, yet our mind conjures them up within us by +a strange instinct at the least suggestion of love. + +And when our painters show us these horses whose legs grow ever slimmer, +these swans whose necks become ever rounder and longer, these vines +whose leaves and branches grow ever more intricate with their lace-like +edges and arabesques interwoven round still more exquisite birds, a +matchless emotion rises within us such as a young Greek might have felt +before a bas-relief crowded with fauns and nymphs or with Argonautes +bearing off the Golden Fleece, or with Nereids sporting around the cup +of Amphitrite. + +If our architecture in spite of all its splendours seems but a simple +foil of our other fine arts, they in their turn, however admirable, have +the air of being barely worthy to illustrate our poetry and literature +graven on stone. But in our poetry and even in our literature there are +glories which in comparison with less obvious beauty are as the corona +is to the ovary, or the frame to the picture. Read our romantic dramas +and epics in which all ancient history is magically unrolled down to the +heroic struggle and love story of Miltiades. You will decide that +nothing more sublime could ever be written. Read also our idylls, our +elegies, our epigrams inspired by antiquity, and our poetry of every +kind written in a dozen dead languages which when desired revive in +order to vivify with their clear notes and their manifold harmonies, the +pleasure of our ear, to accompany, so to say, with their rich +orchestration in English, German, Swedish, Arabic, Italian and French, +the music of our pure Attic. You will imagine nothing more fascinating +than this renaissance and transfiguration of forgotten idioms, once the +glory of antiquity. As for our dramas and our poems which are often at +once the collective and individual work of a school, incarnate in its +chief and animated with a single idea like the sculptures of the +Parthenon, there is nothing comparable in the masterpieces of Sophocles +or Homer. What the extinct species of nature formerly alive are to our +painters and sculptors, the no less extinct sentiments of former human +nature are to our dramatists. Jealousy, ambition, patriotism, +fanaticism, the mad lust of battle, the exalted love of family, the +pride of an illustrious name, all the vanished passions of the heart +when called up upon the stage, no longer cause tears or terror in a +single soul, any more than the heraldic tigers and lions painted up on +our public squares frighten our children. But in a new accent with quite +a different ring, they speak to us their ancient language; and to tell +the truth, they are only a grand piano on which our new passions play. +Now there is but a single passion for all its thousand names, as there +is above but a single sun. It is love, the soul of our soul and source +of our art. That is the true sun which will never fail us, which is +never weary of touching and reanimating with the light of its +countenance its lower creations of yore, the first-born incarnations of +the heart, in order to make them young once more, in order to re-gild +them with its dawns, and reincarnadine them with its setting splendours; +almost in the same fashion as it sufficed the other sun to compass with +a single ray that august summons to deck the earth, addressed to every +ancient plant of the field, awakening it to bloom anew, that grand +yearly transformation scene, so deceptive and entrancing, which they +named the Spring, when there was still a Spring to name! + +And so for our highly refined writers, all that I have just praised a +moment ago has no value if their heart is left untouched. They would +give for one true and personal note all these feats of skill and sleight +of hand. What they look for under the most grandiose conceptions and +stage effects, and under the most audacious novelties in rhyme; what +they adore on bended knee when they have found it, is a short passage, a +line, half a line, on which an imperceptible hint of profound passion, +or the most fleeting phase, though unexpressed, of love in joy, in +suffering or in death has left its impress. Thus at the beginning of +humanity each tint of the dawn or the dusk, each hour of the day was, +for the first man who gave it a name, a new solar god who soon possessed +worshippers, priests and temples of his own. But to analyse sensations +after the manner of the old-fashioned erotic writers gives us no +trouble. The real difficulty and merit lie in gathering along with our +mystics, from the lowest depths of sorrow, its flowers of ecstasy, the +pearls and coral that lie at the bottom of its sea, and to enrich the +soul in its own eyes. Our purest poetry thus joins hands with our most +profound psychology. One is the oracle, the other the dogma of one and +the same religion. + +And yet is it credible? In spite of its beauty, harmony and incomparable +charm, our society has also its malcontents. There are here and there +certain recusants who declare they are soaked and saturated with the +essence, so remarkably pure and so much above proof, of our excessive +and compulsory society. They find our realm of beauty too static, our +atmosphere of happiness too tranquil. In vain to please them we vary +from time to time the intensity and colouring of our illuminations and +ventilate our colonnades with a kind of refreshing breeze. They persist +in condemning as monotonous our day devoid of clouds or night; our year, +devoid of seasons; our towns devoid of country-life. Very curiously when +the month of May comes round, this feeling of restlessness which they +alone experience at ordinary times, becomes contagious and well-nigh +general. And so it is the most melancholy and least busy month of the +year. One would say that the Spring driven from every place, from the +gloomy immensity of the heavens and from the frozen surface of the earth +has, as we, sought refuge under ground; or rather that her wandering +ghost returns at stated seasons to visit us and tantalise us by her +haunting presence. It is then that the city of the musicians grows full +and their music becomes so sweet, pathetic, mournful, and desperately +harrowing that we see lovers by hundreds at a time take each other by +the hand and go up to gaze upon the death-dealing sky.... In reference +to this I ought to say that there was recently a false alarm caused by a +madman who pretended he had seen the sun coming back to life and melting +the ice. At this news which had not been otherwise confirmed, quite a +considerable portion of the population became unsettled and gave itself +up to the pleasing task of forming plans for an early exodus. Such +unhealthy and revolutionary dreams evidently only serve to foment +artificial discontent. + +Luckily a scholar in rummaging in a forgotten corner of the archives put +his hand on a big collection of phonographic and cinematographic