/v Tale^of l^e ruture. 
 
 Kenncflr -olinjjsby. 
 

 DUKE UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 The Glenn Negley Collection 
 of Utopian Literature 
 

 
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 MED A : 
 
 A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 Duke University Libraries 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/medataleoffutureOOfoli 
 
MED A : 
 
 A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 AS RELATED BY 
 
 KENNETH FOLINGSBY. 
 
 PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION. 
 
 Entered at Stationers' Hall.'] [All Rights Reserved. 
 

 PREFACE. 
 
 "Meda: a Tale of the Future," was written 
 during the year 1888. Some friends having 
 seen the MS. expressed a desire to have 
 printed copies. To gratify the wishes of these 
 indulgent readers this little book has been 
 printed. If a copy should by chance fall into 
 the hands of any " outside friendship's pale," 
 the author would crave mercy at their hands. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 HOW curious are the incidents that occur 
 in all lives, and how often is it that the 
 most important amongst them may take its rise 
 in the merest trifle ! 
 
 In looking backward on a life's history we 
 find that our most important actions have been 
 influenced and our life's path determined by an 
 accident. 
 
 Like the waters of some little spring situated 
 on an elevated ridge of ground dividing two 
 valleys, a twig, a stone, a growth of herbage 
 may direct their course into one valley or the 
 other, this accident making this spring per- 
 haps the fountain head of a great river flowing 
 down the valley that leads to the south ; while, 
 had this accidental obstruction been placed on 
 the other side, its waters would have been 
 delivered into the other valley and thus caused 
 to flow in an entirely opposite direction. 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 When we come to think of it, a spring and 
 river would be a not inapt illustration of the 
 source of life and life's stream. From life's 
 first dawn it must flow onward and onward 
 without ceasing, its course at one time or 
 another being diverted by the twig, the stone, 
 or the herbage of life's accidents. So it con- 
 tinues its way, now winding, twisting, and 
 buffeting with rocks and crags, while in yonder 
 pool it is calm, peaceful, and placid, yes, and 
 too often stagnant, while anon we hear it 
 moan and groan in agony, as it rushes into 
 some death-like cavern of sorrow, after a time 
 to arise again in sportive joy, and meander 
 through the lovely valley of pleasure further 
 down. 
 
 It is ever changing, yet ever falling, until 
 it arrives at that boundless ocean of death — 
 the common receiver of all streams of life — 
 no matter what their origin or course may 
 have been. 
 
 It was a slight incident in my life that led 
 me to discover the contents of one of life's 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 caverns, that proved of the greatest interest 
 to me, and which, I think, may possibly also 
 interest others. 
 
 I was walking near a large manufacturing 
 city in a district well in the country and full 
 of pretty villas, when I noticed a tall delicate- 
 looking man in front of me. He walked with 
 the assistance of a stick, and had evidently just 
 recovered from a serious illness, for he seemed 
 to get along with great difficulty. I thought 
 he was about to faint, and, rushing forward, I 
 caught hold of him, thinking he would fall. 
 He turned his face, and looking at me said, 
 " Thank you, friend ; I am very feeble, and 
 shall be much obliged, if you will kindly assist 
 me to my home, which is not far off." While 
 slowly walking along, holding my arm, he con- 
 tinued ; — I have just recovered from a very 
 curious and serious illness. Feeling better 
 this morning, I thought I was strong enough 
 to venture for a short turn outside my own 
 garden, but alas ! my estimate of my strength 
 was too high. I had only got a short way, 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 when I discovered my mistake and turned, and, 
 kind friend, had it not been for your timely aid, 
 I most certainly would have fallen." 
 
 My new friend was a man of about forty 
 years with very deep-set thoughtful eyes. They 
 were those dreamy, interesting dark eyes that 
 seem to speak as they look at you. There was 
 something very pleasing in his expression, and 
 something very kindlyand truthful in his manner, 
 that made me take to him at once, and by the 
 time we reached his house, I felt as though he 
 were an old and tried friend. On arriving at 
 his gate, he insisted on my going in, saying that 
 he was sure his wife would be pleased to see 
 me. I somehow felt I would like to know more 
 about him, and gladly accepted his invitation. 
 I found his wife to be a pleasant looking woman 
 of about thirty-five. She was hunting about the 
 garden for him, and hailed his appearance with 
 a good-natured scolding. By way of explan- 
 ation, she said, " You see, sir, I left him sitting 
 on that seat, while I went in to look after the 
 house and servants, and when I came out 
 
INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 again, I found he had flown. I thought some 
 spirits had come," she said laughing, " and 
 carried him away with them, since of late he 
 thinks so much about them. But I now know, 
 my dear Kenneth," she continued looking at 
 him, " that you were just tired of your old wife, 
 and thought you were strong enough to do 
 without her help, and this is the result." 
 " There now," said my friend, still holding my 
 arm, "just you hear how my dear Mary can 
 scold; she is a cruel woman, and has been very 
 hard on me, telling me that ever since my 
 illness, my head has been brimful of the greatest 
 nonsense. But, my dear sir, it is no nonsense. 
 I have been privileged to see strange things in 
 spite of all my dear wife says." 
 
 I got him seated in his garden, and we three 
 became very friendly. I lived not far from my 
 new friends, and visited them almost every day, 
 as I took a great interest in the invalid. During 
 my visits he repeatedly hinted at what he had 
 seen, but if his wife were present she would 
 hold up her finger as a warning to me not to 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 encourage him to talk about this mystery, what- 
 ever it was. I must say I began to grow very 
 curious. His wife seemed to think that there 
 was something wrong with his mind, from the 
 effects of his illness. But this was not the 
 case, the man's mind was as sound in all 
 respects as my own. I found his name to be 
 Kenneth Folingsby. He was an artist of no 
 mean ability, in fact his pictures were sought 
 after, and fetched large prices. He was well- 
 to-do, and had a very nice house. He was a 
 man who thought it his duty to try to elevate 
 the intellectual standard of the working classes, 
 and he devoted most of his evenings, when in 
 health, to the furtherance of this object. Being 
 a Conservative in politics, he espoused that 
 cause with great earnestness, because he 
 believed it to be the best for the people ; and I 
 found that it was during an election contest, 
 throughout which he had worked almost with- 
 out ceasing, that he had contracted his illness. 
 His party would he feared be defeated, and 
 whether it was from fear of this, or from some 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 other cause I can't say, but after the result 
 became evident, he fell ill. 
 
 When talking with him one day during his 
 wife's absence, he said ;— " My dear friend, I 
 have often hinted to you that I had seen some 
 strange things. My dear wife thinks when I 
 tell her of them that my mind is deranged, but 
 I am as sane as any living man, and I hope 
 some day to be able to commit all my curious 
 adventures to paper. But while we artists are 
 very quick with the brush, we are but poor 
 scribes. I feel if I were to attempt to write the 
 recollections of my adventures in my present 
 state of health that I should undoubtedly break 
 down ; and if I broke down, I might never 
 again be able to resume the work the perform- 
 ance of which I feel to be a duty to mankind." 
 I had become more and more interested in 
 this man and his mystery, and being a good 
 shorthand writer I offered to take down all his 
 experiences in shorthand, and then transcribe 
 them for him. To this he at once assented, and 
 though his wife, on hearing of our compact, at 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 first objected, yet she came to see that it was 
 better that her husband should get this weight 
 off his mind, as he felt that he would not fully 
 recover until he had done so. I was glad I 
 had carried my point, and at once began what 
 was to me a most pleasant and interesting task. 
 
 It was about two months after I first met 
 Folingsby, that on a fine summer afternoon we 
 were seated under a tree in his pleasant little 
 garden. The air was still to a degree, not a 
 sound could be heard save the humming of a 
 bee, or the chirping of the birds in the trees 
 over our heads. My friend, still weak from 
 his late illness, was lounging in an easy chair, 
 while I was seated beside a garden table with 
 my note book in hand ready to take down his 
 words. Folingsby looked very solemn when 
 he began, saying by way of introduction : — 
 
 " This is a strange, a very strange story that 
 I am going to relate to you. Like my dear 
 wife Mary, you may think it all the outcome of 
 my fancy. But I can assure you that its 
 reality is to me too patent, and that it is too 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 distinctly impressed on my memory for me 
 ever to allow any one to make light of my 
 conviction of its truth. I believe that I have 
 been allowed to see into futurity for some good 
 purpose, and I feel that should I neglect to 
 commit my recollections of what I have seen to 
 writing that I should fail in my duty to 
 posterity." 
 
 Heaving a sigh, he began a narrative that 
 took me many days to transcribe. It ran as 
 follows : — 
 
PART I. 
 
 AS you are aware I am an artist. My 
 profession has brought me into close 
 contact with nature in all its grandeur, in all its 
 beauty, and in all its purity. I have spent 
 months and months in solitudes, far, far away 
 from what is called civilisation, yes, far away 
 from cities, towns and villages. Ah ! these 
 were indeed days of pleasure. It was in these 
 solitudes that I was able to grasp, if but in a 
 small degree, the goodness of the Creator and 
 the beauty of His works. While I saw the 
 grand effects of landscape ; while I saw the 
 flitting gleams of beauty caused by a dash of 
 sunshine breaking through the clouds ; while I 
 saw the vast mountains raising their mighty 
 heads above me ; while I saw the mirror-like 
 lake below me ; while I saw the plants, the 
 mosses, the lichens, all full of silent beauty ; 
 while I heard the skylark's charming note en- 
 chanting my ears with sweet melody as he 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 17 
 
 floated warbling above his nest ; while I saw 
 the bees all busy gleaning their winter's stores ; 
 while I saw the butterflies decked with all their 
 radiant beauty, I could not help thinking how 
 different was this ever varying scene of love, 
 harmony, and contentment, with the city- 
 created dens of iniquity, — the great haven and 
 boasted creation of so-called civilized man. 
 
 After many years of pleasure and activity in 
 pursuit of my profession, I bethought me that 
 I was not doing my duty to my fellows in 
 avoiding city life I felt that I was living in 
 selfishness, if I did not endeavour to do some- 
 thing for the advantage of mankind, and, 
 knowing as I did the degraded life that the 
 majority of city people lived, I determined to 
 try my powers of reforming. 
 
 Being of an enthusiastic nature, I set to 
 work in this vast city of ours, labouring early 
 and late, spending all the time I could spare in 
 this work of attempted reform. At first my 
 enthusiasm led me to think I was making pro- 
 gress, but alas ! all I was able to do amounted 
 
1 8 meda : 
 
 to very little indeed. I redoubled my efforts, 
 but while undoubtedly some good had come 
 out of my work there was so much to do, and 
 I was so earnest, that I overtasked my 
 strength. I became weak and excitable, and 
 at last I had to give way to nature. My 
 strength failed me ; I took ill ; and was con- 
 fined to the house for months. Getting rather 
 better I was foolish enough to enter into an 
 election contest, supporting the faction I 
 thought best. Of the hard work I went 
 through during this contest I remember very 
 little. Before the election I became ill again, 
 lost consciousness, and knew nothing more of 
 politics or of the result of the contest, until I 
 awoke from a trance now fully four months 
 ago. But while I was not conscious of what 
 had been doing in this world, you will see from 
 what follows, that I was fully occupied both in 
 mind and body. 
 
 I appeared to have fallen into a trance-like 
 slumber ; I thought I was walking beside a 
 slow flowing tidal river with banks so regular 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 19 
 
 that I was almost led to think I was walking 
 alongside a canal, but so far as I could see, 
 there was no tow-path, and no sign of vessels 
 or barges moving on it. It was a lovely, 
 bright, fresh, and warm day. The change of 
 scene to me after my anxiety and worry was 
 quite refreshing, and I felt perfectly contented 
 and happy. I seemed to move about without 
 any apparent exertion, barely touching the 
 earth, and if any obstacle came in my way I 
 surmounted it in the most offhand manner. I 
 saw a great mound on the banks of the river at 
 a considerable distance, and began to think 
 how I could get over it ; but I reached it 
 in a few seconds, and walked right over 
 it without any difficulty. My movements 
 reminded me more of flying than walking. 
 When I descended to the level again, I saw 
 the river flowing towards me in an almost 
 straight line, and in the distance I beheld what 
 to me seemed the ruins of a great city. So 
 clear was the atmosphere that I could pick 
 out many prominent buildings, some with 
 
20 meda : 
 
 square towers, some with spires, and some with 
 domes. It occurred to me that I had seen 
 these buildings before somewhere, but my 
 recollections of them and of the general aspect 
 of the city, while in some respects familiar to 
 my mind, were so indistinct that I thought I 
 was looking on some continental city that I 
 had seen when a child. My curiosity being 
 aroused, I sped on my way in the direction 
 of the great city, following the banks of the 
 river, which were completely overgrown by 
 peculiar looking grass and weeds. As I got 
 nearer, I found the banks of the stream 
 encumbered by the remains of old brick and 
 stone buildings, most of which were over- 
 grown by creepers and grass, and in some 
 places these ruins formed large mounds that 
 indicated the existence in ages past of great 
 edifices. 
 
 While I felt exhilarated and happy to a 
 degree, there was something terribly lonely 
 about my walk. It is true I saw an occasional 
 fish leap in the water, and some small beasts 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 21 
 
 like hares and rabbits started out of the heaps 
 of stones as I passed them, but the very 
 presence of this wild animal life amidst the 
 ruins made me more lonely, causing me to 
 wonder where I could be, and to consider why 
 such a fair and lovely district should apparently 
 be destitute of the human race. I went on 
 wondering what had caused this devastation. 
 Had there been an earthquake ? Had the 
 people been stricken down by a plague ? Had 
 the country been invaded by a foreign foe, who 
 without mercy slew man, woman, and child, 
 leaving no one to perpetuate the race that must 
 have existed years ago ? Yes, a nation that 
 had erected all these great buildings that now 
 were mere heaps of ruins overgrown by the 
 vegetation of ages, must surely have some 
 descendants if they were not annihilated. As 
 I got nearer and nearer to the city, my 
 astonishment became more and more intense. 
 I suddenly came upon the remains of a great 
 bridge, the piers of which were of enormous 
 dimensions, and must have been formed of 
 
22 meda : 
 
 iron, built in with stone and cement, the upper 
 structure being of granite, a great portion of 
 it still stood, but not a trace of the iron or 
 steel girders could be seen. The concrete 
 work that formed the base was also in wonder- 
 ful preservation, but there was not a trace of 
 the cast iron cylinders that had formerly been 
 the outer shell of the piers. Curiously enough 
 the concrete retained the impression of every 
 plate, and every flange, and every bolt, but 
 all the ironwork had disappeared. As I stood 
 and looked at this old bridge, the thought 
 occurred to me — " What a story you could tell, 
 if you only had the power of speech ! " It 
 was clear to me that all the steel and iron 
 girders, and the cast iron pier cylinders, had 
 gradually corroded away. I could trace in my 
 mind the entire processes of gradual destruc- 
 tion through many ages : first, the people by 
 some miserable calamity disappeared ; then, 
 the ironwork of the bridge would corrode for 
 want of care ; the girders would weaken 
 gradually and sag down in the centre, not 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 23 
 
 being able to carry their own weight ; the 
 upper member w T ould buckle up, and the whole 
 structure would fall into the river drao-o-Jno- 
 the upper portion of the piers with it. Then 
 the oxidation would continue ; and that great 
 structure is probably now a deposit of red 
 oxide in the bottom of the stream, or it has 
 been carried in minute particles to the ocean. 
 This, I came to the conclusion, must have 
 been a high level bridge, as the piers when 
 perfect could not have been less than ioo feet 
 above the water level. 
 
 On I went, taking a lively interest in all I 
 saw, and having the same exhilarating feeling 
 encouraging me to proceed. No trace of 
 fatigue, no hunger troubled me, as I continued 
 my tripping walk. I now came to what must 
 have been a great harbour or dock. All the 
 quays were covered by the ruins of buildings, 
 many of which had fallen right across the 
 roadway ; but, in some cases, the buildings 
 had fallen as it were into themselves, forming 
 a heap of stone over-grown by weeds and 
 
24 meda : 
 
 scrub. You could trace the lines of the streets 
 by these long heaps of stones, and it was 
 evident from their regularity that this city 
 must have been built in blocks, and that the 
 houses, to judge from the heaps of ruins, must 
 have been of a considerable height. Further 
 along I came to more docks nearly filled with 
 silt and stones, and more bridges, that had 
 been constructed of iron with stone piers, 
 similar to the great high level bridge that first 
 met my vision. As in the other, the iron- 
 work had completely disappeared, but a por- 
 tion of the masonry still remained. Further 
 up the river I saw what appeared to be the 
 remains of a stone bridge. As I was anxious 
 to get to the other side to examine some 
 buildings that still stood there towering above 
 the heaps of ruins, I hurried along, and when 
 I reached the bridge I found that, although 
 in a very dilapidated condition, it was in a 
 sufficiently good state of preservation to allow 
 me to pass over. So over I went, and 
 wending my way about ruined streets with 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 25 
 
 here and there a strong heavily built wall still 
 standing, I came to an embankment across. 
 On examining this, I found it must have been 
 a high level railway, as many portions of the 
 brick arches, in a sad state of decay, could 
 be seen peeping through the rank herbage 
 that covered them. When I had climbed the 
 embankment, I could see the whole of the 
 city. Not far off were the remains of a great 
 building that probably had been the Municipal 
 Chamber or Courts of Justice; then, there 
 were the remains of churches ; here, a tower, 
 and there, a spire, with great stone columns 
 and parts of walls. Such was the scene that 
 met my eyes in all directions, but everything 
 was overgrown with vegetation, and every! 
 thing seemed to be decayed. No traces of 
 ironwork existed, while the evidence of great 
 iron structures having been there in "ages 
 past and gone were visible at every step. & I 
 followed the track of the railway for a long 
 time through the ruined city, till I came to 
 what evidently was the terminus, now reduced 
 
26 MEDA : 
 
 to a great pile of stones. Some pieces of the 
 wall were still standing, and showed that the 
 building had been highly decorated with carved 
 stone-work; but the details of the carving had 
 been worn away by the rubbings of time. I 
 clambered to the top of the wall, and lying 
 down on the grass-grown parapet, began to 
 ponder as to where I was, what city this 
 could have been — what had caused such devas- 
 tation — why it was now deserted ? How 
 could I get information ? I had all my life 
 made a hobby of antiquarian research, but 
 had never read or heard of such modern- 
 looking antiquities as I now saw before me. 
 Could it be that I had got into another planet 
 whose inhabitants had anticipated all our 
 civilization by thousands of years, but who 
 through luxurious living, and over-quickened 
 intellect, had so reduced their bodily strength, 
 that they gradually died out, leaving all in the 
 possession of wild animals ; or could it be that 
 I had died thousands of years ago, and that I 
 had just been born again, and now saw my 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 27 
 
 own planet after it had undergone the changes 
 of ages ; or had the power of some mysterious 
 being so influenced me, and so cleared my 
 vision, as to enable me to see into futurity, 
 and view the world as it would be thousands 
 of years hence ? These and hundreds of other 
 thoughts racked my brain ; but while I pon- 
 dered and thought, anxious to learn all about 
 this ruined city, my wonder and anxiety did 
 not bring any weariness or languor with it. 
 On the contrary, there was a brightness and 
 buoyancy in all my thoughts. They were 
 acute and searching to a degree ; but what 
 astonished me most was the fact, that while I 
 must have been travelling for many hours, I 
 could not say that I was the least fatigued, nor 
 had I the slightest feeling of hunger or thirst. 
 When I lay down, it was not from any need 
 of rest, but simply out of a desire to enjoy a 
 stretch on the soft-looking grass-grown top of 
 the ruined wall. How long I lay in this posi- 
 tion 1 cannot tell ; I was so comfortable that 
 I could have lain there for ages. My body 
 
28 meda: 
 
 hardly felt the bed of grass on which I lay ; in 
 fact, I apparently was so light that the grass 
 supported me on its tips, and never allowed 
 my body to come into contact with the harder 
 substance below. I must say this surprised 
 me beyond measure, and to test the accuracy 
 of my position, I passed my hands from either 
 side under my body. This I found I could do 
 without any difficulty. Then it occurred to 
 me, that I must be a shadow ; but this was not 
 so, for when I pinched my leg to see if such 
 was the case, I caused myself more pain than 
 I counted on. I felt the grass with my fingers 
 to ascertain if it was very stiff and strong, but 
 it felt like ordinary grass, and my fingers broke 
 it easily. Then I came to the conclusion that I 
 must have grown very light, while at the same 
 time I apparently retained all my bulk. I had 
 no mirror to examine my face, but my hands, 
 arms, legs and feet looked just the same as 
 they always were. Well, as I said before, how 
 long I remained in this position I cannot tell, 
 but my desire to see more of these curious 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 29 
 
 ruins caused me to stand erect and look over 
 the edge of the wall, and there, in the centre of 
 what must have been an open space or square, 
 I saw something moving about in the midst of 
 smoke or haze. This haze so obscured the 
 object I was looking at, that I could not make 
 out what it was, but that it was moving was 
 an absolute certainty. After watching it for a 
 long time, the mist seemed to lift, enabling me 
 to see distinctly two men walking together. 
 They were the very oddest looking pair of 
 mortals I had ever seen. In stature they were 
 very diminutive, but they had large heads out 
 of all proportion to their bodies. They were 
 walking away from me ; and being most anxious 
 to meet them, and to find out where I was, I 
 hailed them loudly. 
 
 The effect of my cry astonished me, for, 
 whether it was the clear atmosphere, or the 
 desolation of the ruined city, my voice sounded 
 like thunder. But if it had a curious effect on 
 me, the effect it had on the two individuals I 
 hailed, was marvellous. They first of all fell 
 
30 MEDA : 
 
 flat on the ground as if stunned, then they 
 sprang up with wonderful agility, bounding 
 several feet into the air, and turning around, 
 looked in amazement toward me, singing out in 
 piping childish voice some words that I could 
 not understand. I beckoned them to come 
 nearer to me, and speaking, as I thought, in a 
 whisper, asked " Who are you ? " They came 
 nearer, and looked at me in astonishment. 
 Now that I could see them better, and think- 
 ing I should like to get quite close to them, I 
 stepped off the wall in the most reckless way, 
 never noticing that I had a leap of thirty feet 
 to make. But somehow I came down beside 
 my little oddities without the slightest 
 inconvenience, save that on alighting, I 
 rebounded into the air at least twenty feet, 
 and had to take a dozen hops, before I could 
 settle on the earth, and talk, or try to talk, 
 to my new acquaintances, if such I might call 
 them. 
 
 At last, when like a rubber ball I had 
 expended all my elastic energy and come to 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 31 
 
 rest, I carefully scrutinized this odd looking 
 couple. They were not more than four feet 
 high, with very large heads, and small bodies 
 and limbs. That portion of the body which 
 contains the principal organs of digestion 
 seemed to be almost entirely awanting, but 
 their chests were more than fairly well devel- 
 oped. For clothing they wore a wrapping of 
 a white silky material, bound closely round the 
 body, and forming a kind of kilt around the 
 upper portions of their limbs. On their feet 
 they had light shoes, and to each ankle was 
 secured a circular weight of considerable size, 
 formed of a metal which looked like newly 
 scraped lead. Each weight was in two pieces, 
 bound together by a silken cord let into a 
 circular recess, near the top. On their heads 
 there was no covering, and the little hair they 
 had was fine in texture, and of a dark brown 
 colour. It formed a slight fringe from the 
 temples round the back of the head, and 
 when viewed from the head behind strongly 
 resembled an egg in a brown-edged egg-cup. 
 
32 meda : 
 
 Their eyes had a bright, far-seeing look, wistful 
 and dreamy withal, pale grey in colour, and 
 very prominent. There was a sad, thoughtful 
 look on their faces that made me feel that 
 nothing I could say would induce them to 
 laugh. The features were marked, and the 
 skin was clear almost to transparency. Judg- 
 ing from the baldness of their heads and the 
 solemnity of their mien, I would have said they 
 were about seventy years old, but, judging from 
 their limbs and the appearance of their skin, I 
 would have guessed their age at twenty to twenty- 
 five. In fact they were very grave, diminutive, 
 young old men of some new type of humanity 
 unknown to my experience. 
 
