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Authors: Travelers In Time
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are—gradually by selective breeding; now a new and better peach, now a seedless grape, now a sweeter and larger flower, now a more convenient breed of cattle. We improve them gradually, because our ideals are vague and tentative, and our knowledge is very limited; because Nature, too, is shy and slow in our clumsy hands. Some day all this will be better organised, and still better. That is the drift of the current in spite of the eddies. The whole world will be intelligent, educated, and co-operating; things will move faster and faster towards the subjugation of Nature. In the end, wisely and carefully we shall readjust the balance of animal and vegetable life to suit our human needs.
"This adjustment, I say, must have been done, and done well; done indeed for all Time, in the space of Time across which my machine had leaped. The air was free from gnats, the earth from weeds or fungi; everywhere were fruits and sweet and delightful flowers; brilliant butterflies flew hither and thither. The ideal of preventive medicine was attained. Diseases had been stamped out. I saw no evidence of any contagious diseases during all my stay. And I shall have to tell you later that even the processes of putrefaction and decay had been profoundly affected by these changes.
"Social triumphs, too, had been effected. I saw mankind housed in splendid shelters, gloriously clothed, and as yet I had found them engaged in no toil. There were no signs of struggle, neither social nor economical struggle. The shop, the advertisement, traffic, all that commerce which constitutes the body of our world, was gone. It was natural on that golden evening that I should jump at the idea of a social paradise. The difficulty of increasing population had been met, I guessed, and population had ceased to increase.
"But with this change in condition come inevitably adaptations to the
change. What, unless biological science is a mass of errors, is the cause of
human intelligence and vigour? Hardship and freedom: conditions under which
the active, strong, and subtle survive and the weaker go to the wall;
conditions that put a premium upon the loyal alliance of capable men, upon
self-restraint, patience, and decision. And the institution of the family, and
the emotions that arise therein, the fierce jealousy, the tenderness for
offspring, parental self-devotion, all found their justification and support in
the imminent dangers of the young. Now, where are these imminent dangers? There
is a sentiment arising, and it will grow, against connubial jealousy, against
fierce maternity, against passion of all sorts; unnecessary things now, and
things that make us uncomfortable, savage survivals, discords in a refined and
pleasant life.
"I thought of the physical slightness of the
people, their lack of intelligence, and those big abundant ruins, and it
strengthened my belief in a perfect conquest of Nature. For after the battle
comes Quiet. Humanity has been strong, energetic, and intelligent, and had used
all its abundant vitality to alter the conditions under which it lived. And now
came the reaction of the altered conditions.
"Under
the new conditions of perfect comfort and security that restless energy, that
with us is strength, would become weakness. Even in our own time certain
tendencies and desires, once necessary to survival, are a constant source of
failure. Physical courage and the love of battle, for instance, are no great
help—may even be hindrances— to a civilised man. And in a state of physical
balance and security, power, intellectual as well as physical, would be out of
place. For countless years I judged
there had been no danger of war or solitary violence, no danger from wild
beasts, no wasting disease to require strength of constitution, no need of
toil. For such a life, what we should call the weak are as well equipped as the
strong, are indeed no longer weak. Better equipped indeed they are, for the
strong would be fretted by an energy for which
"This adjustment, I say, must have been done, and done well; done indeed for all Time, in the space of Time across which my machine had leaped. The air was free from gnats, the earth from weeds or fungi; everywhere were fruits and sweet and delightful flowers; brilliant butterflies flew hither and thither. The ideal of preventive medicine was attained. Diseases had been stamped out. I saw no evidence of any contagious diseases during all my stay. And I shall have to tell you later that even the processes of putrefaction and decay had been profoundly affected by these changes.
"Social triumphs, too, had been effected. I saw mankind housed in splendid shelters, gloriously clothed, and as yet I had found them engaged in no toil. There were no signs of struggle, neither social nor economical struggle. The shop, the advertisement, traffic, all that commerce which constitutes the body of our world, was gone. It was natural on that golden evening that I should jump at the idea of a social paradise. The difficulty of increasing population had been met, I guessed, and population had ceased to increase.
"But with this change in condition come inevitably adaptations to the
change. What, unless biological science is a mass of errors, is the cause of
human intelligence and vigour? Hardship and freedom: conditions under which
the active, strong, and subtle survive and the weaker go to the wall;
conditions that put a premium upon the loyal alliance of capable men, upon
self-restraint, patience, and decision. And the institution of the family, and
the emotions that arise therein, the fierce jealousy, the tenderness for
offspring, parental self-devotion, all found their justification and support in
the imminent dangers of the young. Now, where are these imminent dangers? There
is a sentiment arising, and it will grow, against connubial jealousy, against
fierce maternity, against passion of all sorts; unnecessary things now, and
things that make us uncomfortable, savage survivals, discords in a refined and
pleasant life.
"I thought of the physical slightness of the
people, their lack of intelligence, and those big abundant ruins, and it
strengthened my belief in a perfect conquest of Nature. For after the battle
comes Quiet. Humanity has been strong, energetic, and intelligent, and had used
all its abundant vitality to alter the conditions under which it lived. And now
came the reaction of the altered conditions.
"Under
the new conditions of perfect comfort and security that restless energy, that
with us is strength, would become weakness. Even in our own time certain
tendencies and desires, once necessary to survival, are a constant source of
failure. Physical courage and the love of battle, for instance, are no great
help—may even be hindrances— to a civilised man. And in a state of physical
balance and security, power, intellectual as well as physical, would be out of
place. For countless years I judged
there had been no danger of war or solitary violence, no danger from wild
beasts, no wasting disease to require strength of constitution, no need of
toil. For such a life, what we should call the weak are as well equipped as the
strong, are indeed no longer weak. Better equipped indeed they are, for the
strong would be fretted by an energy for which
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