records +which had been amassed by an ancient collector. Interpreted by the +phonograph and cinematograph together, these cylinders and films have +enabled us suddenly to hear all the former sounds in nature accompanied +by their corresponding sights, the thunder, the winds, the mountain +torrents, the murmurs that accompany the dawn, the monotonous cry of the +osprey and the long drawn out lament of the nightingale amid the +manifold whisperings of night. At this resurrection of another age to +the ear and eye, of extinct species and vanished phenomena, an immense +astonishment quickly followed by an immense disillusion arose among the +most ardent partisans of a return to the ancient regime. For that was +not what one had hitherto believed on the strength of what even the most +realist poets and novelists had told us. It was something infinitely +less ravishing and less worthy of our regret. The song of the +nightingale above all provoked a most unpleasant surprise. We were all +angry with it for showing itself so inferior to its reputation. +Assuredly the worst of our concerts is more musical than this so-called +symphony of nature with full orchestral accompaniment. + +Thus has been quelled by an ingenious expedient entirely unknown to +former governments, this first and only attempt at rebellion. May it be +the last. A certain leaven of discord is beginning, alas, to contaminate +our ranks, and our moralists observe not without apprehension sundry +symptoms which indicate the relaxation of our morals. The growth in our +population is very disquieting, notably since certain chemical +discoveries, following upon which we have been too much in a hurry to +declare that bread might be made of stones, and that it was no longer +worth while to husband our food supplies or to trouble ourselves to +maintain at a certain limit the number of mouths to feed. + +Simultaneously with the increase in the number of children, there is a +diminution in the number of masterpieces. Let us hope that this +lamentable movement will soon abate. If the sun once more, as after the +different glacial epochs, succeeds in awakening from his lethargy and +regains fresh strength, let us pray that only a small part of our +population, that which is the most light-headed, the most unruly, and +the most deeply attacked by incurable "matrimonialitis", will avail +itself of the seeming yet deceptive advantages offered by this open air +cure and will make a dash upwards for the freedom of those inclement +climes! But this is highly improbable if one reflects on the advanced +age of the sun and the danger of those relapses common to old age. It is +still less desirable. Let us repeat in the words of Miltiades our august +ancestor, blessed are those stars which are extinct, that is to say, the +almost entire number of those which people space. Radiance, as he truly +said, is to the stars what the flowering season is to the plants. After +having flowered, they begin to bear fruit. Thus, doubtless, weary of +expansion and the useless squandering of their strength through the +infinite void, the stars collect the germs of higher life in order to +fertilize them in the depth of their bosom. The deceptive brilliancy of +these widely scattered stars, so relatively few in number, which are +still alight, which have not finished sowing what Miltiades called their +wild oats of light and heat, prevented the first race of men from +thinking of this, to wit of the numberless and tranquil multitude of +dark stars to whom this radiance served as a cloak. But as for us, +delivered from their spell and freed from this immemorial optical +delusion, we continue firmly to believe that, among the stars as among +mankind, the most brilliant are not the best, and that the same causes +have brought about elsewhere the same results, compelling other races of +men to hide themselves in the bosom of their earth, and there in peace +to pursue the happy course of their destiny under unique conditions of +absolute independence and purity, that in short in the heavens as on the +earth true happiness lives concealed. + + + + +NOTE ON TARDE + + +Gabriel Tarde was originally a member of the legal profession. For a +long time he was examining magistrate at Sarlat. His works on sociology +and criminology revealed him to the public. He was appointed head of the +Statistical bureau at the Ministry of Justice, a post in which he was +able to obtain first hand the most precious documents for his social +studies. Later he was elected to the chair of modern philosophy at the +College of France, then he was elected member of the Academy of moral +and political sciences in the philosophical section. He died in 1904. + +Tarde wrote a great deal. His flexibility of spirit and style add charm +to his work on technical subjects. In criminology his principal works +are: "The Philosophy of Punishment", "The Professional Criminal", +"Comparative Criminality" (1898);--then come the political works, such +as "The Transformation of Power" (1899). His "Transformation of Law" +dates from 1894. His study in social psychology entitled "Opinion and +the Masses" appeared in 1901. His most celebrated work is perhaps "The +Laws of Imitation" (1900) which was preceded by his "Social Logic" +(1898) and his "Universal Opposition" (1897). + +According to Tarde the social phenomena proceed from individual +inventions which in their turn are the offspring of imitation: the +latter is for Tarde a capital factor in social life. Original ideas or +inventions germinate ceaselessly in the social _milieu_, but only some, +either by their superior adaptability or through the peculiar authority +of their inventor, are accepted by the public as a whole. Sociology is +thus reduced to a Psychology of the _processus_ of invention and +imitations. This explains why the great effort of Tarde has been to +discover the "Laws of Invention". Thereby he has given in sociology a +preponderating place to the individual, and the accidental, and has thus +separated himself from the most general tendencies of thought in our +times which are those of Comte. + +The style of Tarde is abstract but supple. This fragment of future +History forms a kind of exception to his general work which is very +abstract. Tarde reveals himself in it one of the masters of literary +French. The style is picturesque, intense, broad, even periodic, novel +in respect to the thought, and entirely classical in its purity. + +Joseph Manchon. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Underground Man, by Gabriel Tarde + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNDERGROUND MAN *** + +***** This file should be named 33549.txt or 33549.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/5/4/33549/ + +Produced by Christine Bell and Marc D'Hooghe at +http://www.freeliterature.org + + +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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