 Although it has taken me a long time to 
 describe what I have done and seen, since I 
 first saw these individuals, it only occupied a 
 few moments. Then in case I should frighten 
 them I began by asking in a whisper : " Where 
 am I ? What ruined city is this ? Who are 
 you ? Why don't you speak ? Don't be 
 frightened ; I won't harm you." This last 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 33 
 
 exclamation was drawn from me by the horri- 
 fied look I noticed on their faces. I feared 
 they were going to take flight and leave me 
 alone — a state of matters I did not wish. As 
 I was determined to o-et some information as 
 
 o 
 
 to the locality I was in, I looked as pleasant 
 and harmless as I could, but it was quite 
 evident that they were anxious to get away, 
 and it was also clear, that they did not under- 
 stand a word I said to them. I bes:an to make 
 signs to get them to speak, but it was no use. 
 At last one of them made some remarks in a 
 language that was quite unknown to me, 
 although I am well versed in nearly all modern 
 languages. I spoke to them in English first, 
 then in German, then in Russian and Italian, 
 but without success. At last I thought I 
 would try and put together my few words of 
 Latin, and see if they could understand it. 
 To my delight, this last resource brought 
 greater success. I saw they partially under- 
 stood what I was saying, and so I began again 
 — "Where am I?" and they replied, "In 
 
34 meda : 
 
 Scotoma." Then I asked them, — "To what 
 nation do you belong ? " and received as reply, 
 "We are Scotonians." Again I inquired, "Of 
 what city are these the ruins ? " To this last 
 question I could get no reply. They put their 
 fingers on their lips, and after a short consul- 
 tation, began to move off, making signs for 
 me to follow. We went on slowly for some 
 time ; then, they both suddenly stopped, and 
 unfolding a part of their kilt-like garment, 
 uncovered a pocket into which they put their 
 hands, and threw out a quantity of small 
 gravel, meanwhile holding on by the branch of 
 a shrub. I could not understand what this 
 meant at first ; but I soon found out, for, no 
 sooner did they loose their hold of the shrub 
 than they began to trip along at a rattling 
 speed. It was now evident to me that they 
 had been discharging ballast. " These people 
 must be a description of animated balloon," I 
 thought to myself, " and now that they are 
 light they will try to get away from me." I 
 was not going to be left behind, and so the 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 35 
 
 faster they went, the harder I followed them, 
 keeping close on their heels. Every now and 
 then, I saw the facial side of one of the ani- 
 mated eggs turn round and solemnly glare 
 at me, at the same time beckoning me to con- 
 tinue following. The sight of them was too 
 ridiculous — what between the big heads and 
 the prominent liquid grave-looking eyes, and 
 the little bits of legs taking prodigious strides, 
 and spinning along over stones and brushwood 
 at a speed of at least ten miles an hour, I felt 
 strangely amused. And then, here was I 
 following in the wake of these elf-like mortals 
 without any apparent difficulty. Indeed I was 
 so highly amused with my adventure, that I 
 burst out into a great loud laugh, the effect of 
 which was to cause my guides to grasp hold 
 of the branch of a tree, and to shake with 
 terror. When I saw the result of my mirth, 
 I was truly sorry that I had been so imprudent, 
 and in the best Latin I could command 
 apologised for my rudeness. At this, they 
 began to regain courage, and each picking 
 
36 meda : 
 
 up a stone, as I found to act as ballast, they 
 now began to move forward with more caution, 
 making signs for me to follow. The slow 
 pace at which we were now proceeding, 
 enabled me to look around, and see in what 
 direction we were moving in relation to the 
 ruined city. I found we were still within the 
 skirts of the ruins, and I could still see 
 the towers and spires that first attracted my 
 attention. After walking slowly for about 
 half-an-hour, I noticed that we were approach- 
 ing an elevated and highly cultivated part 
 of the country that was surmounted by a 
 low stone building of considerable size, like 
 a fortification without any embrasures or 
 armament. We soon arrived at the front 
 of this building, where I noticed a large 
 bronze door provided with a heavy knocker. 
 My guides knocked at the door, giving three 
 distinct raps and a succession of light taps. It 
 may appear curious that I should follow with 
 such implicit trust, but I did so. I felt no fear. 
 I was prepared as soon as the door opened 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 37 
 
 to go in, no matter what the consequences 
 might be. 
 
 In a few seconds the great door swung open, 
 and I entered close on the heels of my guides. 
 I looked to see who had opened it, but could 
 see no sign of anyone. When we had entered, 
 it closed as quietly as it had opened, but not a 
 soul was visible. This proved to be a gate in 
 the outer wall, and when we passed it, we 
 suddenly came in sight of a great hollow, and 
 we had to go down by steps toward a large 
 building that stood in the centre. We now saw 
 several figures moving about in the space that 
 surrounded the building. My guides went up to 
 one of these, who was evidently very old, as his 
 scant supply of hair was white as snow. The 
 three conversed together for fully five minutes 
 in some unknown tongue, during which time, 
 my guides were evidently recounting in their 
 grave matter-of-fact way the extraordinary 
 adventure they had had with the stranger 
 they brought with them. The sage took from 
 his pocket a plate of bright metal about four 
 
38 meda : 
 
 inches square, and by means of a short pointed 
 metal pin he scratched with wonderful rapidity 
 what I felt was a full and true description of 
 the curious stranger. He then placed it on a 
 little square stool that stood on the ground near 
 him, put his finger on a button, and it was 
 immediately carried, or spirited away towards 
 the building. He then deliberately came up to 
 me, first looking at my face with a long intent 
 rude stare, then he walked three times round 
 me, surveying my back, front and sides, but 
 never opening his lips. I began to wonder 
 what would come next, when I heard a slight 
 clank on the stool, and there lay a bright plate 
 similar to the one that he had sent away a few 
 seconds previously. The sage advanced and 
 lifted the plate, which evidently contained the 
 reply to his message. Having read it he came 
 up to me, and addressed me in Latin, thus : 
 "What are you?" I replied "A Man." At this 
 answer he smiled and said, "You mean you are 
 an antiquated specimen of an extinct race ! " 
 This put me on my mettle, and made me feel 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 39 
 
 inclined to give him the benefit of an antiquated 
 answer that would not have been very compli- 
 mentary, but he went on : — 
 
 "Where do you come from ?" 
 
 " From Great Britain," I replied. 
 
 At this he smiled again in a provoking way, 
 and said : — 
 
 " Do you seriously say so ?" 
 
 It was as much as I could do to restrain my- 
 self, but prudence gained the day. I just 
 clenched my fist, and said to myself, " You 
 might kill the poor creature, so keep your 
 temper, and see the fun out." 
 
 He then said, "Your Name ?" 
 
 And I replied, " Kenneth Folingsby." 
 
 Here he looked me hard in the face and said, 
 " What is your profession ? v 
 
 An Artist," I replied. 
 
 "You are quite sure that all you have told 
 me is profound truth ? " 
 
 "All profound truth," I replied. 
 
 Then he said, "Advance under the charee of 
 your guides!" and sitting down on the message 
 
40 meda : 
 
 stool, placed his elbow on his left knee, rested 
 his chin on his hand, and looked at me in such 
 a comical incredulous way that I could scarcely 
 keep from laughing. My two guides passed 
 along in the same noiseless gliding fashion as 
 before, and led me towards the central building. 
 On my way across the vacant space, I could 
 do nothing but reflect on the curious adventure 
 in which I was engaged. Every thing was so 
 novel and so ethereal, that I began to think that 
 death must have overtaken me, and that my 
 spirit was passing through that land which some 
 say intervenes between earth and heaven. Still 
 this could not be the case, as the city and 
 country through which I had passed was in 
 some way or other familiar to me, although the 
 city and the river bank had the decay of ages 
 stamped on them. Whilst in the midst of these 
 meditations, I arrived with my guides at the door 
 of the great central building. This door, like 
 that in the outer wall, was bronze, and was 
 provided with a knocker after the same pattern, 
 but of much less dimensions. One of my 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 41 
 
 guides lifted the knocker, and gave a single 
 tap : immediately the door swung open, and 
 we entered a large square hall, the walls of 
 which were formed of great slabs of white 
 marble. 
 
 Here we were met by another sage who 
 was seated on what I have termed a message 
 stool. In his hand he held a metal plate which 
 I have no doubt was that on which the first 
 sage wrote the description of me. He con- 
 sulted his plate from time to time, looking at 
 me to see that this message was correct. 
 Being satisfied of its accuracy he made a sign 
 to my guides, and they at once retired, the 
 door closing behind them. As soon as we 
 were alone, he came up to me and took me 
 by the hand. This was the first time one of 
 these creatures actually touched me. The 
 sensation I experienced, when our hands came 
 into contact, was most peculiar. I cannot 
 describe it better than by saying, that it was 
 a pleasant kind of gruesome feeling that 
 seemed to tingle through every nerve, muscle, 
 
42 meda: 
 
 and bone of my body. It did not come in 
 jerks, but in a steady continuous flow, that, 
 although awesome, was exceedingly pleasant. 
 When he released my hand from his grasp, 
 I felt relieved, but at the same time sorry. 
 It was that sort of sorrowful feeling that is 
 experienced when by some accident one is 
 stopped just in the act of doing something 
 wrong, but pleasant. Sage Number Two now 
 addressed me in Latin, asking me exactly 
 the same questions as Sage Number One 
 had done, but finding that I spoke Latin 
 with much difficulty, he said, "What is your 
 native tongue ?" I replied, " English." At this 
 he seemed perplexed, but after a moment's 
 thought, he said, " I will send for one versed 
 in extinct tongues." Thereupon he produced 
 a metal plate, on which he wrote something, 
 and placing it on the stool, touched the button, 
 the plate disappearing as before. Now, the 
 hall in which we stood was completely closed 
 in. All the doors were shut, and where the 
 light came from I could not say, but it was 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 43 
 
 as bright as day. I could see no wires or 
 telephonic connections, and to me the mystery 
 was, how did that plate get out of the hall. 
 I was evidently in the land of marvels, and 
 could only wait with patience for explanations. 
 I had not much time to ruminate, as almost 
 immediately a door in the other end of the 
 hall opened, and there entered a stately-looking 
 old man whose appearance struck me as being 
 very pleasing. He was much taller than any 
 of the other specimens of this new race that 
 I had seen, being about five feet eight inches 
 high. His head, like those of the others, was 
 abnormally large, but there was only a very 
 slight bald patch on the crown, and there was 
 an abundance of flowing white locks, and a 
 long white beard. His features, too, were 
 beautifully chiselled, and his eyes were bright 
 and luminous. His skin was almost trans- 
 parent, and I imagined I could see right through 
 and through him. His dress was much the 
 same as that of the others, but the material 
 of which it was made was finer in texture. 
 
44 meda : 
 
 He came up to me with the plate in his hand, 
 and looked intently at me. After conversing 
 with Sage Number Two for a short time, he 
 turned to me, and taking me by the hand, I 
 experienced the same sensation as before, but 
 much more intensely. The pleasure of the 
 feeling almost made me faint. He dropped 
 my hand, and said in pure English, " You 
 speak ancient English." I replied that he 
 must have been misinformed, as I spoke 
 modern English, possibly with a slight Scotch 
 accent. He smiled (a most pleasant smile it 
 was) and said, " I fear, my friend, you do not 
 understand modern English. Did you under- 
 stand the language your guides spoke ? I 
 see from your expression you did not. Well, 
 that is modern English." 
 
 At this remark I could not help laughing, 
 my previous experiences causing me to do 
 so very quietly. He laughed also, but his 
 laughter was very subdued, as was his voice. 
 
 At last I found enough breath to say, " My 
 dear sir, this is the year of our Lord 1888, 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 45 
 
 and the language I speak is the English 
 spoken in 1888. Could you possibly get 
 anything more modern than that ? " 
 
 He gazed at me with admiration, his eyes 
 and features beaming with delight, and ejacu- 
 lated, — "Oh! this is a reward! This is a 
 treasure worth a life's labour on earth ! What 
 a glorious, what a magnificent specimen of 
 extinct man you are ! " And with this the 
 dear old fellow skipped round the hall with 
 wonderful agility for one of his years, and 
 coming up to me again, said : — 
 
 "This is not the year of our Lord 1888, 
 my friend, but it is the year of our Lord 
 
 5575-" 
 
 My mental observation at that moment was, 
 
 " This dear old thing is mad ! They all are 
 
 mad ! I must be mad too ! " I clasped my 
 
 head in my hands, and swung to and fro in a 
 
 state of intense mental agony. " 5575 !" My 
 
 agony was so great that I exclaimed aloud, 
 
 "I am Mad ! Mad ! Mad ! " and was about 
 
 to swoon away, when he took hold of my 
 
46 meda : 
 
 hand, permeating me again with that stimu- 
 lating energy, that drove out all other thoughts 
 and said : — 
 
 " Specimen, I wonder not at your surprise ; 
 you have much to learn, much to see and much 
 to experience, but all will come in good time. 
 You will reside with me, and I will instruct 
 you. This is the year of our Lord 5575. You 
 are not mad, I am not mad, nor is any one of 
 us mad. Madness is now of the antique past ; 
 intelligence is omnipotent. Follow me." 
 
 Thus saying he led the way out of the hall 
 by the door through which he had entered, and 
 passing through another door we entered a 
 spacious room lighted I knew not how. This 
 hall was lined right round with stone shelves, 
 on which were arranged myriads of what 
 looked to me to be metal plates placed on 
 edge. I asked what these were, and he said : — 
 
 " These are the complete records of the past 
 5575 years. This is my department in the 
 state ; I am keeper of the records, but now 
 you must rest. Intelligence requires rest like 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 47 
 
 all our other faculties. You have experienced 
 great fatigue to-day, and you have seen many 
 things that have astonished you, so you must 
 now lie down on that couch, and allow me to 
 pass you to sleep. When I see that your 
 mental and bodily strength is restored I will 
 put your sleep away, and bring you, my Speci- 
 men, into active life again." 
 
 "Well," I said, "before I go to rest, please 
 tell me to what nation you belong, and where 
 we are ? " 
 
 " That is easily answered ; but lie down first, 
 and then I will tell you." I lay down and he 
 went on to say : — 
 
 " We are Modern British People and we are 
 in Scotland." 
 
 This reply amazed me. He seemed to see 
 the astonishment depicted in my face, for he 
 said, — " Compose yourself to rest ; " and then 
 he passed his hand gently over my head, and I 
 fell into the most delicious slumber. 
 
PART II. 
 
 HAS the reader ever suffered from a serious 
 illness ? If so, does he remember the 
 first peaceful, painless, restful sleep that came 
 after that illness, and the delightful sense of 
 pleasure that he experienced when waking up 
 from this slumber. Dear reader, if you have 
 not had this experience, it is almost worth your 
 while to get seriously ill, in order that you may 
 enjoy it, but if you do make up your mind to 
 try the experiment, take care that you get ill in 
 the spring of the year, and let your home be 
 in the country. Town people know nothing of 
 this pleasure, or if they do, they do so only in 
 a very limited degree. 
 
 I have come through this experience, and 
 though I was but nine years old at the time, I 
 never shall forget my intense enjoyment, when 
 I awoke from my first painless sleep. Strength 
 of constitution, medical skill, and a mother's 
 devoted nursing had pulled me through. 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 49 
 
 The sun was shining, the birds were singing, 
 and the creepers that clung round the window 
 were in bright green leaf. My poor enfeebled 
 frame was gaining strength, and all seemed 
 bright, happy and peaceful. My fond and 
 loving mother's face was bright with joy; she 
 thought not of the troubled and weary nights and 
 days of watching that she had passed through ; 
 she thought not of the fatigue that had left its 
 mark in care-worn lines on that thoughtful 
 loving face. And then, to add to my enjoy- 
 ment, there were the brothers, sisters, and the 
 friends that came with their kind and loving 
 congratulations, who brought lovely innocent 
 flowers, — the emblems of that purity and beauty 
 that we should live to attain. 
 
 Afterwards there came the days of con- 
 valescence. I was well wrapped up, carried 
 into the garden, and placed in a low chair. 
 Ah ! what a pleasure was this, what enjoyment 
 was there here, for one who had been snatched 
 from the grave's very brink, and restored by a 
 merciful and kind providence, to life, health 
 
50 meda : 
 
 and happiness. The seeds that I had planted 
 in my little garden before my illness were now 
 strong plants. The primroses and lilies are in 
 bloom. Under yon great evergreen tree, see 
 the robin hopping about while warbling to his 
 mate ; and look at the rays of sunlight pene- 
 trating the thick foliage, giving every shade of 
 color, from the darkest olive almost down to 
 the brightest of yellow. Everything to my 
 eyes and thoughts and feelings was beaming 
 with an untold richness of beauty and enjoy- 
 ment. I have, since those happy days, often 
 thought why it was that the pleasure of those 
 moments was so intense, so truly enjoyable. I 
 suppose it w r as because the mind that had been 
 an utter blank for some months, on its re- 
 opening to life, had a vividness of perception 
 that acted as a stimulant to the observation of 
 nature's beauties. And thus there was en- 
 gendered an enjoyment, and a true apprecia- 
 tion, of the harmonious beauty of the works 
 of the Great Creator, that has been a lasting 
 impression on my mind, as distinct, lovely, 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 51 
 
 and enjoyable now, as it was thirty years 
 ago. 
 
 How long I had lain on the couch in the 
 Recorder's hall I cannot say, but when he 
 passed me from sleep's repose to activity I 
 experienced the same pleasant feelings as 
 already referred to when a child, although the 
 surroundings were different, so different as to 
 make a comparison seem absurd. 
 
 When I wakened, my friend the Recorder 
 was standing by my side. He said, "Wake 
 up, my Specimen, you have had sufficient 
 slumber, and you will now bathe, and change 
 those garments that you wear for some more 
 in keeping with the habits of the people with 
 whom you now reside !" Up to this moment I 
 had never given any thought to my garments. 
 They consisted of an ordinary suit of grey 
 tweed, with strong boots and a soft felt hat. I 
 got up, and my venerable friend led me to a 
 room that was entered by one of the side doors 
 off the Recorder's hall. In the centre of this 
 room was a bath, made of white marble, sunk 
 
52 meda : 
 
 below the level of the floor, and through which 
 a stream of water continually flowed. The 
 bath was very spacious, and I should say 
 measured about twelve feet by eight and was 
 about four feet deep. On a chair near were 
 towels and a suit of clothing similar to the 
 Recorder's. He left me alone, closing the door, 
 and I undressed and proceeded to get into the 
 bath. In doing so I went down the marble 
 steps at the middle. When I put my feet into 
 the water, I was surprised at its great buoy- 
 ancy. I had only gone down four steps, 
 when I found I could hardly stand ; while 
 I was stooping down to feel the water 
 with my hands, I lost my footing and fell 
 right into the bath, the displacement of my 
 feet and legs seeming to heave me upwards. 
 I fully expected that I should go right to 
 the bottom, but such was not the case. I 
 lighted head foremost in the water and 
 floated about like a cork on the surface, not 
 more than one fourth of my body being 
 immersed. 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 53 
 
 I tasted the water to know if it were salt, as 
 I knew that it is much easier to float in salt 
 water, but I found it was quite fresh. To get 
 myself wet all over I rolled round and round 
 on the surface, and after I was thoroughly 
 bathed, got out and dried myself. I then 
 attempted to put on my new garments, but as 
 this was no easy task, I sat down on the chair 
 to work out this problem. Looking at the 
 clothing I found it to consist of one piece of a 
 white silkish cloth, pleated at one end in the 
 form of a kilt. I at last solved the difficulty, 
 by fastening the latter portion round my loins, 
 and disposing of the remainder as best I could 
 around my body and shoulders. 
 
 If not exactly correct in the disposition of 
 my clothing, I had at least made a fairly good 
 attempt at dressing for the first time in a 
 modern costume. I found that a pair of light 
 shoes was also provided for my use, and these 
 I got on my feet with some difficulty, as they 
 were rather small. There were also two les - 
 weights the same as those my guides wore, but 
 
54 meda : 
 
 I did not put them on, as I thought they would 
 only be an encumbrance. 
 
 When my toilet was completed, I sat down 
 and ran over in my mind the entire circum- 
 stances of my extraordinary position, but gave 
 up all explanations in despair. The Recorder, 
 I remembered had said that we were now in 
 the year of our Lord 5575. Could this be? 
 If so, I must have been dead for over three 
 thousand years, and he also said we were in 
 England, and that he belonged to the English 
 nation. He called me a " Specimen," at which 
 I was not a bit annoyed, though if one of the sages 
 outside had addressed me by that name, I 
 should most certainly have been in a rage with 
 him. But my new friend was so different from 
 the others, his face was so benevolent, and the 
 power of his intelligence or will so intense, 
 that I somehow felt that he might say or do 
 anything he liked with me. 
 
 In a short time my friend entered again, 
 and came over to me, saying : — 
 
 "How did you enjoy your bath?" 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 55 
 
 I answered, " Very much indeed ; but what 
 buoyant water you have." 
 
 "Oh!" he replied, "the water has just 
 the same specific gravity as it ever had, which 
 remains constant; but the force of intelligence 
 that now reigns has made your body like 
 ours, very light. But, my Specimen, I shall 
 explain all these matters to you later on." 
 Then he looked at me in a kindly searching 
 way, and continued : — 
 
 " You have large digestive organs ; do you 
 not hunger ? " 
 
 This caused me to think when I had last 
 partaken of food, and I answered, — " By your 
 account it must be more than three thousand 
 years since I have had aught to eat." 
 
 " Yes," he said, smiling, " it must be more 
 than that ; but still, Specimen, you have these 
 organs, which are large ones, and until they 
 have been reduced to modern dimensions, it 
 is well that you should partake slightly of 
 food, so follow me ! " 
 
 He moved towards the end of the bathroom, 
 
56 meda : 
 
 and passing through another door, we entered 
 a little room which he said was his private 
 study. He placed his hand on an ivory button 
 in a kind of writing desk that stood in the 
 middle of the room. This immediately opened 
 from the centre, the portions of the top 
 folding back, apparently without any assistance, 
 exposing a tray on which was placed bread, 
 fruit, and two glasses of water. He invited 
 me to partake of the bread and fruit, while 
 he sipped the water. I began to eat, although 
 I did not feel the least hungry, and I also 
 sipped a little water. I did not like the idea 
 of eating alone, and asked my friend why he 
 did not keep me company. He said, — " You 
 see I am a modern man, and have no need 
 of food ; I simply take a little water to moisten 
 my lips and maintain the moisture of the 
 body, but, otherwise, all mankind now live 
 by breathing a pure and nourishing atmos- 
 phere." Placing his hands on his stomach, or 
 where it should be, he continued, " I did not 
 speak quite correctly, when I said I have no 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 57 
 
 digestive organs, but I was not far off the 
 truth, because the advancement of science and 
 intelligence has proved that by generations of 
 training, along with a change of atmosphere 
 that took place, these organs could be almost 
 entirely dispensed with. We have worked in 
 this direction for thousands of years, and the 
 result has been that we now live purely by 
 respiration, and have reduced their functions 
 to that of supplying moisture to the body. 
 You will notice that our chests are very large, 
 because we require greater lung power, now 
 that we have dispensed with solid food. This 
 organ of respiration has been increased by 
 nature to meet the requirements of the new 
 conditions under which we live. In the pre- 
 sent age it is only the lower animal creation 
 that eat, and need the power of digestion, 
 but how this came about requires much 
 explanation, which I shall give you later on. 
 You must not be too anxious, my Specimen, 
 to know everything at once. Only think that 
 your day is more than three thousand years 
 
 E 
 
58 MEDA : 
 
 past, and remember, that even in your short 
 life you saw great changes made, such as the 
 introduction of steam, the telegraph, the 
 telephone, and the electric light. Bear in 
 mind that through all those ages science has 
 been at work, and that intelligence and brain 
 power have been advancing in an increasing 
 degree with every year. When your mind 
 enlarges, which I hope it will, under my 
 instruction, you will see and appreciate with 
 clearer eye and understanding, what has taken 
 place through these many generations. I have, 
 owing to the nature of my office in the state, 
 an intimate knowledge of ancient history and 
 ancient tongues, and when I have time, I 
 shall instruct you further. Now, if you have 
 appeased your appetite, I shall take you over 
 this branch of our state offices. You must 
 walk quietly with me. Express astonishment 
 with nothing you see, but notice everything. 
 Do not ask me questions, even outside the 
 buildings, if you can possibly avoid doing so. 
 Where opportunity occurs I shall volunteer 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 59 
 
 explanations. Just let me arrange your cos- 
 tume before we go out, as you have not quite 
 managed to adjust it according to our custom. 
 You will find that your strange features, 
 figure, and complexion will draw quite enough 
 curiosity towards you without having an ill- 
 arranged costume. Oh ! by the way, I notice 
 that you have not put on your ' leg-weights ' 
 as you call them ; you will require them, I 
 assure you. Allow me to fetch them, later 
 on I shall explain their use." 
 
 I stooped and put them on, as I had seen 
 them on the guides, and I noticed that the 
 recorder also wore his. I then walked about 
 to accustom myself to their use. At first I 
 went clink, clink, knocking one against the 
 other, but in a short time I managed to keep 
 my legs far enough apart to keep clear of 
 striking them against one another as I walked. 
 They certainly looked to me but a poor outcome 
 of the intelligence of this boasted modern race. 
 If they really required weights, they might have 
 made them of such a shape as would have 
 
60 meda : 
 
 allowed one to walk without carrying his legs 
 like the letter A. 
 
 The Recorder said, " Now we shall start. 
 From the outside, this building must have 
 looked to you very small." I remarked that it 
 did. "Now," he said, "how soon you forget 
 my instructions. I told you I would do all the 
 speaking while we were inside. Don't forget 
 that again. You speak so loudly that you 
 would startle numbers of our people, many of 
 whom belong to a lower type of intelligence, 
 and are therefore incapable of allowing for the 
 difference of customs that existed in past ages. 
 This building that we are in is the seat of 
 the Nor-West Provincial Grand Council of 
 Britain, and the Executive sit here regularly 
 to administer the business of the district. We 
 are now going into the hall of despatch. All 
 messages on matters relating to the State are 
 despatched from this hall." We entered a large 
 hall where there were at least one hundred 
 figures sitting in rows along low benches formed 
 of stone. Opposite each figure was a message 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 61 
 
 stool exactly similar to those I had noticed 
 before. Each stool bore a letter and a number. 
 On coming closer to the figures, I saw that they 
 were all women. They were dressed in the 
 same light sort of silky material, and appeared 
 intent on their work. They were of various 
 ages, some had dark, others light hair, but 
 the majority had grey. One stately personage 
 sat on an elevated stool, and directed the entire 
 operations in this department. The younger 
 girls were many of them pretty, but the large 
 heads, big chests and long small bodies gave 
 them a curious uncouth look. There was, how- 
 ever, one thing that impressed me greatly, the 
 brilliancy of their eyes. The expression of 
 their faces struck me as sad, but when the 
 Recorder spoke to them their faces brightened 
 up, and their smile was most fascinating. That 
 they were intelligent beyond any women that I 
 had had experience of, there could be no doubt. 
 Intelligence was depicted in every line of 
 their features. The Recorder spoke to them in 
 an unknown tongue, so I did not understand 
 
62 meda : 
 
 what he said, but from the sly and inquisitive 
 glances that were cast at me from time to time, 
 I could plainly discover that the " Specimen " 
 was the subject of conversation. The remarks 
 of the Recorder, however, consisted of very few 
 words, so we passed through the despatch rooms 
 very quickly, considering the number of opera- 
 tors he spoke to in passing. The quantity of 
 despatches that came in and went out was 
 something prodigious, one line of stools seemed 
 to be receiving while the other was delivering. 
 All the messages came on little metal plates, the 
 same as those I previously described. I was 
 most anxious to ask the Recorder how these 
 despatches were transmitted, but his injunctions 
 about speaking were so strong, that I refrained. 
 We now entered what he explained to me 
 was the Court of Justice, a very small chamber, 
 not more than twenty feet square. There were 
 three venerable looking judges sitting on the 
 bench, and one clerk sitting at the end of a 
 table facing the judges. In front of him were 
 a number of metal plates on which he was busy 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 63 
 
 writing. There was a man on each side of the 
 table, one of whom was answering questions 
 put to him by one of the judges. After we 
 came out, the Recorder informed me that these 
 two men had some dispute, which the judges, 
 after hearing the case, would settle. " In your 
 day," he went on to say, " this pleading used to 
 be done by lawyers or advocates, but intelli- 
 gence has put an end to that business, and a 
 good thing it is too. Many lawyers in your 
 day, as far as I can judge from records of the 
 past, lived on the poor, mystifying justice, 
 leading even judges astray; but all were not bad. 
 " I am now going to take you to the legis- 
 lative assembly hall. We have an outer and an 
 inner house. The outer house consists of thirty 
 members, fifteen men and fifteen women. The 
 inner house consists of ten members who have 
 the right to elect three of their number to sit 
 in the Grand National Council that assembles 
 near the capital. Women are not allowed to sit 
 in the inner house." On entering, we found the 
 whole thirty members present, and four clerks 
 
64 MEDA J 
 
 sat at the central table. One fine looking man 
 was addressing them evidently with great and 
 powerful arguments. His face was a perfect 
 picture of energy and force. Although I could 
 not understand one word he said, I could 
 imagine I did, because of his earnest voice and 
 expressive features, and yet he never raised 
 his voice much above a loud whisper. It was 
 evidently the rule to speak in whispers in 
 modern society. After this orator had finished, 
 a lady rose to address the house. She was 
 really a splendid looking creature. There was 
 a dignity and solemnity about her bearing that 
 was something grand to contemplate. She was 
 tall as compared with the rest of this curious 
 race, but the intensity and winning force of her 
 expression made a deep impression on me. I 
 said to myself : " Truly if this is a specimen of 
 our race as now developed, intelligence has 
 improved it, beyond all conception, except in 
 the matter of form." 
 
 Other men and women got up and spoke 
 while we were there; and the Recorder lingered 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 65 
 
 a long time. He was evidently interested in 
 the arguments that he heard, at which I do not 
 wonder, because I, who understood them not, 
 was fascinated by what I saw and heard. All 
 the men and women were dressed in the same 
 material, and the costumes were cut in the same 
 way, the only difference being that the females 
 wore the kilted portion of the costume reaching 
 down nearly to their feet. All, however, wore 
 the leg weights that I was so curious about. 
 
 After we got out the Recorder said, — " The 
 first two that spoke are two of our most pro- 
 found thinkers and best orators." We now 
 entered the inner house, where we found the 
 ten members were sitting. There were only 
 two clerks at the central table in this house. 
 The members of the inner house, I noticed, 
 were much older men than those of the outer 
 house, and very grave and dignified in their 
 demeanour. They did not stand while they 
 spoke, but remained sitting. We did nothing 
 more than peep into this house, the Recorder 
 remarking that there was nothing of much 
 
66 meda : 
 
 interest going- on. I noticed, however, when I 
 entered with my companion, that I was attract- 
 ing attention, but all here were of the highest 
 type of the people, they were evidently too well 
 bred to take any marked notice of me. 
 
 My companion now said that he would take 
 me to the department of science and arts in 
 another building hard by. So for the first time 
 since entering this building, I was again in the 
 open air. Being now outside I ventured to 
 address the Recorder. I asked him how long 
 
 I had slept, and he replied, " You slept two 
 days and three nights." " But," I said, " I have 
 never seen night in this curious country yet." 
 " No," he replied, " that is true, but you must 
 remember that you have not been awake any 
 night since you arrived." Then I asked, — 
 " How is it that the inside of these buildings is 
 so light while there are no visible windows ? " 
 
 II That is arranged by a series of reflectors 
 placed on the roof which transmit the light 
 to the ceilings, and the ceilings reflect it down 
 towards the floor. The ceilings are con- 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 67 
 
 structed of a material discovered by one of 
 our great scientists in the year 4562, which 
 has the extraordinary power of absorbing the 
 light of the sun ; and, by another ingenious 
 invention of the same great man, the discharge 
 of this stored light can be controlled in such 
 a way that it is only given off as we require 
 it. A ceiling absorbs enough light in one 
 day to light the building with a moderate, 
 pleasant light for three days and three nights. 
 After this invention all other forms of light- 
 ing became obsolete. I do not object to your 
 speaking when we are outside, but please speak 
 as low as you can. Our hearing is very acute, 
 and it is not the custom to speak so loudly 
 as you did in the year 1888. The human 
 organs of hearing must in your day have been 
 but crude instruments, if it required so much 
 exertion on the part of the speaker to make 
 others hear." As I now saw a number of 
 the same type of mortals as those that had 
 acted as my guides gliding about, I asked the 
 Recorder what position these people occupied 
 
68 meda : 
 
 in society, and he said, — " These people 
 correspond with the uneducated working 
 classes and the people of inferior intellectual 
 capacity of your day. They are intellectually 
 a much lower class of beings compared with 
 those, for example, you saw in the outer and 
 inner houses. We try to elevate them, but in 
 vain. It has been the same in all ages, and 
 it will, I fear, be the same to the end of time. 
 In man the Creator has decreed that all shall 
 not have mental equality ; one mind must 
 predominate over another. You will find 
 hundreds of men of equal bodily strength, but 
 I have never yet met with two minds that 
 could be said to be on a mental equality. The 
 mind seems to me to be a power within us 
 that is possessed within itself of a creative 
 power, and this again appears to be a power 
 that is forced by its own individuality to strive 
 to outshine all others. So long as we live, 
 mind is storing up knowledge — not to be used 
 in the identical form in which it is acquired, 
 as parrots repeat the words they learn — No ! 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 69 
 
 a great mind absorbs all it hears, and reads, 
 and sees, giving out nothing in the same 
 words or form in which it had been absorbed. 
 When a great mind speaks or writes, it 
 expresses something original, influenced no doubt 
 by the stored knowledge, but it comes out in a 
 new and a bright garb that is most refreshing. 
 
 " But inferior minds can only shine in quoting 
 the sayings or in relating the doings of others. 
 These are of the parrot type ; they amuse for 
 a time, but when their store of quotations is 
 exhausted they are like the water tank that 
 has run dry, and has to await refilling. They 
 can create nothing fresh or new. So it is, and 
 so it must remain. That cry about equality 
 that has so often made a noise in the world 
 is a snare and a delusion. Human intelligence 
 cannot be equal, and so the inevitable must 
 remain. 'Tis the will of the Creator, and we 
 cannot, with our poor intellectual power, alter 
 it even if it were desirable to do so." 
 
 We had by this time passed through a door 
 in the outer wall that surrounded the courts 
 
70 meda : 
 
 of the executive, at the opposite side to that 
 by which I had entered. We were now quite 
 in the country, and the Recorder pointed to 
 a mountain at a considerable distance off, and 
 said, — " That is the Society of Arts which I 
 referred to." I replied, " That is not hard 
 by." "Oh yes, it is. It will not take us long 
 to get there ; give me your arm." The minute 
 he touched my arm, even through the clothing, 
 that curious thrill, which I previously had 
 experienced, shot through me. It was just 
 as pleasant as before, but not so gruesome. 
 I asked him what it meant. " That is," he 
 said, "a power that we of this generation 
 possess. It is the power of storing energy, 
 and the power of transmitting that energy to 
 others. The greater the intellectual power of 
 the individual is, the greater his power of 
 storage and of transmission. It is, in fact, a 
 measure of intellect ; but we must be moving." 
 I now saw him casting a lot of gravel out of 
 a pocket in his kilt ; and he remarked, " This 
 is 'lightening' for the journey." I said, "Why 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 71 
 
 not cast off these leg weights ? " By way of 
 reply he simply smiled, and said, " Come 
 along." Off we started, skipping and bounding 
 over the ground, clearing everything before 
 us with an amazing rapidity, that made our 
 flight quite exhilarating. We passed several 
 parties moving in the opposite direction. To 
 many of these my friend nodded and exchanged 
 a friendly greeting, that they seemed to under- 
 stand ; but to me the pace was so great 
 that I could only see something like a great 
 white bird skipping along the ground, no 
 sooner in sight than it had passed. Yet, the 
 Recorder would say, " Here is a fine intellect 
 coming our way ; remarkable man that ; of 
 great value to the State," and so on. He must 
 have recognised his friends miles ahead, long 
 before my vision could see them. 
 
 Our journey was over in about ten minutes. 
 We were now on the top of a hill in front of a 
 large building with a flat roof. I could not 
 refrain from looking round, and prayed my 
 companion to allow me to ask him some 
 
72 meda : 
 
 questions before I went in, as I was thirsting 
 for explanation and knowledge. He saw I 
 was anxious, and looking at me compassion- 
 ately, he said, — " My poor Specimen, I know 
 all you are thinking of. I know all that is 
 passing through your mind, or to speak 
 correctly, I should have said nearly all, but 
 your mind is not yet in a fit state to receive 
 what I have to tell you. I only beg again 
 that you consider the changes three thousand 
 years will work, and thus prepare your mind 
 for that which is yet to be told. You are 
 anxious to know all about that ruined city — 
 rest assured that that sad story will be related 
 to you in good time — it is of the past, while 
 we are dealing with the present." 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 73 
 
 PART III 
 
 SOCIETY OF ARTS AND SCIENCE. 
 
 WE entered the building by a door that 
 led into a lar^e hall. At one side of 
 this hall was a desk, and seated at the desk 
 was a female clerk. The Recorder went up, 
 and said a few words to her, and she then 
 handed him a small metal token. He told me 
 this was a special pass that would admit us 
 to every part of the establishment. We first 
 entered a great room where students of both 
 sexes were engaged in modelling the human 
 figure such as they believed it to be in my 
 own day. These models were being produced 
 from engravings on metal plates of various 
 sizes that were supposed to represent the 
 various celebrated pieces of statuary of Rome, 
 Greece, and England. Now, being an artist, 
 I felt that this was at least a subject with 
 
74 meda : 
 
 which I was conversant. I examined many 
 of these works, but found them not the least 
 like the originals that I had seen. The ideas 
 that these people had of the true proportions 
 of the human frame of those they called the 
 ancients, was to me almost grotesque. They 
 apparently could not realize the fact that the 
 heads of their figures were at least twice the 
 size they should be ; and they apparently failed 
 to see that the enormous chests that they gave 
 their figures did not exist in the days of the 
 ancients, nor did they realize the fact, that the 
 ancients had stomachs of a reasonable size. 
 Only think of a large-headed, big-chested 
 Venus having her ancles o-arnished with these 
 extraordinary leg weights. On passing into 
 another room, I saw the cause of this disregard 
 of the true proportions of the ancients. Here 
 the students were working from the living 
 model. It so happened that Venus was the 
 subject, and I must say I never saw a more 
 extraordinary Venus. The modelling of these 
 students, who evidently belonged to a very 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 75 
 
 advanced class, was wonderfully true to modern 
 nature. You could see every muscle and 
 every line of expression truly represented. 
 The positions were true to life, but then what 
 seemed absurd to me was calling such mon- 
 strosities as these, models of the ancients. I 
 felt aggrieved at this disregard to truth, and 
 I considered it debasing to the art I loved. I 
 must have looked all I thought, because the 
 Recorder said to me, " This is the first time, 
 since I have been in your company, that I 
 have seen you look really sad. I shall ask you 
 to explain the cause when we get outside, for 
 although I can partially follow your thoughts, 
 and although I see you appear disgusted, yet I 
 can't understand what there is in that which 
 you have seen to give you pain." 
 
 We now entered the school of painting. 
 Here again were hundreds of students at work, 
 some painting flowers and birds, which were 
 lovely. The harmony of colour, and the 
 correctness of the drawing, were something 
 wonderful. Each flower, each petal, each leaf, 
 
76 MEDA : 
 
 each stem, seemed to stand out in the boldest 
 relief, and the feathers of the birds had that soft 
 separate distinctness which is necessary to form 
 a true representation of the living whole : yout 
 could almost imagine that they were about to 
 spring from the tiny stem on which they 
 perched ; the eyes appeared to twinkle, and 
 the throat to warble. Truly, these were 
 studies true to life, both in form and colour. 
 
 We passed on from one group of students to 
 another, and I examined their work with the 
 interest that only an artist can take in art. 
 One girl was at work on a colossal painting of 
 a man of her period. Here, the drawing and 
 colouring was all that could be desired ; but 
 the subject ! No doubt it pleased her ; yet 
 the so-called beauty and proportion of this 
 extraordinary race was in discord with all 
 my pre-conceived notions of what is symmet- 
 rical in the human form. Still I afterward 
 discovered that it was possible to have one's 
 ideas altered. 
 
 Coming to a group of landscape painters I 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 77 
 
 noticed that their work was wanting in origin- 
 ality. No doubt it was in detail true to nature. 
 No doubt the colours were properly blended, 
 and put on with great skill, exactitude, and 
 softness, but there was a want of that dashing 
 artistic effect, that light and shade, that 
 glimmer and sheen, which stamps the true 
 artistic genius that is only rarely met with. 
 All these drawings and all these paintings of 
 landscape had a preciseness and exactitude 
 about them, that indicates continuous schooling 
 by hard and fast rules and principles, rather 
 than by the spontaneous outcome of genius. 
 
 When we got outside of the hall of painting, 
 the Recorder stopped and said, " Now, my 
 Specimen, explain to me what has been 
 troubling you while in the School of Art ? " 
 " Well," I said, " I have been less impressed 
 by this school of yours than by anything I 
 have yet seen in your strange country. The 
 drawing of your students is wonderfully exact, 
 and their colouring is all that could be desired. 
 So long as they keep to birds and subjects that 
 
78 meda : 
 
 are individual, so long as they keep to still life, 
 or even to painting single figures from life, they 
 produce splendid work ; but when they try 
 grouping, when they try to represent distance, 
 the exactness of their details destroys the entire 
 effect. Then when we come to their modelling 
 in clay — what you call reproductions of ancient 
 statuary — when I think of Venus with a head 
 out of all proportion to her body, with a chest 
 big enough for three Venuses, and with a waist 
 not big enough for a baby Venus, and twice as 
 long as it should be, it is to me really too 
 awful to contemplate." 
 
 " My poor Specimen," he said, " I can now 
 quite understand your horror. It is quite 
 natural for you to feel as you do, but you must 
 remember that our people do not see as you 
 see. You notice as we came along that I 
 could see and recognise my friends that were 
 approaching me long before you were conscious 
 that they were coming towards us. All our 
 people see with the same distinctness, and if 
 they painted pictures that appeared correct to 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 79 
 
 you, they would in their eyes be entirely out of 
 drawing. As regards Venus, we have all been 
 taught that she was the most beautiful woman 
 that ever lived. Now, tell me, how could a 
 woman with a pin head, a sunken chest, and 
 a waist as large as that of four women, be a 
 beautiful woman ? Such a person could neither 
 be interesting, intelligent, nor even wholesome, 
 and could never be a true Venus, at least 
 according to our conceptions of beauty. I 
 have seen several drawings and bronze statues 
 Of Venus, dating as far back as three thousand 
 years ; but the ancients had no idea of beauty 
 or of the true symmetrical proportions of the 
 human form; they represented bloated gluttons, 
 not intelligent mortals." 
 
 We moved along in silence, but I could not 
 help ruminating over what this wise man had 
 said. Here was a man of wondrous intelligence, 
 here was a man possessed of a marvellous power 
 of conception, a man that I believed to be the 
 most thoughtful and wise philosopher that I 
 had ever met or read of, talking what to me 
 
80 MEDA : 
 
 appeared the most absurd nonsense that it was 
 ever my lot to listen to. 
 
 I could understand his explanation about the 
 necessity of distinctness of detail in modern 
 landscapes, but to make a Venus with a head, 
 a chest, a waist like that, was not, could not, 
 be the outcome of intelligence. It was the 
 purest heathen Vandalism, but further rumin- 
 ating brought me to think that this experience 
 carried with it an important moral, and that is, 
 " Never judge the actions, thoughts or tastes of 
 others harshly," for what they do, and think, 
 may, according to their lights, be absolutely 
 right ; if we could only see with their eyes we 
 might be of the same opinion and act as they 
 do. The Recorder, saying he would take me 
 next through the Medical School, beginning 
 with the Museum, turned to the left and 
 entered a lon^ corridor. While Q^oino- alonof 
 this corridor I thought, as no one was present, 
 I might venture to ask him a question, and I 
 said, " When you were adjusting my garments 
 to-day, you said you did so to prevent the 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 81 
 
 people from staring at me. Now, although we 
 have seen a great many people to-day, not one 
 of them has shown much interest in me. How 
 is this? My appearance, although I am clothed 
 in the same way as you are, is very different." 
 He looked at me with great earnestness for a 
 moment or two, his face literally glowing with 
 pleasure, and said, " My dear Specimen, we 
 have to-day been moving among the higher 
 intellects of our people, who make it part of 
 their nature never to be surprised, and above all 
 things never to be rude. Besides, to be frank 
 with you, most of them must have seen and 
 examined you before. You forget how long 
 you have slept. During that time you have 
 been seen by many of our great minds, several 
 of whom came great distances to see and 
 medically examine you. I shall presently give 
 you proof of the great interest that has been 
 and is taken in you. This is the Museum." 
 We here entered a splendid hall fitted with all 
 kinds of cases and stands, on which were placed 
 medical specimens and models. Here was a 
 
82 MEDA : 
 
 great model of a Brain, that was mapped out in 
 minute squares of about one-tenth of an inch. 
 Each square had a number on it that corres- 
 ponded with a chart on the wall, drawn to a 
 very large scale, the squares on the chart being 
 again subdivided into minute squares, each of 
 which bore a number or sign. The Recorder 
 explained to me that each globule of the brain 
 controlled a separate nerve or system of nerves. 
 "For instance," said he, "one group con- 
 trols the right hand and all its finders and 
 nerves, another, the left hand and all its 
 fingers, and so on. In a left handed person, 
 the left hand group is more strongly developed 
 than the group belonging to the right hand, 
 and in a right handed person, the right hand 
 group of globules becomes more developed." 
 Then he pointed out the sight globules, the 
 hearing globules, the musical globules, — he 
 knew all off by heart. There was a group 
 that controlled each and every part of the 
 body. My friend informed me that this brain 
 was exceptionally large, and was the model 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 83 
 
 of that of a great philosopher, who died 
 about a year ago. We went round the hall 
 examining everything of interest. We saw 
 model lungs by the hundred, they were of 
 immense size. We saw livers that the 
 Recorder said belonged to full sized men, yet 
 they were only about as big as a hen's. All 
 the digestive organs were the merest toys of 
 things, but the brains and the lungs were 
 tremendous. Seeing my perplexity, he ex- 
 plained : — " You see. my Specimen, in your 
 day, you gratified the desires of your palates, 
 and neglected your brains. Now, in our day 
 of advancement, we live by respiration, we live 
 in fact on the air that is free to all, therefore 
 our lungs must be large. The only thing we 
 require to digest is a few drops of water daily, 
 so we do not need the great cumbersome 
 organs of digestion that you carry about with 
 you. Would you like to see your liver ? " I 
 was horrified at this question, and thought, 
 " What can the man mean, he is never going to 
 operate on me ? " I felt queer. The fact is I 
 
84 meda : 
 
 disliked surgery, particularly when I was to be 
 the subject. He saw my state of mind at once, 
 and smiling, said, " My good Specimen, do not 
 think we would hurt you by thought, word, or 
 knife ; you are far too valuable and instructive 
 to us to allow one hair of your head to be hurt. 
 Come here!" And so saying he lifted a screen, 
 and there I saw myself, my very self, lying on 
 the same sofa that I had slept on, dressed in 
 my old tweed suit, and fast asleep. I started 
 back in utter astonishment, and clasped my 
 hands to my head. I felt quite dazed and 
 stupid, and fully believed that my spirit must 
 have come out of my body, and gone into that 
 of another man, while the body was left to 
 sleep. I stared at myself as I lay, and could 
 see my chest heaving and falling in the gentle 
 slumber that I so much enjoyed. 
 
 The Recorder was amused, I could see, at 
 my dilemma. He said: — "You are not mad, 
 my Specimen, you are only surprised." He 
 went up to me as I lay ; he opened my vest 
 and shirt ; he folded them back, but I never 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 85- 
 
 stirred ; then he took my chest and lifted it off. 
 At this I started back, and cried out, " Oh ! 
 please don't," but he smiled again, remarking, 
 " What a beautiful model " (for model it was). 
 "What skill is represented here. See the 
 lungs moving, see the heart pumping, see the 
 liver lying like a sluggish bloated monster 
 devoted to gormandising and gluttony. There 
 you are, Specimen, as true as life. Are you 
 not ashamed of your internal construction so 
 much given to greed, and so little given to 
 intellect ? " With this he replaced the chest, 
 and took off the skull, leaving the brain 
 exposed. " Look at this brain," he said ; " it is 
 diminutive in size, it is crude in construction, it 
 is uncultivated. Compare it with the brain I 
 let you see over there, and perhaps you will 
 then be able to form some idea of the progress 
 that intellect has made in the last three 
 thousand years." 
 
 By this time I began to get very sick of my- 
 self. I never had my badness so fully laid 
 bare to me before, and I hope I shall never 
 
86 meda : 
 
 experience the same humiliation again. He 
 told me to be comforted, and to come and feel 
 the model. I did so, but it was so natural that 
 until I felt that it was wax, or rather an elastic 
 material like wax, I was convinced that I had 
 seen my own, my very own poor body lifted 
 apart. I asked him : — " Had I been cut 
 asunder while asleep to get this model made ? " 
 He said : — " We are wise, we are clever, but 
 we have not yet arrived at that stage of 
 scientific knowledge that would enable us to 
 cut a living creature asunder and leave him 
 uninjured. But we can so strongly illuminate 
 the inside of any sleeping creature that when 
 in a dark room the whole body becomes trans- 
 parent, and we can then examine every nerve 
 and every muscle through powerful magnifying 
 glasses from the outside of the body. This is 
 very useful for the examination of internal 
 complaints or tumours whether in the lungs or 
 in other parts of the body. Yes, my Specimen, 
 I am glad you came. When I first saw you, I 
 showed my extraordinary delight by the dance 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 87 
 
 I made round you. I only dance when in the 
 greatest height of my joy. Such an event as 
 your arrival was truly worthy of a fitting 
 expression of joy. Fancy, you brought us a 
 living example of the poor manhood of over 
 three thousand years ago. Truly, it is said 
 that small sparks may kindle great fires. What 
 a small spark you are, my Specimen, and still, 
 I suppose, it cannot be doubted that it is from 
 such as you that we are descended. Yet I do 
 like you, and will devote myself to you while 
 you are here, and if you do leave us you will 
 leave us a wiser and a better man. I fear your 
 skull is too hard now to expand, but, let me see, 
 I think I could have it softened." (1 Oh, dear 
 Mr. Recorder," I cried, " do not think of such 
 a thing. I am now too old for such an experi- 
 ment, and must be content with that which I 
 have." "Very well," he said, " but we must try 
 and have all the available space at our disposal 
 in that skull of yours properly packed. I see 
 that this inspection of your own details has 
 been rather too much for you. Come, we will 
 
' MEDA : 
 
 have a rest and refreshment before going 
 further." 
 
 I was now taken into a side room where he 
 touched a button, and immediately a large tray 
 containing fruit and water was lowered by lines 
 from the ceiling. We sat down, he sipped a 
 little water. I ate some fruit, and drank a little 
 also. After we had rested for a time, the 
 Recorder said: "We have many other branches 
 of arts and science that are taught here, such as 
 chemistry, astronomy, botany, floriculture, me- 
 chanics, mathematics. We also teach the dead 
 languages, such as English (what we call 
 Ancient English), French, Spanish, Russian, 
 Italian, Hindustani, Greek, Latin, and many 
 others. Most of our higher and middle orders 
 study Ancient English and other languages, 
 while the lower classes, that is such men as 
 your guides, only study modern English and 
 Latin, their intellects not being of sufficient 
 power for greater study. As you are tired and 
 overcome by your exertions I shall just take 
 you hurriedly through some of these schools." 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 89 
 
 The first we went through was that of music. 
 I was charmed by hearing the various classes of 
 students singing part songs ; their voices were 
 not strong, or possibly my hearing was 
 defective, but the tune and harmony were so 
 good and the melodies so lovely, that I stood 
 enchanted. There was no separation of sexes; 
 they seemed to be mixed in all the classes. 
 Indeed, now that I remember it, in all the 
 classes this was the rule. The musical instru- 
 ments used were mostly wind instruments, but 
 quite unlike anything I had seen before. 
 While they had a certain resemblance to those 
 I had been used to, sufficient, indeed, to show 
 that ancient man had something to do with 
 their invention, yet modern man had a much 
 larger share of credit due to him for his m-eat 
 improvements. The violin was used also. In 
 this there was little alteration. It had held to 
 its good old world fashion — strings, bridge, 
 finger-board and all. I will ever respect this 
 instrument for this lasting proof of the genius 
 of the poor despised ancients. 
 
90 meda : 
 
 My friend next took me into a garden of the 
 college of floral decoration. Here hundreds of 
 young men and women were at work planting, 
 weeding, and training plants, suitable for orna- 
 ment. The plots were laid out in various ways, 
 with many combinations of colour. Harmony 
 of colours seemed to be the great aim of the in- 
 structors of these students. One effect was 
 very grand; it was a huge bed on an ascending 
 slope, in the form of a great rainbow, giving all 
 the primary colours, the blending of these 
 colours, one with another, being truly perfect. 
 The slope was completely covered by a little 
 blue flower mingled with grey that formed a 
 background representing the sky and clouds. 
 Had there been but a slight shower of rain it 
 would have made the scene true to nature. 
 Then there were huge beds representing sea 
 anemones, brilliant in all the glorious beauty of 
 submarine colouring. Star fish were scattered 
 here and there over the green sward, while a 
 great snake was depicted in all the subdued 
 colours of its slimy skin. Everything was a 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 91 
 
 study of beauty for beauty's sake alone. Utility 
 seemed entirely ignored. The labour and 
 thought it must have taken to conceive and 
 work out these wondrous designs, and to obtain 
 plants that bloomed so regularly, and possessed 
 colours so uniform and equal in growth as to 
 produce the effects before me, must have been 
 enormous. 
 
 The Recorder saw with pleasure my intense 
 admiration of the beauty of the scene, and 
 said : — " My Specimen, this is the school of 
 harmony of colour for this great district. It 
 is here that all the youth of our country have 
 their tastes placed on a true and correct basis. 
 All who have orone through this school have 
 a sound knowledge of that harmony that is so 
 beautiful in all things, and so necessary for the 
 permanent good of the community. I have 
 not had time to show you one-tenth of the 
 classes of this great seat of education which 
 stretches all aloncr these two hills to the west- 
 ward. You will notice that we keep every- 
 thing clear of the ruined city you explored. 
 
92 meda : 
 
 Our higher classes rarely visit these great city 
 solitudes of desolation, except to survey the 
 result of the futile labours of a sordid and 
 selfish race of gluttons, that lived but to eat, 
 drink, and die. If you feel strong enough I 
 shall now take you to the abodes of our people, 
 and show you their mode of living after they 
 are married and settle down in life. After this 
 survey of the surrounding district we shall 
 come back, and have a few hours' sleep till 
 midnight. Then I shall take you to the 
 observatory to view the wondrous, the illimi- 
 table firmament, that is ruled, arranged, and 
 controlled by that great — yes, that inconceiv- 
 ably great — being, the Creator of all things. 
 When anyone of us begins to get proud of what. 
 we have achieved, or when we see that any 
 of our people begin to think they are deserv- 
 ing of praise and esteem from their fellows, 
 then such are taken to the observatory, and 
 shown what space is. We thus cause them 
 to think what an intellect it must be that can 
 control this universe. When we show them 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 93 
 
 those stars and planets, those suns and those 
 moons moving in regular order, and when we 
 ask them what are their achievements, what are 
 their works, what are their minds to the Mind 
 that has created all this, they sink within their 
 miserable insignificance, and crawl away like 
 the worms that they are, humbled to the very 
 dust. What right have we poor mortals to be 
 proud of anything we can do ? No, this is not 
 the creed that we would cultivate ; this is not 
 the creed that we would believe. Now that we 
 have obtained a moderate amount of intellectual 
 power, we can see and understand our littleness; 
 we can be ambitious for more knowledge, but 
 we cannot, we must not feel proud of the little 
 we have. This pride of knowledge, this seeking 
 after popular applause, this giving of applause 
 to individuals who set themselves up as guides 
 and philosophers, has been the ruin of hundreds 
 of thousands of past generations, who thought 
 they had great intellects — we see and know this, 
 and we avoid it as we do Hades. 
 
 " Now, my Specimen, shall we start ? I am 
 
94 meda : 
 
 ready if you are ; it will be an extended and 
 hurried flight; sharpen your vision, absorb what 
 you see with your mind; I want you to prepare 
 yourself for what you have to hear from me of 
 the history of the past, by first understanding 
 the world as it now is. The limited area that I 
 shall show you will give you an idea of what the 
 rest is like, allowing for the variations of climate 
 and temperature due to geographical positions."' 
 We moved on through the warden until we 
 
 O O 
 
 got to the apex of the rainbow bed. Here he 
 placed his right hand under my arm, grasping 
 it as he did on the previous occasion. The 
 same curious feeling of power flowing into my 
 body was the result of this grasp. Presently 
 he said, " Now then, my Specimen, we will 
 start," and we began to travel across the country 
 with the same rapidity as before. Hill and 
 dale seemed to be no obstacle, on we went with 
 wonderful speed. I noticed that while on my 
 previous journey I could not see very distinctly, 
 on this journey I could see almost everything 
 that we passed over or near. I suppose the 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 95 
 
 reason was that I was becoming more accustomed 
 to the new atmosphere, new circumstances, and 
 new life. The country that we were passing 
 through was undulating, and dotted all over 
 with small houses surrounded with gardens 
 resplendent with beautiful flowers. The whole 
 seemed to me like one great pleasure garden. 
 At each house we generally saw one or two 
 people, all wearing the same simple white 
 costume. The women invariably had their 
 heads decked with flowers, gracefully arranged. 
 At one, we would hear instrumental music, at 
 another, singing, at another, there would be 
 groups of people playing some game or discuss- 
 ing some subject. Then, all in a moment they 
 would start off in pursuit of us, and play around 
 us like so many birds flying in the air, only 
 none of us seemed to have the power of flying 
 right off the ground — we simply tripped along 
 it, barely touching it. It seemed to me as ii 
 some strong, buoyant layer of atmosphere 
 covered the surface of the earth, as even in 
 passing over the finest plots of flowers, we did 
 
96 me da : 
 
 not injure a single petal. There were no roads 
 in this country, no railways, nothing but land 
 and water, river, lake, gardens and mountains. 
 I noticed that I had not seen a single animal 
 except the little beasts like rabbits and hares 
 that I saw among the ruins. No horses, no 
 cows, no dogs. Of birds, there were a number 
 of the smaller singing varieties, and many that 
 were beautiful in plumage, but the Recorder 
 told me there still existed many beasts and 
 reptiles. 
 
 We came now to a country of hill and lake. 
 The hillsides were laid out in the same way as 
 the undulating country. Houses and gardens 
 — no fields of corn, no utilitarian tillage — all 
 appeared to be laid out for pleasure and 
 intellectual enjoyment. Over the surface of 
 the lakes there moved hundreds of little fairy- 
 like boats that sped along at great speed with- 
 out any apparent means of propulsion ; in these 
 were sitting, happy, laughing people, some 
 alone, some with children, some playing musical 
 instruments, some talking with their friends in 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 97 
 
 neighbouring boats. The colours of these 
 little crafts seemed to be very varied, but none 
 were glaring : all were such as harmonised with 
 the clear and pure-looking water that reflected 
 these many tinted water sprites on its ever 
 rippling surface. To this add the reflected 
 beauty of a summer sky, and you have a 
 picture that no artist could reproduce with 
 truth to its loveliness. 
 
 We travelled on for some hours, resting at 
 times on the mountain tops to view the villas 
 and gardens beneath, and admire the gorgeous 
 beauty of the entire scene. We now bent our 
 way in a long sweep in the direction of our 
 starting place, where we ultimately arrived, 
 shortly before dark. I had seen much of this 
 strange country, and noticed that desolation 
 only existed where there were ruined cities and 
 towns. I remarked this to my friend, and he 
 said : — 
 
 " Oh, yes ! My poor Specimen, these are 
 terrible monuments to the perdition of a 
 degraded people. You will hear their history 
 
98 meda : 
 
 in good time. We must now to rest, and 
 prepare for the observatory," We went again 
 into the building, and entering a hall, having 
 about twenty sleeping couches, the Recorder 
 selected two, and we lay down to rest. I 
 soon was sound asleep, and out of all doubt 
 as to security. 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 9$ 
 
 PART IV 
 
 THE OI5SERVATORY 
 
 I HAD not, as I thought, been well asleep, 
 before I was awakened by the Recorder 
 saying: — "Wake up, Specimen! If you wish 
 to go to the Observatory, it is time we were 
 off." I was soon beside him, feeling quite 
 refreshed. He said it was now midnight; but 
 the room in which we had slept was quite 
 light, the luminous ceiling taking the place of 
 lamps. We at once went out into the open 
 air. Just as I got out, I found that my eyes 
 were pained by the intense darkness after the 
 bright light in the interior. Sudden changes 
 of any kind give humanity pain, whether it be 
 from light to darkness, from joy to sorrow, or 
 from great sorrow to great joy, there is always 
 a feeling of pain, that, though but transitory, is 
 acute. No doubt this is due to the reaction of 
 
100 meda : 
 
 the nerves from one extreme to the other. 
 After my eyes got accustomed to the darkness, 
 I could see that the scene before us was 
 exceedingly pretty. I saw numbers of specks 
 like fire-flies moving about very rapidly, casting 
 a slight glow around them. These, the 
 Recorder said, were people going about on 
 various errands, who showed these lights to 
 prevent collisions. Each person carried four 
 lights, two placed one over the other on the 
 right shoulder, and one on the left, so that you 
 could tell in which direction they were moving. 
 The fourth light was placed on the back of the 
 head in such a position that it could only be 
 seen from behind. " See, my Specimen, now I 
 am lighted up," said my friend. I looked at 
 him, and saw these tiny little lamps which were 
 not larger than a small pea, and looked like 
 very diminutive incandescent lamps. But the 
 Recorder told me that that was not the case. 
 He said they were made of the same material 
 as the ceilings, and were simply buttons on his 
 costume that absorbed the light during the day, 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 101 
 
 giving it off at night when he uncovered them. 
 He then asked me : — "Should you like to see 
 the grounds illuminated?" I said: — "It 
 would give me much pleasure." 
 
 He went back to the wall of the building and 
 turned a handle. In an instant hundreds of 
 light balls appeared all over the surface of the 
 grounds. One of these was quite close to me, 
 and I went forward to examine it. It appeared 
 like a great ball of chalk, about a foot in 
 diameter, heated to a white heat, but I could 
 feel no warmth coming from it ; it was simply 
 a gush of the purest light, and coming as it did 
 off a sphere, the light was thoroughly diffused. 
 " These lights are all constructed of the same 
 wonderful material," remarked the Recorder. 
 " No antiquated coal gas, water gas, electricity, 
 lime, or oil lights, are required now, as in the 
 days of the ancients. No, everything we have 
 is self-sustaining, and lasts for scores of years. 
 We collect our heat in the same way, storing it 
 past until we require it, but this takes more skill 
 and costs more trouble than the storage of light. 
 
102 meda : 
 
 The concentrated heat of the sun requires a 
 very refractory material to retain it for any 
 length of time, but our scientific men for 
 generations back have been studying this 
 subject with no small success. We can now 
 store all the concentrated sun heat that we 
 require for our manufactures and for heating 
 purposes ; still we have much to learn on this 
 subject." 
 
 " But, come along, we must be off to the 
 Observatory. When we get clear of this build- 
 ing, we shall see how the moon and stars look 
 to-night." 
 
 He again took me by the arm, imparting the 
 same stream of energy as before ; and off we 
 started, passing along as before. There was 
 the same pleasant sensation, the same rapid 
 motion. 
 
 On we rushed, passing hundreds of others 
 who were out for a midnight stroll. We paused 
 a moment on a small hill, as the Recorder said, 
 that, now we were well clear of all artificial light 
 and of the buildings, he would like me to 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 10.3 
 
 examine the moon and stars with the naked eye 
 before we got to the Observatory. We had been 
 travelling so fast that I had not thought of 
 looking at the stars, and the moon being 
 behind us, I did not notice it. But on coming 
 to rest, and looking up through the clear 
 atmosphere the distinctness of each star was 
 something very marked, and as for the moon, 
 it had just emerged from behind a cloud and 
 it was perfectly lovely. It was about a three 
 quarter moon. The brilliancy of the bright 
 side was grand, and the distinctness with which 
 you could see the unilluminated portion of the 
 globe was marvellous. There you saw the out- 
 line, floating as it were in an azure atmosphere. 
 My delight on seeing this lovely view of the 
 heavens caused my face and indeed my whole 
 body to beam with a glow of pleasure, and I 
 could not refrain from saying aloud, " How 
 wondrous are Thy works, O Lord!" "Yes,"' 
 repeated the Recorder, " truly they are 
 wondrous, ay, they are wonderful beyond all 
 comparison. Advanced as we now are, and 
 
104 meda : 
 
 with all our scientific knowledge, we know that 
 we are just entering on the borders of a vast 
 and inexhaustible question — a question of 
 investigation of such unfathomable magnitude — 
 that I believe tens of thousands of years after 
 our day, even allowing- that science and intelli- 
 gence advance with greater strides than they 
 ever have done, the finite mind of humanity 
 can never grow to be large enough or noble 
 enough to be able to conceive the magnitude 
 of space. No, my Specimen, we must leave 
 that to the mind infinite." Ao-ain we started 
 forward at the same rapid pace, never tired, 
 never weary, always pressing onward, until at 
 last we arrived at the top of a great hill, 
 covered by a very large building. "This is our 
 local Observatory," said the Recorder ; " you 
 will see from the numbers of visitors that come 
 and go that we make our observatories quite 
 an institution. In fact, as you will see, we 
 make the greatest practical use of the moon ; 
 we communicate with all parts of the world by 
 its assistance. We know exactly by tables at 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 105 
 
 what positions of the earth the moon is visible 
 at certain hours and days, and by means of 
 what we call our compound reflectors, we can 
 cast a shadow of any message we like on it. 
 Operators in other parts of the world are con- 
 stantly observing" it also, and take a series of 
 photographs every second of the shadows that 
 we throw, so that observers in various parts of 
 the world are transmitting and receiving news 
 every clear night ; these photographs are an 
 exact record of all that goes on all over the 
 world, and this record is made common property, 
 the moon taking the place of a big sign board 
 that all nations see and read at will." 
 
 I ventured to ask, "Was the moon inhabited?'' 
 " Oh, dear no ! " he said, " that has been dis- 
 proved beyond all doubt. It is completely 
 covered with a white material like snow ; but I 
 tell you what we have proved beyond a doubt, 
 that all the planets are inhabited. We find 
 that the inhabitants of many planets have 
 noticed our reflections as cast on the moon, and 
 we have also noticed theirs. We have a com- 
 
106 meda : 
 
 lete set of photographs of the moon covered 
 with their hieroglyphics, and I have no doubt 
 they have some means of recording ours. 
 Many of our great philosophers are pondering 
 over these hieroglyphics trying to put them into 
 an alphabet, as yet without success, but that 
 too will come some day. The inhabitants of 
 the other planets may find out our code before 
 we find out theirs, but I firmly believe the day 
 will come when the Creator will allow us to 
 converse with them. Perhaps it is the spirits 
 of our own people who are trying to talk with 
 us. Who can tell? Only the Infinite!" 
 
 We now entered the Observatory, which was 
 the most extensive institution I had yet seen. 
 It was a great circular building, not less than 
 three hundred feet in diameter. In the centre 
 was an enormous reflecting telescope. I should 
 say the main tube could not be less than twelve 
 feet in diameter; how they ever constructed the 
 lenses of this great investigator of the heavens, 
 I know not. I was allowed to look at the moon 
 through this great instrument, and its surface 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 107 
 
 had all the appearance of a snow clad country. 
 I saw shadows being cast on the white surface, 
 these being- no doubt the shadows my friend 
 had explained to me. I thought this system of 
 moon transmission a grand idea, and my carnal 
 mind sped back again to the year 1888. I 
 thought to myself, " What a glorious company 
 could have been floated with this invention at 
 the promoters' back in my time!" The capital 
 might have been ten millions of pounds sterling, 
 and it would have been applied for ten times 
 over, and gone up to a premium in no time." 
 Such were the thoughts that haunted me. The 
 Recorder, I noticed, was looking at me with a 
 sad, earnest face. 
 
 He said, " My Specimen, such thoughts as I 
 noticed passing through your mind are the 
 thoughts which led to actions that ruined your 
 nation shortly after your time. I know that, 
 although you call yourself an artist, you have 
 not confined yourself to art alone ; you have 
 been doing some stock-jobbing, as it was called 
 in your day. This is the rock the ancients split 
 
108 meda : 
 
 upon; they lost their heads through it; they lost 
 sincerity of heart through it ; they lost nation- 
 ality through it ; but worst of all, they lost 
 morality through it. They went into it to make 
 money, which was a prize in those days, but it 
 invariably ended in their losing the miserable 
 thing they prized so much. My Specimen, 
 defile not your mind with such thoughts." I 
 blushed for shame, as it was true that at one 
 time in my youth I had erred in this way, 
 
 I was now shown the stars and planets. 
 There they were in their myriads away ! away ! 
 in space, inconceivable space ! I felt humbled, 
 terribly humbled, after seeing all this. I never 
 had been proud of what I had done. I had 
 never boasted of the little I did do, but how 
 contemptible it all appeared, when placed 
 alongside this ! Ah ! truly did the Recorder 
 speak when he said, " The Observatory is the 
 place to humble those who dared to boast of 
 what they had achieved." 
 
 I was humbled ; I was humiliated; I felt that 
 all we could see, all we could think, and all we 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 109 
 
 could imagine, fell short by a hundred-fold, nay, 
 by a million-fold, of a true conception of what 
 space and the universe really is. 
 
 I was shown hundreds of instruments, of the 
 most ingenious nature for performing all kinds 
 of astronomical work, and for reproducing all 
 that was seen. There were a great number of 
 astronomers at work, mostly old men, and be- 
 longing to the highest order of this strange 
 people. Several of them spoke to me in old 
 English. We conversed for a lon^ time on 
 various subjects of common interest. This was 
 the first place in which the Recorder had intro- 
 duced me. Much of our conversation was 
 about astronomy. Although I was a fairly well 
 informed man, I did not know enough of 
 astronomy to enter into any discussion, and so 
 wisely contented myself with being spoken to. 
 One old astronomer asked me if I had heard of 
 the comet " Baria." On my replying in the 
 negative, he remarked, " You have much to 
 learn ; it was discovered in the year 4200, by 
 a great astronomer called Baria. It has worked 
 
110 MEDA : 
 
 extraordinary changes on our globe since that 
 date." 
 
 Here the Recorder interposed, saying that 
 my mind was scarcely prepared for such inform- 
 ation. " He will get it all in good time/' he 
 added. 
 
 I was next taken to see what was called a 
 moonbeam separator. This, I was informed, 
 was one of the cleverest inventions that had 
 been made for thousands of years. 
 
 Each beam of moonlight could be separated 
 by this machine, and by means of an ingeniously 
 arranged table this beam's fellow, or other ray, 
 could have its location determined by finding 
 the angle it bore to its correspondent, so that 
 one beam might rest in England, while its 
 corresponding ray might rest on some other 
 part of our globe. It had been discovered that 
 these moonbeams would transmit sound with 
 wonderful distinctness, and a sort of telephone 
 had been invented, by means of which any 
 country in our globe on which the moon shone 
 simultaneously, could be communicated with by 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. HI 
 
 moonbeam telephone. You could only, how- 
 ever, send a message towards and have it 
 delivered from the bright side of the moon. It 
 was explained to me that the moon must be 
 shining to produce what they termed an active 
 ray of reflected light, but once this ray was 
 created it could be used as a means of trans- 
 mitting sound. Not being a scientist, I fear I 
 have been unable to fully describe all that I 
 was told about this extraordinary invention, 
 but at the time it was explained to me I 
 thought I understood its principles fairly well. 
 
 I was now taken into another room more 
 than twice the size of the Observatory. This 
 was without exception the most interesting 
 place I had yet seen in this land of wonders. 
 The entire room, not less than 600 feet square 
 was one enormous working orrery, shewino- the 
 sun, moon, and all the planets in their proper 
 positions. The sun was made of that peculiar 
 white luminous material I have so often 
 mentioned. How the globes were actuated or 
 how supported I could not tell, but there they 
 
112 meda : 
 
 were, apparently moving about with the same 
 regularity as those in the firmament. But the 
 Recorder informed me this was not the case. 
 '" They moved," he said, "with great irregularity, 
 and often came to a standstill. 
 
 " You see,"' he naively remarked, " they are 
 but the works of the finite and must be very 
 imperfect, still," he continued, '• they are of 
 incalculable value for instructing the young." 
 
 I was shown many other marvellous things in 
 the Observatory. But to me, the most striking 
 law of nature that was explained to me, was 
 what the Recorder called the lines of force. 
 
 " These," he said, " bear some relation to 
 what you termed magnetism and electricity in 
 your day. These sciences you knew but little 
 of. Your professors used to say, that electricity 
 flowed through wires as water does through 
 pipes. They told you that a magnetic compass, 
 except deflected by local influences, always 
 pointed to the north. But this was very pre- 
 paratory teaching. We now know a great 
 deal more about these mysterious forces, and 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 113 
 
 yet we know but little. In these mysterious 
 agents there is much that is yet to be learned 
 by future generations. Still we have discovered 
 that both what you call electricity and what 
 vou called magnetism can be directed, con- 
 trolled and utilized, by concentrated human 
 will and intelligence. It is by these powers 
 that we move our bodies through air and over 
 country. It is by this power we propel our 
 ships through the ocean, and our boats over 
 our lakes ; it is by this power that we navigate 
 our aerial fleets from one part of the world to 
 the other. In your clay you did not under- 
 stand these Qreat and useful agents. You 
 tried to force them into use by cumbersome 
 mechanical contrivances, but you had to spend 
 more power in getting them associated than 
 you could get out of them when they were 
 associated. The result was that your people 
 spent the world's stock of latent heat that was 
 stored in your coal measures without getting 
 any good results, whereas we can, by the 
 force of our wills, assisted by science, control 
 
114 meda: 
 
 and utilize these tremendous agents for the 
 benefit of mankind. 
 
 " But now, my Specimen, we must to rest, as 
 even the people of this age of advancement 
 require sleep, for without sleep the brain cannot 
 renew its vigour or recuperate its power. The 
 brain is more taxed now than it ever has been 
 since the world began, and it only retains its 
 power if we take advantage of the knowledge 
 we have of its requirements in the way of rest. 
 To-morrow I shall give you a general sketch 
 of Britain as it is ; and on the following day I 
 shall take you to see the principal seat of our 
 government." 
 
 We now returned, and entered the same 
 room in which we had slept before visiting the 
 Observatory, finding ail the beds occupied save 
 the two we had rested on. The occupants 
 evidently slept very lightly, as all sat up and 
 looked at us when we entered, but immediately 
 lay down again. 
 
 It was bright as sunshine in the room when 
 I awoke next day. All our fellow sleepers 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 115 
 
 were gone, and the Recorder was ready waiting 
 for me. He provided me with the usual 
 refreshment of bread, fruit and water. He 
 seemed to care for me as one in my day would 
 have cared for a favourite horse or dog ; he 
 watched my every movement and anticipated 
 my every want. I believe he could read all 
 that passed in my mind. I did not object to 
 this, as never at any moment did I experience 
 anything but kindly feelings towards him. 
 When I had finished my simple meal, he 
 said : — 
 
 " My Specimen, I have now been as long 
 away from my office of records as I can well 
 spare, so if you will excuse me we shall go 
 back to the place we started from. After I 
 have given directions as to the day's business, 
 I shall devote some time describing the 
 present state of the British, or I should rather 
 say what used to be known as the English 
 speaking nations, and thus fulfil my promise 
 to you." 
 
 We went outside, and began our journey 
 
116 meda : 
 
 back in the same manner as we came, the 
 Recorder supporting- me and propelling me 
 by his force of will as before. When we 
 arrived at the seat of Local Government, he 
 went up to the same old Sage, who had 
 received me in the interior of the building 
 when I first arrived, and had a conversation 
 of about ten minutes' duration with him. The 
 Sage took down all his instructions, and when 
 he had finished placed the plate on his message 
 stool, touched the button, and it disappeared. 
 We now passed into the Recorder's office ; 
 he invited me to sit beside him at a table. 
 We were just seated, when the door opened, 
 and ten elderly men entered, bearing large 
 trays filled with metal plates of the same kind 
 as I have previously described as having seen 
 resting on the shelves around this room. 
 
 The first man came forward and placed his 
 tray on the table. The Recorder, glancing 
 with great rapidity over each plate, signed it 
 at the bottom. He was not long in gettinp- 
 through the ten trays, and when the operation 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 117 
 
 was completed he put a tablet bearing a 
 number on each tray. The men then took 
 the contents of the trays and placed them 
 on the shelves under corresponding numbers 
 to those on the Recorder's tablet. All this 
 would probably occupy about half-an-hour 
 from the time the ten men entered until they 
 left. During the whole of this time not a 
 word was spoken. Everything being done in 
 absolute silence, save the scratching of the 
 writing-pin on the metal surface, and the light 
 jingling of the plates against one another, 
 there was no noise. When the first ten men 
 left, several other batches of ten came in. 
 The same routine was orone through with 
 each batch ; and although we must have sat 
 for more than two hours in all I did not 
 weary, the fact being that I amused myself 
 studying the strange looking men that brought 
 in the records. 
 
 After he was finished, the Recorder rose, 
 and, asking me to follow him, we passed 
 through a door and entered a very large room 
 
118 MEDA : 
 
 filled with men and women of all ages. They 
 looked to me to be from eighteen to eighty, 
 and were all busy at work writing on metal 
 plates. My friend told me that these were 
 his clerks, and that they were engaged writing 
 the day's records of his district. 
 
 "We have now two hundred seats of govern- 
 ment in the British Empire," he said ; " each 
 seat gets a condensed record of the transac- 
 tions of all the local seats sent to it daily, 
 while a full record is sent from local seats to 
 the Central Government offices, situated within 
 about fifty miles of the city you used to call 
 London, but London, like all other cities and 
 towns, no longer exists except as a ruin. 
 You look anxious about this ; but when I have 
 instructed you in the physical and social 
 changes that have taken place, you will not 
 be surprised that we have no cities now/' 
 
 While walking through this large hall the 
 Recorder stopped and spoke to many of his 
 clerks, giving, as I assumed, instructions, or 
 asking questions as to what they were doing. 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 119 
 
 We presently returned to his private office, 
 and went from thence through the bathroom 
 into his private study, that in which I had had 
 my first meal in this strange country. Asking 
 me to be seated, he said : — 
 
 " Now, my Specimen, having signed all the 
 State records, and seen that my people have 
 work laid out for them for some days, I am 
 free to devote my time to you. I know you 
 are burning with curiosity to hear what your 
 country now is, and how it is governed. You 
 have seen something of the people as they 
 are, and their habits while at work ; but as 
 yet you have seen but little of their pleasures 
 save the boating parties we saw on the lakes 
 and the domestic pleasure you got a glance 
 of as we passed some of their residences. 
 These are things you will soon get familiar 
 with ; but you must be instructed by me, as 
 I can spare time, in the history of what has 
 taken place since your day." 
 
120 MEDA : 
 
 PART V. 
 
 I PROMISED to tell you something about 
 the history of your country from 1888 to 
 the present day. To do this in an exhaustive 
 manner would take a lifetime, so you must be 
 content with the merest sketch, giving but a 
 few of the leading events that have taken place. 
 " When you have lived long enough with us 
 to learn to read and speak our language I shall 
 place all our records of history at your disposal. 
 If your tastes lead you in that direction you 
 can for yourself investigate them, and by per- 
 sonal study make yourself familiar with all that 
 has taken place. All men and women of the 
 higher classes of the present day must be 
 familiar with the history of their country, if 
 they wish to be respected. I hope, therefore, 
 that you will in due time be able to carry 
 this investigation out, thus gaining for your- 
 self a knowledge that will place you on an 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 121 
 
 equal footing with those with whom you will 
 associate. 
 
 "I shall now begin my sketch of what has 
 taken place since your day. Five hundred 
 years after your time the populations of the 
 various countries of the earth had increased 
 enormously. So much was this the case that 
 the earth was then literally a crawling mass of 
 people striving and fighting for very existence. 
 There had been many wars and many famines ; 
 still the destruction of life by these scourges 
 had not any material effect in keeping down 
 the increase of population. All the land that 
 was uninhabited in your day was now peopled. 
 What you termed the Dark Continent of 
 Africa, as well as the great continents of 
 Sonth America and Australia, was over-run by 
 humanity. For many centuries the various 
 governments of the earth had made it a rule to 
 do all in their power to preserve decrepit life 
 and allow it to multiply. What between boards 
 of health and sanitary boards, combined with 
 great medical skill, the most sickly children 
 
122 meda : 
 
 were by nursing brought to the years of 
 maturity and allowed to marry. Many thought- 
 ful people used to wonder what this would all 
 come to, if decrepit and diseased life was to be 
 taken care of and perpetuated in this way. If 
 the sickly and diseased were to be preserved, it 
 must, they stated, lead to sad results later on. 
 Their prophecies turned out to be but too true. 
 At the time my sketch starts the people of the 
 earth were in a deplorable state. They had not 
 the proper means of living in common decency, 
 and, notwithstanding the admitted great skill 
 possessed by their medical men, diseased and 
 decrepit people were more numerous than the 
 strong and healthy. There had also been a 
 great change in the government of England and 
 its dependencies. The colonies long prior to 
 this gave up all but nominal allegiance to Great 
 Britain; all became practically independent, and 
 only sought the assistance of the mother country 
 when, like the prodigal son, they got into 
 trouble ; then they came quickly enough and 
 claimed parental assistance. 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 123 
 
 " All people, both men and women, got the 
 ri^ht conferred on them to vote for members 
 for parliament without any educational or other 
 qualification save their manhood. The conse- 
 quence was that the more numerous or 
 uneducated classes had all the power in their 
 hands, while they were not intellectually en- 
 dowed with sufficient judgment to enable them 
 to select even the more educated of their own 
 classes as their representatives, although there 
 must have been plenty of good, honest, intelli- 
 gent men amongst them that would have made 
 much better representatives than the noisy, self- 
 asserting, ignorant men that forced themselves 
 on them. 
 
 " Politics became a trade ; a race of mounte- 
 banks that could rant and influence the people 
 by bombast were returned as representatives of 
 the country, while the better educated and 
 intellectually strong minority were thrown out 
 of all share of the responsible government of 
 their country. As a natural, nay, an inevitable, 
 consequence of such a state of matters, the 
 
124 meda : 
 
 country became degraded at home and abroad. 
 Discontent arose in all quarters. Agitators put 
 all the blame of this anarchy and confusion on 
 the existence of a crowned head, and it was 
 decided to turn Great Britain into a Republic. 
 This was effected, fortunately without any 
 bloodshed. A Republic was established, but 
 did not improve matters ; yet it remained in 
 force for many generations. 
 
 "In the year 2888 things had come to such a 
 pitch that England, while beset on all sides by 
 her foreign foes, was not free from enemies in 
 her very midst. These very mountebanks that 
 were returned to parliament by a befooled and 
 trusting people were plotting with her enemies 
 against her ; their only aim and object being to 
 further their own selfish sordid ends. Now the 
 intelligent part of the people were forced to 
 see how things were going, and were convinced 
 that if the government was allowed to go on as 
 it was, the result would be utter destruction. 
 They, therefore, called their leaders together, 
 and assisted by many of the people, resolved to 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 125 
 
 make a desperate effort to resist external foes 
 and crush the plotters that they saw everywhere 
 in their midst. This resolution was carried out 
 with determination, and although it resulted in 
 a bloody and cruel civil war, in which millions 
 were slain, it cleared our country of traitors and 
 enabled the people under the guidance of 
 intelligence to defeat all its external foes. 
 
 "While India, the Colonies, and the United 
 States of America were never actually at war 
 with the mother country, on several occasions 
 they nearly came to blows. Fortunately, the 
 fact of their being situated far apart, together 
 with the kindly feeling arising from kindred 
 race, prevented such a fatal issue taking place. 
 Besides, they all had their own troubles at 
 home ; they were all suffering from the same 
 state of misgovernment ; all had committed the 
 fatal error of placing the control of the State in 
 the hands of the ignorant, and all had come to 
 the same goal. Like England, all had tried 
 the principle of equality and fraternity, and all 
 had proved it to be but a snare and a delusion. 
 
126 meda : 
 
 My Specimen, a nation can only be truly 
 governed by its intelligence. An intellectual 
 standard is the only standard of nobility that 
 can ever endure, as all the people of this era 
 found to their cost. 
 
 "After these terribly cruel civil wars amongst 
 all the English speaking races ; after all this 
 bloodshed, and all this starvation and sorrow, 
 there came a calm. A monarchy was again 
 established in the year 3000. The Colonies 
 again joined the British Empire. India gave 
 in her allegiance once more, and they were 
 again a united and comparatively happy people. 
 The great reduction of population, caused by 
 the wars and famines, that swept away multi- 
 tudes of the weakly and diseased, resulted in 
 again leaving room for those that had survived. 
 Universal suffrage was done away with, and an 
 educational qualification introduced. No man 
 or woman, it was enacted, could vote for a 
 member of parliament except the elector had 
 passed a stiff examination. Every facility was 
 given to teach the people, but all who wished 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 127 
 
 to have the privilege of taking part in the 
 election of parliament must be educated ; nor 
 did this safeguard for intellectual government 
 stop with the electors. It was also enacted 
 that all members of parliament must be men of 
 the highest education, and they were also 
 required to pass an examination of great severity 
 in all subjects that men of education should be 
 familiar with. 
 
 "In the year 3334 a most interesting event 
 took place, and that was the union of the 
 United States of America with this country. 
 The Americans, like ourselves, came through 
 terrible trials in the shape of civil wars, and 
 other like calamities, arising from misgovern- 
 ment by the ignorant. Even in your day there 
 were indications of what was in store for this 
 great nation. They led the way in making 
 politics a trade; they led the way in introducing 
 the payment of congressmen, thus lowering a 
 duty that should be held as an honour by the 
 citizens of every nation, to a means of acquiring 
 "■ain. This defeneration became so bad in that 
 
128 meda : 
 
 country that the mere mention of the name of 
 congressman, a senator, or even of president, 
 was sufficient to brand its bearer as being a 
 man that could not be trusted. I have not the 
 time to explain all that took place in America, 
 but it was practically a counterpart of our 
 experiences in England, only much more 
 intense. The result was the same as with the 
 English. The intelligent part of the people 
 revolting came to the rescue of the nation, and 
 manfully did their painful duty. They, like 
 our fathers, saw that Republicanism was a 
 sham. They saw that while they had not a 
 king to rule them, they had a man in power 
 who, owing to the degraded state of the political 
 world, was now invariably an all-powerful, 
 ambitious, uneducated and unprincipled being 
 that no one could respect, and who was supported 
 and kept in office by men as bad as himself. 
 With what feelings of regret did the American 
 people of that terrible time look back and pray 
 for the return of the political purity that existed 
 in the days of Washington, or even in the days 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 129 
 
 of Lincoln and Grant. At last the electorate 
 saw the misery that was in store for them, and 
 felt that, while they might differ among them- 
 selves, there was one duty expected of them 
 above all others, to protect and maintain the 
 honour of their great nation, and try to educate 
 and elevate the people. They had had enough 
 of Republicanism now. They learned by 
 bitter experience that a movable centre like a 
 president, that had to be elected every three 
 years, only meant opening up a way to 
 ambitious men to usurp the power of a king 
 under another name. They at last saw, as our 
 fathers had seen and proved, that a nation must 
 have some fixed centre for government to move 
 around. No matter how small that centre may 
 be, if it exists, it prevents any scheming man 
 that gets into a prominent position in the 
 government of his country from assuming the 
 power of a crowned head — a power that under 
 such circumstances is sure to be supported by 
 unprincipled followers for the purpose of gain. 
 "The British Empire in the year 3354 con- 
 
130 MED a : 
 
 sisted of Great Britain, Ireland, North America, 
 Australasia, India and Africa, and it remains 
 the same to this day. 
 
 " The central government, as I told you, now 
 sits at the great cmvernment halls not far from 
 the ruins of London. The rest of the empire 
 is divided into two hundred local governments, 
 which practically manage their own affairs, 
 simply reporting what they do to the Central 
 Government, to whom they are responsible for 
 local management. Each of these local govern- 
 ments sends three representatives to the Central 
 Government ; thus forming an assembly of six 
 hundred members, who deal with imperial 
 matters. This Assembly again elects from 
 their number sixty members, who form the 
 Upper House, which corresponds with what 
 was called the House of Lords in your day. 
 
 " In your day such an arrangement as this 
 would have been impracticable. But as science 
 advanced the means of inter-communication 
 improved, the result being, that now, with our 
 speed of travelling, there is no inconvenience 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 131 
 
 whatever. So, my Specimen, you see the 
 whole English speaking peoples of the world, 
 that were known as such, and as dependencies 
 of England in your day, were formed into one 
 great United Kingdom. But while all these 
 reforms were steps in the right direction, their 
 troubles, as you will see later on, were not at 
 an end, although their position was much 
 improved by the many changes that had taken 
 place under the government of the intellectual 
 party. 
 
 " Before going further with my sketch of the 
 history of the past, I must here give you a 
 little information as to the causes of the great 
 change you have noticed in our language. 
 The confusion of tongues on earth caused 
 much inconvenience to all nations ; this was 
 aggravated by the improved and rapid means 
 of travelling that were introduced. B v universal 
 consent all the governments of any importance 
 in the world enacted that there should be one, 
 and only one, language used throughout the 
 globe. The next difficulty that arose was to 
 
132 mkda : 
 
 fix on the language that was to be adopted. 
 Delegates met to discuss this subject, and 
 debated it for six months, but could not come 
 to an agreement. At last, it was resolved that 
 no existing language, taken as a whole, was 
 suitable. It was determined therefore to create 
 a new one ; and seeing that the English 
 speaking people at this date were the most 
 numerous, it was determined to call it modern 
 English. 
 
 " As you may imagine the formation of a new 
 language was no small task. Delegates from 
 all nations met, and discussed every word in 
 the new vocabulary. It took them over twenty 
 years to get this completed. The system 
 followed was to select the most expressive 
 words from all known languages, making it a 
 rule to have a separate word for everything, 
 allowing no two words to have the same 
 meaning or more than one meaning. 
 
 " As it was not possible to introduce a new 
 language without much preparation and time, it 
 was agreed that twenty years should be allowed 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 133 
 
 for instructing teachers, while other twenty 
 years were allowed for teaching the young. 
 But after this date, the new language was to be 
 adopted as the universal language of the world. 
 
 " Fortunately, at this period and for some 
 centuries thereafter, peace and industry reigned 
 on the earth, otherwise this great change in the 
 lan^uao-e of the world could not have been 
 accomplished. As it was, however, all the 
 world's governments adhered religiously to 
 their enactment, and after two hundred years 
 the new language was so thoroughly established, 
 that the older languages became as in the past, 
 only open to the more educated, who study 
 them as dead languages. 
 
 " To proceed with the rest of the history of 
 the world, without first explaining to you some 
 curious changes that came over the people's 
 convictions in two essential points, would only 
 mean relating events without giving the causes 
 from which many of them sprung. These 
 changes of convictions were on the questions 
 of religion, and of food and drink, ' 
 
134 meda : 
 
 " As to religion, the world had come through 
 many many changes. After years and years of 
 experimental teaching, and the introduction of 
 endless forms of worship, endless doctrines, 
 endless beliefs, and non-beliefs, the people of 
 the earth came back again to Christianity 
 (from which they had wandered) about the 
 year of our Lord 3260, and we still adhere to 
 it. Our religion is now the Christian religion 
 in its pure simplicity. We have done away 
 with all sectarian dogmas which were purely 
 the creations of man. I think you will admit 
 that in your day man thought a great deal 
 too much about these dogmas, and in fighting 
 and squabbling over them they forgot what 
 real religion was, although they called them- 
 selves devout Christians. The Romanists 
 contended for the Pope and his Priests, and 
 said (believing it to be true, no doubt) that 
 the only way to Heaven was through them, 
 assisted by the Virgin Mary. Their great 
 dogma was that a Priest had the power of 
 relieving his fellow creature of his responsibility 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 135 
 
 to his God. The Episcopalians established 
 man-created dogmas, which they said had 
 better be observed, if you wished an easy road 
 to Heaven. The Methodists were bitter 
 against the Episcopalians because of these 
 church rules or dogmas, and yet they set up 
 another code, which they declared the right 
 and true one to follow. The Baptists again 
 said that no man was baptised unless he was 
 fully immersed, as if this could be a question 
 of vital importance. The Presbyterians said 
 that Presbyterianism was the true way Heaven- 
 ward. They again, on some silly man-created 
 laws for church government, split into a 
 number of sects, all bitter in their feelings 
 toward one another through some absurd 
 difference of opinion regarding these questions 
 that were really of little moment. 
 
 " All said that they believed in the doctrine 
 of the Christian relioion, which is salvation 
 through Christ ; and still they neglected 
 Christ's teaching, that is simplicity itself: 'Love 
 God, and do unto all men, as you would they 
 
136 meda : 
 
 should do unto you.' Yet with this precept 
 constantly before them, and with this doctrine 
 of love for God and your neighbour continually 
 on their lips, you will admit that they as con- 
 tinually abused one another, and even went 
 to war and spilt their brother's blood about 
 these miserable creations of their own narrow 
 minds, crying aloud all the time that they were 
 doing this for the sake of God, thereby dis- 
 regarding all that was taught by the Master 
 they professed to serve. This was bad in your 
 day, but shortly after your time things became 
 much worse. The people got so narrow- 
 minded that dogmas became the entire religion, 
 and Christ's teachings were entirely overlooked. 
 Then the freethinkers came to the front as 
 the natural result of these conflicting ideas. 
 With all these experiences before them, my 
 Specimen, our fathers saw that if they were 
 to have a religion at all, they must strip off 
 all creeds and dogmas created by man, and 
 adhere to the constant and oft-repeated instruc- 
 tions of God's Son. This they tried to do, 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 137 
 
 and the result has been most satisfactory, 
 having now worked well for over two thou- 
 sand years. We believe in ' Love for one 
 another, absolute justice to all, and veneration 
 for that mighty, all-powerful and incomprehen- 
 sible Great Being who created and who controls 
 the universe with love, mercy, and truth ; — 
 a Being so wonderfully great in His omnipo- 
 tence, that we are a thousand times less in 
 comparison to Him, than the smallest microbe 
 which floats about in the blood of the most 
 insignificant little insect, is to this globe on 
 which we live. As I told you, if any one 
 of our community through great learning, or 
 great intellectual power, or through adulation 
 begins to think he is m-eater or nobler than 
 he is, we take him to the Observatory and he 
 comes away with a true perception of his own 
 nothingness. He is thus imbued with a larger 
 desire to learn more from the inexhaustible 
 field of unexplored knowledge that is yet but 
 barely entered upon. I sometimes think, my 
 Specimen, that should the world last for tens 
 
138 meda : 
 
 of thousands of years, its inhabitants will after 
 that time feel that they know less than we 
 now think we know, because as knowledge and 
 intelligence increase, the greater that increase 
 is, the greater will be man's ability to realize 
 his own littleness. In your day some great 
 thinkers presumed to state that there was no 
 God, but when greater knowledge came to 
 mankind this state of presumptuous thought 
 was banished, I hope, for ever." 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 139 
 
 PART VI. 
 
 " T THINK, my Specimen, we have now 
 JL had enough history for one day, so 
 meanwhile I shall postpone this subject ; as 
 time permits I will revert to it again. We shall 
 now talk about the present for a little. 
 
 " It is most interesting to read the writings 
 of the past and study the changes of thought 
 and sentiment that took place in the various 
 decades of the life of our nation. At one period, 
 the thoughts of our fathers seemed to be exalted 
 and pure in tone, while at another, we find 
 all these noble aspirations gone, and replaced 
 by ideas and thoughts that are immoral and 
 degrading. This changing reminds me of a 
 number of great ocean waves, rolling on the 
 shore. At one moment, you see them clear, 
 pure and beautiful, at another, they are dim 
 and muddy, having stirred up and become 
 polluted by contact with the bottom's dirt and 
 
140 MEDA : 
 
 filth. But as decade after decade passes, the 
 tone of our fathers' writings has gradually 
 improved, until at the present day immorality 
 of thought has ceased to exist, and purity and 
 wisdom reign in its place. Not, my Specimen, 
 that I want you for a moment to believe that 
 we have now arrived at perfection — that is a 
 goal we can never attain. And I think it is 
 well it is so, for had we not got some 
 greater and nobler object always in view, we 
 should be like the climber of mountains who 
 had nothing left for his ambition to attain — 
 after having climbed the highest, he must either 
 remain on the top or descend again to the level 
 from which he made his start. Our mountain 
 is one whose top we can never attain. We 
 will get higher and higher, but as mortals, 
 we can never hope to reach the summit. 
 
 " We differ much in duration of life from the 
 people of your period. I think I am right in 
 saying that in those days the average life of 
 men was about forty years. Some, it is true, 
 lived to one hundred, but these were I believe 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 141 
 
 very rare exceptions. Now we live to an 
 average of one hundred and fifty years, while 
 many reach two hundred. The death rate 
 among our young people is very low. Our 
 children remain helpless much longer than those 
 of the ancients, rarely beginning to walk before 
 they are three years old, greater intelligence 
 bringing this burthen with it. A man does not 
 arrive at maturity until he has reached thirty 
 years, while a woman arrives at maturity about 
 her twenty-eighth year. Our marriage laws are 
 very strict. No man can have more than one 
 wife during his life, to have a second wife is a 
 terrible crime in our eyes. He must not marry 
 until he is forty, nor can any woman marry until 
 she is thirty-five. A woman rarely has more 
 than three children, and never more than four. 
 
 "In the selection of husbands and wives, 
 young people are left very much to themselves, 
 subject to only two conditions which are, a 
 presumed educational equality and non-relation- 
 ship. Both the man and the woman must have 
 passed the highest educational standard of their 
 
142 MEDA : 
 
 class, this being the only test of nobility that 
 has any weight with our people. If a man or 
 woman neglects this law in the selection of 
 wife or husband, he or she loses social caste 
 and is degraded in the eyes of the nation. Love, 
 we believe to be a true, pure and holy feeling, a 
 love for the spirit and intellect rather than that 
 carnal love for the body and worldly riches that 
 was so prevalent in your day, and for thousands 
 of years thereafter. By strictly adhering to 
 this law of selection, we find that the offspring 
 of intellectual people are more susceptible 
 to develop an improved intellectual power. 
 Marriage is not allowed between relations. 
 The experience we had before us, of the evils 
 arising from marriages between near relations in 
 previous generations, which, without exception, 
 produced and perpetuated diseased bodies, and 
 decrepit and idiotic minds, caused this law to be 
 enacted and rigidly adhered to. It is an under- 
 stood unwritten law, that the further removed 
 the husband and wife are in relationship the 
 more pleased the parents and the state will be. 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 143 
 
 People afflicted with disease are not allowed to 
 marry. Love of parents is strongly developed 
 in our race ; and our love for the country of our 
 birth is intense. Parents devote themselves to 
 their children until they have arrived at maturity, 
 and children have the highest veneration for 
 their parents. 
 
 " Men and women can compete for all 
 ordinary occupations, and they mix together 
 with the greatest freedom. Yet immorality is 
 unknown, the fact being that intelligence has 
 gained such a control over our people's passions 
 that everything is held subservient to it." 
 
 At this stage of my friend's description of his 
 fellows, I ventured to ask, " What object can 
 your people have for which to live and work ? 
 They do not eat, therefore, it cannot be for 
 food or the pleasures of the palate. All gar- 
 ments appear to me the same, therefore it 
 cannot be for the love of clothing. They don't 
 seem to use money, therefore it cannot be from 
 a desire to amass wealth." He replied, "You 
 forget, my Specimen, that intellectual food for 
 
144 MEDA : 
 
 the mind is of more value to us than the miser- 
 able food you used to cram into that sink of 
 iniquity, your stomach. You forget that to us 
 mental raiment is worth more than all the 
 clothing that in your day was so much prized 
 and sought after. You forget that we have no 
 use for that bauble money, that you sought for, 
 fought for, and for which you degraded your- 
 selves. You forget that the rays thrown out 
 by one brilliant thought, or one great conception, 
 are possessed of more grandeur and beauty, for 
 the present generation, than all the diamonds 
 and rubies that were so much prized by the 
 ancients. But while we are more alive to the 
 beauties of thought and the gems of intellect, 
 than to any of the so-called jewels, clothing and 
 other treasures of the ancients, we do not 
 despise the beauties of these gems or of this 
 raiment. We look on crold and silver much as 
 we look on lovely flowers without life. We 
 admire and prize the grand effects that can be 
 produced by their artistic arrangements and 
 settings. These effects we study and arrange 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE, 145 
 
 in great halls of instruction, the property of the 
 nation. No individual possesses or cares to 
 possess these things; he considers them curious, 
 interesting, and beautiful, and no more. 
 
 " The simple uniform garments we adopt 
 serve all our wants. If women on f£te days 
 wish to adorn themselves they use flowers, 
 which have a charm of simplicity and beauty 
 about them, far beyond gems, that — could their 
 history be told — would reveal a deplorable 
 chapter of crimes committed for their sakes. 
 Think of the tyrants they have adorned ; think 
 of the immorality they have bedecked with 
 borrowed and deceitful rays of sparkling beauty; 
 think of the envy they have engendered in the 
 souls of generations ; think of the deceits, the 
 intrigues, the blasphemies, the miseries, the 
 murders, and the degradations that have been 
 enacted for them, and then say is their record 
 deserving of recognition or respect ? 
 
 " On the other hand, when our women adorn 
 themselves with flowers, they adorn themselves 
 with beautiful new born beauty, short lived, it 
 
146 meda : 
 
 is true, but pure and free from the curse of a 
 horrible record of crime. 
 
 " Yes, my Specimen, when we look back on 
 the history of the past, and remember what a 
 shameful part the cupidity of man caused gold, 
 silver, and the precious stones to play in the 
 world's history, we cannot help coupling and 
 associating man's worst instincts with these 
 otherwise harmless substances. They are truly 
 in themselves possessed of singular beauty, but 
 this beauty is so dimmed and disfigured by the 
 doings of men, that we cannot see one apart 
 from the other. We live for none of these; we 
 live for a more true and lasting pleasure." 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 147 
 
 FART VII. 
 
 HAVING now spent a considerable time 
 relating the things of the past, and 
 instructing me in things relating to the present, 
 the Recorder told me to retire to rest, so I lay 
 down on a couch and went to sleep again. The 
 next day I awoke and found that I was quite 
 alone. I lay quietly, thinking and wondering 
 for a long- time. At last the Recorder came to 
 me, and said he would again begin to instruct 
 me as soon as I had had my morning meal. 
 Finding this on a tray beside my couch, I got 
 up and refreshed myself. As soon as I had 
 had enough the Recorder began : — 
 
 " You are surprised to find that we exist with- 
 out food, and that we do not live for its sake. 
 How this came about is a long story, and I feel 
 that it is now time you should have an 
 explanation of the reasons and causes of this 
 beneficial change in the nature of mankind. 
 
148 meda : 
 
 When man was created, the necessity for other 
 food than that supplied through his lungs was 
 essential, because at that period the atmosphere 
 that surrounded the earth had not sufficient 
 sustaining power of itself to maintain the human 
 frame, and to make up for the waste entailed 
 by the exertions of the mind and body. But 
 the Creator never intended that the faculty 
 of drawing sustenance from food should be 
 abused in the way it was. The simple fruits 
 of the earth were sufficient for all man's wants, 
 and even these were only to be used in moder- 
 ation ; but after long generations he became 
 more and more wedded to eating and drinking. 
 He was not content with the simple fruits 
 of the earth, nor was he content with water 
 for his drink. He, indeed, appears to have 
 possessed less wisdom in this respect than the 
 brute creation, that have from the beginning, 
 even down to the present day, been content 
 with that which was provided for them. Man, 
 by misusing his thinking and reasoning power, 
 apparently educated himself to gloat over food, 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 149 
 
 and to devote his intelligence to the pro- 
 duction of new foods and drinks. His field 
 of thought seems to have been confined or 
 directed in a large measure to indulging the 
 desires of his appetite. His greatest object in 
 life became a wish for the means of gratifying 
 these tastes. His object in storing up wealth 
 was to make this over-indulgence possible, and 
 the greater his means the more he went in for 
 carousals. The more dishes he could give to 
 his guests, the more he was thought of. Not 
 content with simple nourishment prepared from 
 fruit, or even flesh, he debased that genius 
 of invention, with which he was endowed, by 
 inventing novelties, and educated his palate 
 to the belief that each new dish was more 
 delicious than its predecessor. In his desire 
 to gratify artificial thirst, he became still more 
 debased. He was not content with the purest 
 water. He was not content with the juice 
 of fruits, he must needs have something novel. 
 He invented intoxicating drinks, he found 
 that they exhilarated his spirits for the moment ; 
 
150 MEDA : 
 
 he found at this stage of partial intoxication 
 that he was elevated above himself. It was a 
 temporary pleasure. He continued to indulge, 
 and gradually became stupefied and debased 
 in the eyes of his own intelligence. Still he 
 could not refrain from this infatuation. He 
 gorged himself again with food, and he again 
 debased himself with drink which never was 
 intended for mankind. Man acted in such an 
 insane way that it became doubtful whether 
 it was an advantage to him to be possessed 
 of reasoning power and intelligence. The 
 animal creation that had neither the one nor 
 the other were possessed of an instinct which so 
 controlled their appetites, that no power could 
 move or cause them to overstep the rules of 
 nature. This state of abuse went on from 
 generation to generation, growing worse and 
 worse until, in your day, no man, even of the 
 meanest habits, could sit down to a meal, if the 
 component parts had not come from all the 
 quarters of the earth. You must well remember 
 that no great meetings, even of the learned 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 151 
 
 societies in those days, took place without being 
 accompanied by monstrous feeding and drinking 
 matches. 
 
 " Those who termed themselves abstainers 
 were abstainers only from intoxicants. They 
 reviled those who took wine or spirits in any 
 form, yet these very men w r ould cram them- 
 selves with all conceivable kinds of food. They 
 would spare no trouble, or what they called 
 money, to make these great feeding displays. 
 They truly saw the evils of drinking intoxicants, 
 but they overlooked the evils of over-eating, 
 the intemperance in consuming food. The 
 result of this terrible abuse of appetite and 
 intellect had a very baneful influence on the 
 world's inhabitants. No nation was free from 
 it ; no class was averse to it ; all inclined in the 
 same direction. For want of opportunity and 
 means, some people living in lonely districts 
 were of necessity kept out of the way of 
 temptation, but the credit is not due to their 
 want of inclination, but rather to a want of 
 opportunity. The effects of this abnormal 
 
152 meda : 
 
 desire for food and drink were not however 
 without some results that eventually did good. 
 The desire for indulging these tastes engendered 
 a desire for the attainment of wealth. This 
 desire gave birth to enterprise ; enterprise led 
 to adventure ; adventure brought about the 
 discovery of distant lands. Then a great trade 
 arose with all parts of the globe ; population 
 increased ; people must be fed with dainties. 
 They were not to be satisfied with the products 
 of their own countries, so great fleets were 
 engaged for the object of satisfying this craving. 
 This indulgence, of what we now see were 
 depraved tastes, must be catered for. Good 
 came, because the desires of the appetite created 
 the necessity for improved transport. The 
 medical science was also stimulated. Over- 
 indulgence in food and drink created a host of 
 new and painful diseases. These signs of decay 
 called forth medical and surgical invention, and 
 a closer study of the human frame and its 
 organs, which ultimately worked out an inter- 
 esting and beneficial result by demonstrating to 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 153 
 
 mankind that if this unwholesome mode of 
 living was persisted in, the human race must 
 come to a disgraceful and untimely end. 
 Terrible in our eyes is the knowledge that 
 such a state of things had ever existed, because 
 we know from the experience of the past its 
 baneful effects on hundreds of generations. 
 Men and women, who ought to have adorned 
 the earth, and been as beautiful in their way as 
 the most lovely of God's works, became a dis- 
 grace to humanity. They were a trouble to 
 themselves and to all around them. To fully 
 describe the excesses entered into by the 
 majority of the people that came after your era 
 would be as disgusting as it is unnecessary. 
 You must have seen enough of this abuse in 
 your own day to enable you to judge as to 
 whether our way is the right way or not, my 
 Specimen. 
 
 "While there was this immorality, while 
 everything moral and intellectual seemed to be 
 on the road to destruction, there was still some 
 good left in the world. Although the common 
 
 L 
 
154 meda : 
 
 observer might, if judging from the great pre- 
 ponderance of evil, think that all was hopeless 
 and that all was lost, a germ of good still re- 
 mained. There still, fortunately, existed many 
 great and good minds that never ceased, 
 morning noon or night, to preach morality, 
 truth, and temperance to the people. Many 
 lost heart and gave up in despair, but still their 
 places were taken by others who continued the 
 good fight from age to age. For a time, the 
 new order of things led our ancestors of this 
 date to think that everything was improving. 
 The people had come through great trials and 
 were inclined to listen to the advice of men of 
 learning. The reduction of population was a 
 great relief to those that were left. In country 
 districts the people began to grow their own 
 food, and rear their own meat. They lived 
 moderately, and became much more happy and 
 contented. In the cities also, the people were 
 better provided for. The great mass went in 
 for education, devoting themselves to it, and 
 the affairs of our nation went on smoothly for 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 155 
 
 many years. It was during this period that the 
 first practical steps were taken to establish the 
 universal language that you have heard spoken. 
 About this date also a new sect was formed, its 
 members consisting of the leading intellects of 
 America, the Colonies, and Great Britain. This 
 sect saw and believed that all the troubles of 
 the earth were due to excessive eating and 
 drinking. They stated, and stated, as we now 
 see truly, that if eating and drinking could be 
 dispensed with, man's intellectual power would 
 increase, and permanent morality would be 
 ensured. What they advocated was — First of 
 all to do away with the use of all luxuries, and 
 then gradually to reduce the amount of ordinary 
 food. This body became very large and power- 
 ful, and after being established one hundred 
 years it was found that their numbers comprised 
 one fourth the American and English people. 
 Their compeers were astonished to see the very 
 small amount of food they found sufficient to 
 sustain life. They contended that it was God's 
 will when He created man that He should take 
 
156 meda : 
 
 just sufficient food for sustenance but no more ; 
 and that what food man did take must be of the 
 very simplest kind. These men found them- 
 selves, after living in this way, intellectually 
 stronger, and while their physical strength was 
 not at first so great as those that continued to 
 eat largely, still, knowing as they did that 
 mental power was the power that must conquer, 
 the members of this body held firmly to their 
 principles. They had no spare flesh on their 
 bodies, but they were thoroughly healthy, and 
 possessed joyful spirits. They found that they 
 wanted but little money to supply their simple 
 needs, and from their personal experience they 
 saw that one-fourth of the food usually con- 
 sumed by man was sufficient for their sustenance. 
 They further proved that the cost of their food 
 did not come to one-fourth the sum an ordinary 
 individual required. They demonstrated that 
 by reducing the consumption and using only the 
 simplest kinds, the saving to the country would 
 be something enormous. This doctrine suited 
 the great body of the people very well, but the 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 157 
 
 merchants and middlemen, who lived by barter, 
 began to see that their trade was going. If 
 people could exist, they said, on one-fourth of 
 the food that was ordinarily required, then they 
 could do with less than one-fourth of the mer- 
 chants and middlemen. Strong opposition was 
 started in the cities to this body that was doing 
 so much good, consequently, in the cities the 
 new sect made but small progress, except 
 amongst the higher and educated classes. But 
 in the country districts of America, Britain, and 
 the Colonies, the teaching of this new order was 
 taking a great hold on the people, and combined 
 with the progress of higher education, greatly 
 improved their social condition. As for the 
 cities, from what I have read, it is evident that 
 they did not advance much. There was some- 
 thing so entirely antagonistic to the purity of 
 nature in the city life of the ancients that it 
 seemed almost impossible to elevate the inhabi- 
 tants. The herding of so many human beings 
 together in such confined spaces, and in 
 ill-ventilated houses, away from the elevating 
 
158 meda : 
 
 influences of country life, made the task of 
 reform almost hopeless. Then at this period 
 of the world's history, the besetting sin — a 
 craving for money and gain — lowered the minds 
 of the people who resided in such places to a 
 much greater degree than it did to the minds of 
 those that lived in the country. All these 
 reasons tended to act against the doctrines of 
 this great sect of reformers; still they continued 
 to labour, and after 400 years' continuous work, 
 they numbered fully half the earth's population. 
 One of their great apostles had in the begin- 
 ning prophesied that theirs would in course of 
 time be the universal belief of the world. This 
 prophecy has come true, though it came about 
 in a manner that was never contemplated. 
 Continual living on short diet, we are told, had 
 a beneficial effect on these people. History 
 informs us that they could endure longer hours 
 of labour ; that they had brighter and clearer 
 thinking powers ; that they possessed greater 
 determination ; and that they took a much 
 wider and far-seeing view of all subjects than 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 159 
 
 the free eaters and drinkers did. Although not 
 physically strong, they were the leaders in every 
 great undertaking. If the country was at war, 
 they were to be found in the van-guard, while 
 in all movements for the advance of science, 
 art, and industry, they were ahead also. That 
 such a large body should exist and adhere to 
 what were in those days considered by many to 
 be strange notions, was a curious phenomenon, 
 and one that afterwards proved to be a design 
 of Providence to gradually prepare a people 
 that might live under an altered condition of 
 things. Now, my Specimen, as I have devoted 
 a long time to your instruction, and as I fear 
 this dry record will tire you if you get too much 
 of it at a time, I will give over for the present. 
 I must visit my private abode to-night, and 
 shall take you with me and introduce you to my 
 wife and daughter as well as to some other 
 ladies of position. You will then have an 
 opportunity of conversing with ladies of our 
 day. It will be a change for you, and a pleasant 
 one. We shall go on our journey to-morrow ; 
 
160 meda : 
 
 as occasion offers, I shall continue my instruc- 
 tive narrative. If I told you the history of 
 our nation fully, as I mentioned before, it 
 would be an endless task ; therefore, I must 
 be as brief as possible, and pass over long 
 periods of time with a few words." 
 
 The Recorder now went through his depart- 
 ment to give further instructions, while I again 
 accompanied him. Everything this man did 
 was done in a quiet, yet thoroughly masterful 
 manner, and I began to hold him almost in 
 awe, so great was my opinion of his power of 
 penetration and command. But in spite of my 
 respect for him, now and then his ideas of what 
 a true Venus should be had the effect of 
 lowering him in my estimation, at least as an 
 artist. 
 
 We now went outside the building, and met 
 all the officials and clerks, both men and 
 women. The Recorder remarked : — " It is the 
 closing time ; the day's work is over. We will 
 allow them to go first, as, having to take you 
 with me, I can't make as much speed as they 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 161 
 
 do, and the consequence is, we might be run 
 down amid such a crowd." So we waited and 
 saw them all start. There were men and 
 women of all ages in those strange simple white 
 costumes, all with the same great thoughtful 
 faces, great heads and eyes. First they walked 
 for about thirty yards, quite quietly, then all at 
 once they threw out a little ballast, and began to 
 trip away in hundreds in their odd hop, skip and 
 a jump fashion, at a marvellous speed, passing 
 over everything. It was the very funniest 
 sicrht I had ever seen. The Recorder looked 
 at me saying : — l: That flight represents a 
 considerable power," and continuing said, " I 
 think I will couple up your leg weights, my 
 Specimen, and see how you get on generating 
 your own power." On saying this, he secured 
 a small bright wire to each leg weight and 
 passed it over my shoulder down the front of 
 my body to the weight on the opposite leg. 
 When this was done he joined the two wires 
 where they crossed in the front and back of 
 my body by a pair of little clasps like a brooch, 
 
162 meda : 
 
 about the size of a florin, and twice as thick. 
 When this was completed, I felt the same kind 
 of pleasant glow going through me as that 
 experienced when the Recorder caught hold of 
 me, but in a modified degree. I told the 
 Recorder this, and he said, " That is all right, 
 my Specimen, you are improving. You will 
 soon be able to dispense with food, and then 
 you can do without those disgusting digestive 
 details of yours." I began to think my fate 
 was now sealed, that he would not rest until 
 he had cut my liver and other digestive organs 
 out, but I was reassured when I remembered 
 his promise to me after leaving the medical 
 museum. 
 
 " We will now move on, my Specimen," he 
 said. " Those wires should be concealed by 
 your garments, but they will do as they are for 
 a first trial. I will have to guide you until you 
 get accustomed to your new mode of travel." 
 He took me gently by the arm, and off we 
 started. Had it not been that he held me I 
 should most certainly have gone heads over 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 163 
 
 heels for all time. I seemed to be alive all 
 over. My legs would spring one way, while 
 my hands and arms would go another. I felt 
 that I could have done anything — my body was 
 all vitality and power — but the annoyance was 
 that I had no control over this power, yet it 
 was most enjoyable. The sense of vigour and 
 energy within me as realized during the trip 
 that followed these preparations was something 
 far beyond description. There is no illustration 
 that I could give you, Reader, which would 
 make you realize what I felt during those 
 moments. The Recorder said : — " The instru- 
 ments that you have christened leg weights, 
 and that we in a measure use as leg weights, 
 are generators — they collect power from the 
 atmosphere. We place them on our ancles to 
 make the lower extremities of our bodies heavy. 
 When so placed they act as ballast to keep us 
 erect. 
 
 " I caused you to wear them first without 
 being connected and made active, to accustom 
 you to their weight. I see that you feel them 
 
164 meda : 
 
 rather powerful, but when your mind is educated 
 and your will is strong enough to control them, 
 you will have no difficulty. Besides I am giving 
 off some of my power to you through holding 
 your arm ; but here we are." At this moment 
 we came to a stand in front of a beautiful 
 simple little villa, surrounded by a flower garden 
 laid out in exquisite taste. 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 165 
 
 PART VIII 
 
 THE house was not more than thirty feet 
 square and one storey high. On a seat 
 at the side of the door were seated two ladies. 
 One was old and grey-haired, but possessed of 
 a beautifully expressive face ; the other was 
 much younger, with a face of great intelligence. 
 And oh ! such lovely features and such eyes ! 
 The depth of feeling and penetration existing 
 in them was something extraordinary; they 
 were perfectly liquid, and sparkled anew with 
 every change of expression. As we alighted, 
 the ladies rose and advanced to meet us. I 
 now saw that they were tall and slender, and 
 I thought that if they could only reduce their 
 heads and draw in their chests, they would be 
 the most charming females I had ever met. 
 The Recorder simply bowed to them, and 
 leading me forward said : — 
 
 " My Specimen, this is my wife and this is 
 
166 meda : 
 
 my daughter." They evidently knew who I was 
 and all about me. I began to feel very small 
 and thought that these people had a better 
 knowledge of me than I had of myself, and 
 then I thought of that nasty model. No doubt 
 these ladies had had explained to them all 
 about my horrid liver, my useless lungs, my 
 fatty heart, and my abominable abdominal 
 regions. Only think of one's entrails being 
 made the subject of the small talk of a great 
 nation. It was something too humiliating to 
 think of, and before these ladies I did feel 
 humbled and ashamed, I can assure you. 
 
 We now entered the villa, the ladies leading 
 the way. I could see at a glance the arrange- 
 ment of the house. It was simply divided into 
 four rooms about fifteen feet square. The 
 door was in the corner of the building opening 
 into one of the rooms, which formed a recep- 
 tion or sitting room, having windows in two 
 sides. There was a door, I noticed, directly 
 opposite to the entrance that evidently led to 
 the room that formed the opposite corner of 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 167 
 
 the house. Other two doors alongside this 
 corner door led into the other two rooms. 
 The furniture of the reception-room was 
 exceedingly simple, but very artistic. The 
 chairs and tables looked so light and flimsy 
 that I did not believe they could carry the 
 weight of a person sitting on them. I felt 
 sure that the least thing would crush the table. 
 All sat down but myself. The Recorder, 
 divining my fear, said, " Come here, my 
 Specimen," and saying so he leaped lightly on 
 a chair. I expected to see the whole thing 
 collapse, but the chair stood the shock without 
 a tremble. He then said ; — " Hold out your 
 hand, my Specimen." I did so, and with a 
 slight leap he stepped on it and balanced 
 himself. I scarcely felt his weight, which I 
 expected to be considerable. If he had been 
 made hollow and lightly stuffed with cotton 
 wool he would have weighed more than he did. 
 Seeing my astonishment, he said : — 
 
 " You see, we are very strong, our muscles 
 are as strong and as light as silk. Our mode 
 
168 meda : 
 
 of living has entirely altered the component 
 parts of our bodies. The pressure of our 
 atmosphere has also much to do with our 
 weight. In your time your bodies consisted 
 of about eighty per cent, of water, as you 
 required a large amount of moisture to enable 
 you to exist. With our atmosphere and with 
 our mode of living we require almost no 
 moisture. Our muscles, our nerves, and our 
 bones are made of a material that is light but 
 very strong. I cannot give you a better 
 illustration to convey to your mind a concep- 
 tion of this substance, than by telling you that 
 we are composed of a material somewhat of 
 the nature of silk. Our brains, our very bones, 
 consist of the same material surrounded by 
 gases. Each nerve, each sinew, each artery, 
 each vein, floats, as it were, in a casing con- 
 sisting of cells filled with gases. Our lungs 
 are composed of a series of cells made of 
 the finest net-work of gauzy material, through 
 which the atmosphere is inhaled, and the 
 nutriment therein is thus conveyed to the 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 169 
 
 blood. You will now, my Specimen, under- 
 stand why we are so light, so transparent, and 
 yet possessed of such power. While you have 
 retained the shape that you once possessed 
 you are really composed now of much the 
 same material that we are : in fact, you are 
 no longer in your old body, you are in a 
 new body, that is in process of being provided 
 with new organs, otherwise you could not live 
 and move as you do. Your spirit is the old 
 spirit, but that is all. You have yet, as I said 
 before, to reduce the size of your digestive 
 organs, and to increase your lung power, then 
 with patience and education you will become as 
 one of ourselves, because, my Specimen, I see 
 from what you have said and from what is 
 passing through your mind, that you are 
 possessed of more than ordinary intelligence 
 for one whose mind was moulded under ancient 
 influences that were both depraved and baneful." 
 I was becoming more and more astonished 
 with all that I had seen and heard, but somehow 
 through life I had the faculty of suiting myself 
 
 M 
 
170 meda : 
 
 and my ideas to the situations in which I was 
 placed. Whether I was alive or dead now, I 
 could not say, but I began to feel more and 
 more at home in this new state of existence. I 
 saw less that was strange in the figures and 
 costumes, the habits and the customs of the 
 strange people I was now among. Whether 
 this change in my ideas was caused by living in 
 this new atmosphere, or whether it was caused 
 by my intercourse with the Recorder and his 
 family, I know not, but that a change was 
 coming over me was quite evident. When we 
 came to a stand in front of the villa, and before 
 the Recorder released me from his hold, he 
 slipped the little connector off the cross wires 
 at my back. After this was done I had control 
 over my movements, and consequently could 
 move about the room with freedom. I saw that 
 the walls were beautifully painted, representing 
 groups of flowers with an odd bird or butterfly 
 here and there. Indeed the whole room and its 
 furniture was in the most complete harmony — 
 a study of art. 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 171 
 
 While I was looking out from the window I 
 saw a group of white specks in the distance. 
 Thinking these were gulls I pointed them out 
 to the ladies who were seated near me. The 
 elderly lady said : — 
 
 " My dear sir, you must be short of vision. 
 Cannot you see that those are ladies ? In fact 
 sir, these are some friends coming to see us ; 
 they are only a few miles away now, and will 
 be here immediately." 
 
 She had scarcely ceased speaking when they 
 arrived. The party numbered four — three 
 elderly ladies and one girl, the latter being I 
 should say about twenty-eight years old. I at 
 once recognised one of the new comers as the 
 lady who was taking part in the debate when I 
 entered the House of Commons. She was truly 
 a grand specimen of modern humanity. I was 
 introduced to them all by name, but as none of 
 the names were familiar to me I have not been 
 able to retain them. 
 
 The Recorder asked me to give them a short 
 account of the age in which I lived. Feeling 
 
172 meda : 
 
 complimented, I stood up, and laid my views of 
 the state of politics, science, art, and manu- 
 facture in my day before them. I told them all 
 about our immense naval fleets and their 
 armament. I described fully our great mercan- 
 tile marine. I gave them some ideas about our 
 commerce, and, being proud of my profession, I 
 extolled the excellence of the Schools of Art 
 in 1888. Whether I was justified in doing so 
 or not is rather doubtful, as our schools tended 
 towards the same fault of preciseness and want 
 of freedom that I complained of in theirs. I 
 venture to think that I am a fairly good speaker, 
 and I spoke to these people with considerable 
 force of words but in a whisper. They heard 
 me with great attention and politeness all 
 through, and when I sat down they came to me 
 individually, and said it was to them a great 
 treat to hear me speak with such force in 
 advocating the fallacies of the ancients. They 
 now entered into a discussion amongst them- 
 selves about the habits and customs of people 
 in my day. They seemed to know everything 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 173 
 
 about them. I was highly entertained and 
 pleased with all I heard. Things were dis- 
 cussed with the greatest intelligence and 
 fairness. The gormandising habits of my 
 fellows, and their greed for gain came in for 
 some hard hits, which I felt were so entirely 
 deserved, that I had not one word to say in 
 their defence. 
 
 In the conversation and arguments I noticed 
 that the ladies referred all questions of doubt to 
 the Recorder. When a question was put to 
 him he always reasoned it out exhaustively, 
 giving full and ample reasons for his decisions. 
 If any of the party did not agree, they stated 
 their objections, but after further argument, 
 which was carried on in a very friendly way, 
 he invariably proved the accuracy of his 
 decision. I was much surprised at the able 
 manner in which the ladies put their arguments 
 forward, their method was so unlike what I 
 had previously been accustomed to. Perhaps 
 I was prejudiced against them, as in my time 
 those ladies we termed blue-stockings made 
 
174 MEDA : 
 
 one feel, that while perhaps they had a certain 
 amount of knowledge, they believed they knew 
 much more than they did, which caused them 
 to be dogmatic, and at times over-bearing. 
 These ladies, however, were not dogmatic — a 
 fault that is objectionable in men, but quite 
 unbearable in women. Great minds are 
 always the most truly humble, their knowledge 
 being great and their reading of all things 
 broad and large-minded, they see and despise 
 that little-mindedness that mves birth to such 
 faults as those exhibited by the half-educated. 
 
 The Recorder having suggested that the 
 ladies should give us some music, his wife 
 went into one of the adjoining rooms and 
 brought out two curious looking instruments 
 such as I had seen in the college ; keeping one 
 herself she handed the other to one of the lady 
 visitors. They first played a short plaintive 
 melody without any flourishes, runs, or varia- 
 tions, while the rest of the party joining sang 
 in perfect harmony. All sang very softly and 
 with deep feeling. It was more like the music 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 175 
 
 of angels than the music of this earth, so sweet, 
 soft, and melodious was it. We were favoured 
 with a number of other melodies, all of which 
 were quite new to me. After these were 
 finished I ventured to express the delight I 
 had experienced while they performed. The 
 Recorder's daughter now sang a solo, her 
 mother accompanying her. This song was 
 sung in old English, and was evidently 
 intended for my special benefit. It was a song 
 in praise of intelligence. At one time it was 
 low and sweet, at another, full of spirit and 
 fire. The sfirl threw her whole soul into it. 
 You could see from the nervous quivering of 
 her muscles that each note and word came 
 from her very heart. For my part I sat 
 amazed and entranced by the beauty and 
 grandeur of the execution. I forgot the large 
 head and expanded chest, thinking only of the 
 music and its wonderful influence. While I 
 sat thus admiring this girl, my ideas of the 
 perfect proportions for a Venus faded away. 
 I honestly believe if I had had a canvas I 
 
176 MED a : 
 
 should at once have started to paint a true 
 Venus after the model before me. How this 
 was I cannot say, possibly the influences by 
 which I was surrounded were fast altering my 
 ideas, yes, and my very nature. I even began 
 to think that my form was altering also. I 
 had not noticed a mirror anywhere to enable 
 me to see what I was like ; the only reproduc- 
 tion of myself that I had seen was that horrid 
 model, dressed in my old tweed suit. Our 
 visitors soon departed, the Recorder and his 
 family going to the door to see them off. 
 They simply bowed to us all, as they left. I 
 went to the window and saw them trip away. 
 They were soon out of sight. The Recorder 
 now told his wife to bring refreshment, at the 
 same time explaining to me that I still required 
 a little food. I felt quite ashamed of myself; 
 but I must say that what the Recorder stated 
 was true. I did feel that I wanted something. 
 Some fruit and water were brought, and all 
 three sat and looked at me eating with evident 
 curiosity and interest, each taking a sip of 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 177 
 
 water, by way of keeping me company. The 
 ladies now retired, leaving me alone with the 
 Recorder who came and sat beside me. He 
 said : — 
 
 " My Specimen, to-morrow we start to see 
 the seats of Government in Britain. I may 
 tell you that the ruined city near to us is 
 Glasgow ; the river you saw is the Clyde." 
 When I heard this, I at once recognised my 
 native city, but it must have grown tremen- 
 dously before its day of destruction came. 
 When I knew it, it was not more than one- 
 tenth the size that the ruined city must have 
 been, yet I could recognise many of the general 
 features in a dim, indistinct way. The 
 Recorder went on : — 
 
 " I shall take you past Edinburgh, New- 
 castle, Manchester, London, Liverpool, and 
 then we shall return here. We can do all this 
 overland travelling in the same way and by 
 means of the same power that we use every 
 day, none of the distances are great, and there 
 are no large sheets of water to pass over. 
 
178 meda : 
 
 When we go longer journeys together, we 
 shall require either to embark in the naval or 
 aerial packets. Those cities I have mentioned, 
 like Glasgow, are now but ruins. They exist 
 no longer as cities, and are left in this state of 
 desolation as evidences of the folly of the 
 ancients, who used the intelligence that was 
 given them by the Creator to banish His works 
 of beauty and over-run the country with their 
 own smoke-begrimed productions." I here 
 said to my companion that in my day we were 
 proud of our great cities, of our great industries, 
 and of the great strides we made in civilisation, 
 and that while proud of these, most of our 
 people could also enjoy Nature. Industry, I 
 explained to him, became a necessity as we had 
 to live by it ; we had no other means of getting 
 food, drink and clothing. " Yes," he replied, 
 ' : I know all this, but, as I explained before, 
 you abused your desire for food, and you 
 debased your senses by drink ; you got proud 
 of your cities and factories, your fleets and your 
 telegraphy. While there was undoubtedly 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 179 
 
 considerable merit in many of your inventions, 
 while there were many great ideas conceived 
 and carried out by many of your great minds, 
 yet these conceptions and these undertakings 
 were so mixed with the vices of self-esteem, 
 greed and avarice, that while producing some 
 good, this good was obliterated by crimes that 
 engendered misery, immorality, and degrada- 
 tion, that reduced humanity to a lower level 
 than that of the reptile creation, and eventually 
 brought a large proportion of the people of the 
 earth to the terrible judgment that was inflicted 
 upon them. But I will later on explain to you, 
 my Specimen, how all this came about. Let 
 us now retire to rest as it is getting late ; we 
 must be up betimes in the morning." He 
 showed me to my room, which was that entered 
 by the door in the corner opposite the entrance 
 door. The furniture consisted of a chair, a 
 table and a couch, and there was a shallow bath 
 in the floor filled with water. The walls were 
 decorated with paintings. Although it was now 
 quite dark outside, the room was as light as day. 
 
180 meda : 
 
 The light came from a disc in the ceiling, and 
 the Recorder explained that by pulling a string 
 that hung by the wall I could reduce the light 
 at will. This was effected by closing a louvre 
 that was arranged to cover the luminous disc. 
 I had previously noticed that the reception- 
 room was lighted in the same way. He said 
 " Good-night/' and feeling tired I lay down and 
 slept the sleep of the just, not even waiting to 
 undress. 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 181 
 
 PART IX, 
 
 IN the morning I awoke very early, quite 
 refreshed. From my window I could see 
 the sun just peeping over the distant hills. 
 While I lay thus awake I thought over all I 
 had seen, of my own old world times, and of 
 all that had taken place there. I wondered 
 what had become of my old friends and 
 companions. I wondered if I would ever see 
 them again ; I wondered, if such was my lot, 
 what I would think of them and their surround- 
 ings. After living with the people I was now 
 among, I feared that I would despise my former 
 friends, and that I would detect sin, and greed, 
 and selfishness in all they did. I feared that 
 in conversing with anyone my first thought 
 would be, " Is he trying to cheat me ? What 
 selfish end has he in view ?" I could not think 
 of such things any longer; they were too 
 painful, too distressing. So I bounded out of 
 
182 meda : 
 
 bed, without thinking what I was doing. I 
 lighted on the floor with a leap, and rebounded, 
 hopping about like a ball ; I soon, however, 
 came to rest in the centre of the floor with all 
 thoughts of the old world, old friends, and old 
 deceits dashed out of me. I fully realised now 
 that I was amid new scenes, in what was to me 
 a new world, and among a new people — a 
 people so full of interest, so full of wisdom, so 
 devoted to science and art, and apparently so 
 devoid of vice, that I believed that the human 
 race had at last arrived at something nearly 
 approaching perfection, if not perfection itself. 
 After this reflection, I got into my bath, had a 
 refreshing roll on the water's surface, and then 
 began to dress. 
 
 It now for the first time occurred to me that 
 I had lain down with my garment and my leg 
 weights on, while I now saw that they were on 
 the chair, and that a light coverlet had been 
 placed over me. This made me exclaim : 
 " These are truly a strange and impertinent 
 people, they have been having another congress 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 183 
 
 over my poor body." I sat down and wept for 
 very shame, and cried out : " Why had I a 
 liver ? Oh, why had I these organs that held 
 me up to the derision of all men ? " 
 
 My cry brought the Recorder into the room; 
 he looked sad and said : "What has grieved my 
 poor Specimen ? Oh, I see what has been pass- 
 ing through your mind, but it is not as you 
 think, you were not examined medically last 
 night. I came in to see if you rested, and 
 finding that you had not taken off your clothing, 
 I removed it while you slept, and placed the 
 coverlet over you. You see," he continued, 
 "now that we have the model we instruct our 
 people from it, not from you." 
 
 This man's kind benevolent face, and his 
 reassuring manner, quite restored me to good 
 spirits, and I thanked him for the great interest 
 he took in me. He said : — 
 
 " Do not thank me, for although I like you 
 much on your own account, and believe that my 
 liking may grow to love for you, as I would 
 love a son, yet remember that I deserve no 
 
184 meda : 
 
 thanks for what I have done. It has all come 
 from my desire for information on a subject 
 that has presented no end of doubt to my mind 
 for many years. The information I have gained 
 by meeting with you has placed me under an 
 obligation that I never can repay. Come with 
 me now, the ladies wait our presence." 
 
 In the reception room we found the ladies 
 who had provided my simple meal, which I ate 
 and enjoyed. I had a long and very interesting 
 conversation with the Recorder's wife, the 
 daughter joining in occasionally. They told me 
 of many curious adventures that they had had 
 when travelling, many of them arising from 
 their leg weights, or generators getting out of 
 order. In my day, ladies would have dilated on 
 accidents arising from restive or runaway horses, 
 railway collisions, bursting of boilers, or ship- 
 wrecks at sea, but now it would appear that it 
 was faulty generators that was the cause of all 
 their ills. This appeared very strange to one, 
 who, like myself, was new to modern life, but after 
 yesterday's experience, when I had my leg 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 185 
 
 weights first coupled, I could say that I quite 
 believe that a restive leg- weight would make 
 one nervous, and that a runaway leg weight 
 would simply mean utter destruction. " Only 
 think," I said, "of one of these instruments 
 being determined to go one way, while another 
 determined to go the other. What would it end 
 in ? " But the ladies only laughed at these 
 suggested troubles, and told me that everyone 
 was familiar with the construction of these 
 generators, and while they sometimes got them 
 into ridiculous fixes, and caused them great 
 inconvenience, they soon learned to get hold of 
 some object, such as a tree, that enabled them 
 to come to rest ; and then by taking the wires 
 off, and re-adjusting them, they easily put all 
 to rights. 
 
 The Recorder now came to us, bearing two 
 small satchels in his hands, one he secured to 
 my back, and the other to his own, saying : 
 " This is our baggage, my Specimen. As we 
 will be away a few days we require a change 
 of raiment." 
 
186 meda: 
 
 All preparations being now made, my wires 
 were connected. We bade adieu to the ladies, 
 and started off. Knowing, as I now did, what 
 country we were in, I tried to recognise it as 
 we passed along. I had known it well in days 
 of yore, and I found that my recollections had 
 not failed me. The hills and valleys were all 
 the same, and the rivers and streams still ran in 
 the same courses, but otherwise the country was 
 entirely changed. The vegetation was much 
 more luxuriant, the villages and towns, the iron- 
 works, the factories, the railways, and the canals 
 were all gone, and in their places was an end- 
 less number of little modest-looking villas, such 
 as the one I had slept in last night, surrounded 
 by gardens laid out with the utmost care. Here 
 you would see a great clump of magnificent 
 forest trees, and yonder, a number of patches 
 of flowerinof shrubs all arranged with a view 
 to effective landscape decoration. There was 
 a master-hand visible in the whole, but there 
 was no stereotyped regularity. If you could 
 imagine some great being taking up handfuls 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 187 
 
 of landscape, all beautiful in themselves, and 
 casting them broadcast over the country, then 
 you would in a small measure be able to realise 
 what I saw as I passed along. 
 
 We met hundreds of people going to and fro 
 in every direction, all on some errand. Some- 
 times they came singly, and sometimes in 
 batches. Many were singing, many were play- 
 ing on instruments, and all seemed happy. The 
 Recorder explained to me on the way, while he 
 held me by the arm, that there were three classes 
 of people : first, there was the class to which 
 he belonged, who corresponded with nobles 
 in rank ; then, there was the class represented 
 by the sages, the clerks and message operators, 
 possessed of considerable intellect, but not of 
 great learning ; then, there were people of the 
 guide class, such as I had met first, whose 
 intellects were far from brilliant, and whose 
 physical strength was very inferior. They 
 were wanting in learning, and were altogether 
 of a lower type, having remained the same 
 for generations, never advancing or falling 
 
MEDA 
 
 behind. They took the place of lower gar- 
 deners, and were useful in their station of life. 
 Occasionally some of this class showed abilities, 
 and were advanced to a higher grade. 
 
 Conversing in this way we did not feel the 
 journey to Edinburgh a long one, in fact it 
 only lasted forty minutes. The Recorder said 
 he would not take me through the ruined city 
 as it was not considered elevating to visit the 
 seats of ancient iniquity. We, however, saw 
 the ruins as we skirted them. There was the 
 old rock on which the castle once stood ; there 
 was the Calton Hill, but one looked in vain for 
 a trace of the monuments that once stood there. 
 It was truly not now modern Athens, but an 
 ancient Athens. The whole place was com- 
 pletely in ruins. The sad thoughts that flocked 
 in swarms through my brain made me silent. 
 I remembered well the many pleasant days I 
 had spent in this picturesque city, and I felt 
 inclined to rebel against this new order of 
 things. I had no unpleasant recollections of 
 Edinburgh. All my visits there were of a 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 189 
 
 holiday nature, and I had not noticed much 
 sin or depravity. Then why should all be 
 ruin and desolation now ? Did man get so 
 very bad after my day as to deserve this 
 annihilation of his works ? 
 
 We came to a stand on a hill that I recog- 
 nised to be Arthur's Seat, and we were about 
 to proceed towards a large, low building on the 
 top, when I begged the Recorder to give me 
 a few explanations of how Edinburgh was 
 ruined, but his answer was simply : — 
 
 "I will tell you all about this terrible calamity 
 in good time, but not now, the one story will 
 do for all the cities, they were all ruined at the 
 same time." 
 
 " But," I said, "you seem to condemn all the 
 men of my time, and in doing so you appear to 
 me unjust. I have known many good and 
 kind hearted merchants, engineers, lawyers, 
 clergymen, sailors, and soldiers, that would not 
 do a wrong thing if they were aware of it, to 
 save their lives." 
 
 He replied : — "My Specimen, you misunder- 
 
190 MEDA : 
 
 stand me if you think I meant to say all were 
 bad. Did I not tell you that while to a com- 
 mon observer all might appear bad, many good 
 people were left. Had this not been the case 
 we would not now be in existence. I know 
 that all this change, all the desolation of these 
 great cities, the total disappearance of what you 
 considered the great works of your engineers, 
 must to you appear sad, but if you had had the 
 means of following up the events of this world, 
 as I have followed them, and as all of this 
 generation have followed them, by a long life 
 of study, you would not be either astonished or 
 grieved, you would rejoice as we now rejoice 
 that things are so much better than they were 
 in your day. But, my Specimen, if you but 
 think of the temptations that surrounded the 
 people of your time, you will see the tremendous 
 difficulties a good man had to contend with, if 
 he wished to remain good. You have men- 
 tioned merchants. When you think that they 
 had to gain a living by watching some oppor- 
 tunity of taking advantage of their fellow 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 191 
 
 merchants' weakness or ignorance, or of stealing 
 a march on them ; when you remember that a 
 very shady piece of covert deceit was con- 
 sidered but the action to be expected of a 
 smart business man ; when you think of the 
 questionable devices that were resorted to, to 
 run up or beat down prices ; when you think 
 of the companies that were Moated by making 
 use of false statements, skilfully worded to 
 evade the law, by men holding what in your 
 day were considered honourable positions; when 
 you recollect the hundreds of thousands of poor 
 widows and inexperienced people who were 
 taken in by these devices, I think you will 
 agree with me in saying that it was difficult 
 to get a good man filling such a position. But 
 far be it from me to say that all business men 
 were bad. They must not be judged by our 
 present standard of goodness. No, I would 
 rather say that they should be judged more by 
 a standard that will make allowance for the 
 terrible temptations and necessities with which 
 they were surrounded. Where a good, true 
 
192 meda : 
 
 and honourable man did exist, he was assuredly 
 deserving of far greater credit for being good 
 and true, than any good man of the present day. 
 We do not now work for our individual sain, 
 we work for the good of the whole community, 
 and not being surrounded by temptation we 
 are not as liable to fall into the same errors. 
 Lawyers in your day were men that had a 
 very trying position to fill. They often had 
 to advocate the cause of men that they 
 believed were guilty, and although knowing 
 that they were advocating a bad cause, they 
 had to try and prove their clients innocent. 
 Thus they used their intellectual power in 
 many cases to prove that an innocent man was 
 guilty. Still, amid all this, I agree with you 
 that there were many good lawyers in your 
 day, but you must admit that a state of society 
 that does not require such men's services is 
 preferable. 
 
 " Your engineers and other scientific men you 
 are proud of — I do not hesitate to say that you 
 have considerable and just reason for this pride. 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 193 
 
 They did much for the advancement of science, 
 and even in our day the inventions they schemed 
 and carried out are looked on with admiration. 
 Considering the age of darkness in which they 
 were invented, and the means at their disposal, 
 their works certainly were deserving of much 
 credit. But there is one thing that they 
 deserve censure for in our eyes, and that is the 
 pains, trouble and stupidities they went into to 
 destroy nature. This was not so confirmed in 
 your day, but about a hundred years later the 
 face of the earth was thoroughly disfigured, the 
 ocean was begrimed with clouds of smoke, 
 steamers were steaming in all directions, and 
 the land was covered with railroads. Factories 
 of all kinds were dotted over the earth, smoke 
 and dirt was everywhere. The consumption of 
 fuel was wasteful to a degree. The coal fields 
 were exhausted, and all the oil bearing strata 
 were pumped dry. Your engineers never 
 thought of the people that were to come after 
 them, they only thought of the present, leaving 
 to providence the future supplies for unborn 
 
194 MEDA : 
 
 generations. Such a state of things could never 
 last, nature could not stand it, vegetation would 
 have been banished from the face of the earth. 
 Fortunately the supply of smoke-producing fuel 
 was exhausted, the engineers had to restrict 
 their operations, and the exhaustion of nature's 
 stores of fuel gave her time to regain strength. 
 It appears to us now that these men were stupid 
 to a degree to keep so religiously moving in 
 the same groove, using a power that was detri- 
 mental to nature, while nature had provided an 
 enormous supply of power ready to their hand, 
 free from all nature-destroying objections. Of 
 course it is easy for us of the present day to find 
 fault with what was done by the ancients, and 
 you are no doubt correct in saying that I judge 
 harshly. Perhaps the inhabitants of this earth, 
 three thousand years hence, may speak of us in 
 the same strains as we now do of the people 
 that existed three thousand years ago. Such is 
 life, and the progress of science and intelligence, 
 my Specimen. We must all try and do what 
 little we can to improve the existing state of 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 195 
 
 things, always bearing in mind that we owe a 
 debt of gratitude to our fellows of the past for 
 what they have done, and a thought for the 
 requirements of those that will follow us." 
 
 With such conversation as this we proceeded 
 slowly towards the building on the top of the 
 hill. I somehow felt a sadness creeping over 
 me. I again beoran to think of what had 
 become of all the people that inhabited the 
 earth when I was on it. What had become of 
 all those who had been born and died since I 
 had left it ? What was it all to come to ? 
 Where was it all to end ? I got lost in thought ; 
 I began to think, and found that this state of 
 doubt and suspense was more than I could 
 bear. My mind could not grasp the situation, 
 and I felt miserable to a degree. I saw the 
 Recorder was watching me, and I could see that 
 he could read my inmost thoughts. I could 
 stand my mental agony no longer, and sitting 
 down on a stone I wept, with bitter feelings of 
 sorrow — sorrow that was so deep and sad and 
 searching that it racked and tore my frame, and 
 
196 meda : 
 
 seemed as though its force would sever me. I 
 lost all control of myself ; I neither knew nor 
 cared where I was. Such was my humiliation 
 and grief that my consciousness left me, and I 
 would have fainted away, had not the Recorder 
 taken me by the hand, and in a kindly loving 
 voice said : " My son, my son, do not give way 
 so." 
 
 Whether it was the soothing, compassionate, 
 kindly and almost loving tone of his voice, or 
 whether it was the energy that was flowing into 
 me through his hand that revived and reassured 
 me, I cannot tell, but I soon began to recover 
 my self-possession. The Recorder did not 
 speak again for a long time, but continued 
 holding my hand. At last, when he saw that I 
 was once more calm, he said : — 
 
 " I called you my son, because I see that you 
 are in great grief, and because I have a great 
 regard for you. Now I want you to be calm 
 for a little while, while I speak quietly to you. 
 I find that I have over-estimated your strength 
 of mind and understanding ; I have not fully 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 197 
 
 realised the magnitude of the change that you 
 are experiencing ; I have omitted to realise 
 that your mind cannot grasp the possibility of 
 all that has taken place since your day. This 
 conduct is inexcusable in me. I should have 
 known better, but it is only another illustration 
 of the weakness and inconsiderateness of the 
 finite mind. I hope you will forgive me." 
 
 I could not reply. So he continued : " My 
 son, I have been watching the working of your 
 thoughts ; I see they are craving for informa- 
 tion that in this world can never be given ; 
 you are wondering what has become of the 
 men of your day, and those that have been 
 born and have died since then. This, my son, 
 is information that has been denied to the 
 finite by the Infinite. If it is His will that this 
 information should be withheld from us during; 
 life, what right have we to inquire into 
 mysteries that He thinks should be withheld ? 
 He has told us that we will rise again, and that 
 the just shall be rewarded. If we doubt this 
 we are not worthy of Him, or of the reward 
 
198 meda : 
 
 that is in store for the just. You must remem- 
 ber what you have seen at the Observatory ; 
 you must continue to contemplate His works; 
 you must try and realise the power of a being 
 that is capable of controlling the Universe ; 
 and you must examine such questions with all 
 the wisdom you can bring to bear on this 
 mysterious subject, to enable you to realise the 
 greatness of that power. When you think you 
 have brought your mind to conceive this great- 
 ness, then ask yourself the question, ' What am 
 I that I should try to penetrate that which He 
 has willed I should not know ?' My son, you 
 must have faith and trust in Him, and believe 
 that what He has said will be fulfilled. Our 
 generation has had over three thousand years' 
 more experience and education than yours, yet 
 we know not what will take place, or where 
 our spirits shall reside. Many theories have 
 been propounded. Some say our spirits will 
 migrate to other planets, where they will live 
 on in happiness and everlasting joy ; but this 
 mystery is a sealed book that no man can open 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 199 
 
 until the appointed time. So now, my son, be 
 comforted, and be calm ; live in trust, in hope, 
 and in faith; improve your mind and study 
 nature, which is the only study worthy of 
 intellectual beings. I had hoped, my Speci- 
 men, to take you through the seat of govern- 
 ment here to-day, and also the school of art 
 and science, but I find that I have been work- 
 ing you rather hard. We will, therefore, first 
 give you a good refreshing rest to restore your 
 nerves and mind to a proper state of health, and 
 then visit these places." 
 
 He now took me up to a door, the same in 
 appearance as the one to which the guides at 
 first took me. He knocked; the door was 
 opened ; and we were received by a Sage, much 
 of the same stamp as the other men I have 
 described ; he, also, had a message stool. The 
 Recorder went up to him and talked, while the 
 orthodox plate was produced. This man 
 evidently had not got very good manners, as he 
 came up to me and stared at me in amazement, 
 making no secret of his curiosity. I felt quite 
 
200 meda : 
 
 annoyed, but the Recorder came to me, and 
 taking my arm, led me through a door into 
 another room ; here we were met by a fine 
 looking man of the same high order of mankind 
 as the Recorder himself. He gave us a very 
 hearty welcome. I found he was chief Recorder 
 for this district, which was evidently a position 
 of great honour. As I felt fatigued, I was 
 requested to go into an adjoining room, where I 
 found a couch on which I lay down and slept. 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 201 
 
 PART X. 
 
 HOW long I slept I know not, and never 
 asked, having- now got to that state of 
 mind that enables one to receive the information 
 that is tendered to him and ask no questions. I 
 felt that when I thought much I got sad and 
 miserable, so I tried to cast my thoughts aside, 
 devote my time to observation, and keep it 
 open to instruction. When I wakened there 
 was no one in the room. I did not feel inclined 
 to rise, so I lay and ruminated about all that had 
 taken place during the last few days. As I lay 
 in this state thinking how silly it was of me to 
 give way as I did yesterday, I made up my mind 
 to show no more weakness of this kind in the 
 future, but to accommodate myself to the circum- 
 stances in which I was placed, and try to enjoy 
 things as they existed, instead of worrying about 
 the past, and trying to pry into the future. Thus 
 I argued with my own weakness, and doing so 
 
202 meda : 
 
 gave me strength of mind ; and so I gradually 
 began to get cheerful. At last I said, " Hang it, 
 I will be happy." I threw off the coverlet and 
 jumped out of bed on to the floor, when I began 
 to hop about again like a ball. This elastic 
 life coming so soon after my serious thoughts 
 and sorrows made me feel that hopping about 
 without being able to settle down, was a posi- 
 tion of the most ridiculous absurdity. I thought 
 to myself how I would laugh at seeing any one 
 going through this operation. I tried to keep 
 grave, but could not for the life of me do so ; 
 I fairly gave way, and burst out in a regular 
 jolly old side-splitting, neck-cracking laugh, 
 in fact a laugh of my own people, that the 
 Recorder termed " the Ancients." The loud- 
 ness of my laugh was something terrible ; I 
 tried hard to modify it ; but every time I 
 hopped on the floor, out it would come again 
 and again. In the middle of my performance 
 in rushed the two Recorders, who looked at 
 me in astonishment, holding their ears, but this 
 only made me laugh the more. 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 203 
 
 " Quiet, quiet, my Specimen," my Recorder 
 roared out to me at the pitch of his voice ; 
 41 you are excited, you are ill, but do not for any 
 sake continue making such a diabolical noise." 
 
 I had now come to rest, and explained that 
 I was not ill, but only laughing at my own 
 absurd position. Both shook their heads, how- 
 ever, saying : — 
 
 " You require rest, you are very ill, your 
 nerves are unstrung." So they lifted me on 
 the couch again, and I was passed to sleep. 
 
 When I next awoke, I was quite calm and 
 collected. I determined not to move with such 
 rashness again, and got out of bed in a very 
 gingerly way. Inch by inch I moved, in case 
 I should get on the hop again. While doing 
 so, I could not help thinking of the peculiarities 
 of human nature, and the liability of thinking 
 mortals to go from one extreme to another. 
 How often had I seen illustrations of this in my 
 former life. I had seen men of the soberest 
 minds rushing into actions of the greatest 
 absurditv. I had seen men rushing from sane- 
 
204 meda : 
 
 tity of the strictest kind to the most depraved 
 sin. I had noticed engineers who had in the 
 first instance made a structure rather light, 
 going to the other extreme and making the 
 next absurdly heavy ; and here was I, getting 
 out of my couch at a snail's pace to avoid 
 getting on the hop that was only produced by 
 a sudden bound. Could we but hit the happy 
 medium in all our actions, how much better it 
 would have been for the world at large. What 
 religious fanaticism it would have saved, what 
 disappointment and sorrow it would have pre- 
 vented, what terrible enmities might have been 
 avoided, and what peace and happiness might 
 have been attained. Such, however, was evi- 
 dently not to be, and therefore has not existed 
 for some good and sound reason not open to 
 our limited intelligence. 
 
 The Recorder on seeing me pronounced me 
 to be recovered, and we proceeded on our 
 journey. I need not take you, reader, over all 
 our travels to the various cities, or rather ruins 
 of cities that we passed near, or to the various 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 205 
 
 seats of governments that we went through, as 
 all bore a marked resemblance to those I have 
 already described. Everywhere I went I found 
 the Recorder was received with respect as a 
 leader of the people. I had not the slightest 
 doubt that I was an object of great interest to 
 all the scientists at all the seats of government, 
 and at all the schools, but none of the people 
 annoyed me by impertinent curiosity or ques- 
 tions. There were no enterprising interviewers 
 asking me questions as to my likes for or dis- 
 likes to this new state of society. But all the 
 same, I felt confident that at every one of 
 these places I had been the subject of internal 
 and external medical examination. While I was 
 asleep, I felt certain that every Medical School 
 had been provided with a model of me made 
 from life studies. All my poor details had been 
 examined and reproduced, and knowing this, I 
 got so inured to it that I began to think : 
 " Well, why should I trouble myself about 
 trifles ? These are a persevering people that 
 will have information if they want it, therefore 
 
206 meda : 
 
 there is no use in me objecting. I am now- 
 resigned to my fate, so let them have their way. 
 They want instruction in the past formation of 
 man, and they do me no harm in gratifying 
 their desire for information." 
 
 During my travels, I was presented to the 
 king. He was a very old and wise-looking 
 man, both kindly and fascinating in manner. 
 I saw him in the midst of his advisers, as they 
 were called, but I believe that in reality they 
 were his directors. Like good, wise Queen 
 Victoria of my era, he did what he was directed 
 to do by the leading men of his country, in 
 fact, he was the centre around which society 
 and the various governments of his Empire 
 revolved. 
 
 I saw the palace of the king, which was 
 of modest dimensions as compared with the 
 palaces of my time, yet withal, it had a kingly 
 appearance ; there was an indescribable some- 
 thing about the palace that was not to be 
 found in any of the other buildings that I had 
 seen. Whether it was the presence of more 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 207 
 
 wise-looking men and women or the number of 
 servants, I know not, but something there was 
 that caused this distinction, and it was marked. 
 
 I said to the Recorder : — " From what I had 
 seen, the people of his day had as great a 
 veneration for royalty as we had in our day." 
 He replied : — " Most certainly that is the case, 
 my son. No country, no nation, no people can 
 exist without a head ; and if a country, a nation, 
 or a people must have a head, it is necessary 
 that the head that they have elected be vene- 
 rated and respected by the people, if they have 
 any respect for themselves, and if they do not 
 respect themselves they are not worthy of the 
 name of a people, a nation, or even of a 
 community." 
 
 I then said : — " I fear that it will be difficult 
 for you to get a king or queen of such intel- 
 lectual ability as to command respect from such 
 a wise generation as you are." 
 
 He replied : — " This is not so much an 
 object with us as you imagine. In fact, it is not 
 desirable for any nation that is really governed 
 
208 meda : 
 
 by the people to have a king or a queen that is 
 in intellect higher than any of his or her 
 advisers. If we had a king possessed of an 
 overpowering intellect, that intellect would 
 have some particular bent or inclination, that it 
 might try and force on the people against their 
 will. And again, this intellect, though very 
 great, being, after all, but finite, might err in its 
 judgment and do a grievous injury to the nation. 
 No, we do not desire to have our greatest 
 intellects elected as kings or queens, such 
 would not be desirable. What we aim at is to 
 train the minds of our royal family from the 
 very earliest hours of their life to justice, and 
 to take a wise and expansive view of all parties 
 in the state and of all national subjects. We 
 train them up rather to act as judges with 
 judgment, than as actors in the scenes around 
 them. We want them to fulfil the same 
 functions as the fixed spindle on which a wheel 
 revolves, that retains all in position while in 
 motion, and is yet neutral to all that passes 
 around it. And so with our rulers, we wish 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 209 
 
 them to act towards all with the same even- 
 handed justice and restraint, and to allow the 
 arguments of each spoke in the political, social 
 and intellectual world, to have unprejudiced 
 influence on them, while guarding against 
 being carried away by partiality to any. This 
 is what we aim at, and in this we generally 
 succeed." 
 
 It was great pleasure to me to draw the 
 Recorder into conversation of this kind ; his 
 ideas were so simply and clearly put, that the 
 merest child could understand his meanings. 
 There was one building that interested me 
 greatly, — the Prison of Treasure, situated not 
 far from the ruins of London. It was only one 
 storey in height, like all other modern build- 
 ings, but it was of immense extent. The walls 
 were thick and massive, built of granite in 
 huge blocks, and I should say that they must 
 have been at least thirty feet high. We 
 entered by a large door constructed of silver, 
 on each panel of which were depicted men and 
 women in various stages of misery and sin, 
 
210 
 
 MEDA : 
 
 some fighting with one another, some murder- 
 ing one another, some in chains, some in wild 
 carousals of drunkenness, some receiving the 
 last sentence from a judge, and some being 
 hanged or beheaded. The entire door was one 
 ghastly record of past misery and sin. On 
 entering the interior hall there was a swarm of 
 horrible models, in wax, of misers, of avaricious 
 men, of surface saints, that prayed for glory in 
 heaven while they grasped with the grasp of 
 desperation the money bags, that to them, in 
 their secret hearts, were of more value than 
 salvation. Then, there were wonderfully 
 beautiful representations executed in the same 
 wax like material, of scenes of robbery and 
 murder for the purpose of acquiring wealth. 
 There were models of the city schemer that 
 was supposed by the world to be a saint ; there 
 he was — scheming out plans to defraud his 
 fellows. The next model to this represented 
 the same man after the successful carrying out 
 of his nefarious enterprise. There was a 
 sanctimonious grin of satisfaction on his face ; 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 211 
 
 he rubbed his hands with delight as he con- 
 templated a huge pile of gold. In the distance 
 was a transparent picture depicting the people 
 this man had ruined. A grave-looking man 
 was there with his wife and children starving 
 in a miserable garret, and a poor widow with a 
 weakly child at her breast, trying to support 
 young life with the last drop of her own life's 
 strength. There was the strong man struggling 
 for life and battling for existence against the 
 infamy of the unjust, and there was the weakly 
 . man, the woman and the child, crushed down 
 and trampled to death by the weight of their 
 miseries. 
 
 The next scene was this same schemer's last 
 days. He had amassed great wealth during his 
 miserable life — he had done so by grinding the 
 poor to the very death. He had no soft place 
 in that heart of stone, and now that hard con- 
 science of his, when brought to face eternity, 
 had no soft spot within that could give mercy 
 to its own badness. Truly it is said that once 
 awakened to its own badness, man's conscience 
 
212 meda : 
 
 is its most severe judge on earth. Here was 
 this man represented as on the rack of his 
 own creation, still he was holding on to the 
 filthy lucre that had been the ruin and damna- 
 tion of his soul. He was conscious of his sin, 
 but it had such a hold of him that he could 
 neither forgive himself nor repent. 
 
 These scenes, representing various stages of 
 avarice, were executed with such wonderful 
 truth and force that my eyes could read all, as 
 if the terrible story had been enacted in life 
 itself before me. 
 
 We now entered a huge hall, over the door 
 of which were inscribed the words, " Beauty in 
 Treasure." The Recorder explained to me 
 that this was a hall in which many of the gems 
 of the nation had been arranged V vith a view to 
 show that, apart from their ancient intrinsic 
 value and deplorable history, they possessed of 
 themselves wonderful beauty and interest. On 
 entering, I was fully convinced of the truth of 
 his remark. The walls of the building appeared 
 to be constructed of silver and gold, and the 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 213 
 
 panels were simply filled with diamonds, rubies 
 and other precious stones. It was not so much 
 the beauty of these stones themselves as the 
 arrangement of the colours, and the harmony 
 of the designs, that struck me ; the effect was 
 grand. The light came as usual from the 
 ceiling, but by a sort of self-acting sliding 
 screen that kept continually moving over it, 
 while the light was as continually shifting and 
 changing, and the effect was one of great 
 beauty. At one moment you saw a gleam of 
 light coming from pure diamonds, while anon 
 this bright, pure light would change into a 
 pink, a blue, or a green, and all the colours 
 would for the moment blend, then disentano-le 
 working out into separate rays, asserting, as it 
 were, their own individuality. A little further 
 on they were in fond embrace, co-mingling 
 beauty with beauty, and effect with effect, when 
 anon as if by one consent they fall out ; they 
 become agitated, and quarrelling, separate. So 
 the game continued, beauty contending with 
 beauty so long as the screen shifted. 
 
214 MEDA : 
 
 This room reminded me strongly of real life 
 in my day, as seen by an innocent and pure- 
 minded man, the gems representing the good 
 people of the earth, while the varied effects 
 produced on them by the ever varying lights 
 reminded me of the great joys and sorrows, the 
 sunshine and the shadows that passed over us 
 in those days, days that to me now began to 
 look strange and dim. The Recorder's voice 
 broke in on my reverie, saying : — 
 
 *' My son, your thoughts are far, far away, 
 and now that I have shown you the uncorrupted 
 beauty of the precious metals and the precious 
 stones of the ancients, I would like also to show 
 you the record of some few of the crimes 
 committed by man to satisfy their abominable 
 craze for their possession. It was not that 
 they loved them for their beauty; no, their love 
 for them consisted in a selfish desire that they 
 might possess something that they could flaunt 
 in the eyes of their fellows, and look at them 
 with'an eye that said, ' I possess that which you 
 would like to have but cannot eet.' Women 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 215 
 
 adorned themselves with them, not because of 
 the beauty of the gems, but because they knew 
 and prided themselves in the consciousness that 
 they were raising the abominable feeling of 
 envy in the bosoms of other women, who were 
 perhaps purer in mind and in body than them- 
 selves." 
 
 We now entered another large room, over 
 the door of which were the words " Beauty 
 defiled by man." Here we saw numerous gems 
 of various sizes placed on small obelisks about 
 three feet high. The Recorder took me up to 
 one of these, and asked me to read a Latin 
 inscription that was written on the sides of the 
 obelisk. It explained the gem's history, and 
 stated that 1,600 men had been murdered for 
 its sake, 2,463 had been maimed, thousands 
 had been imprisoned, flogged and starved. It 
 had engendered envy, hatred, and malice in the 
 bosoms of untold millions ; the lies told about 
 it and for its possession were innumerable, and 
 some had even denied and blasphemed God 
 for its sake. 
 
216 meda : 
 
 In reading over this terrible record of the 
 crimes and miseries caused by the love of mor- 
 tals for a senseless though beautiful stone, I felt 
 the appropriateness of the institution in which 
 we now were, and the wisdom of the people 
 who had instituted it. Surely if these gems 
 when set loose on earth caused such iniquity, 
 the proper place for them was a prison where 
 no individual could possess them. While they 
 were open to all as a whole, they were availa- 
 ble individually to none, and therefore they 
 might do good, but could do no harm. 
 
 We examined hundreds of such specimens 
 of beauty, each possessed of a sad history of 
 crimes recorded on their pedestals. Gems 
 that had adorned the profligate and the pure 
 minded, the noble and the ignoble, the mur- 
 derer and the murdered, the guilty and the 
 innocent, there they were now confined in a 
 prison. I said again, better far, that this should 
 be as it is now, than be again as it was in my 
 days. 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 217 
 
 PART XI. 
 
 AMONG the many things that surprised me 
 during my travels with the Recorder, 
 one of the most remarkable was the absence of 
 any disorder among the people. I noticed no 
 officials that could be said to fill the place of 
 our police or military. All seemed to be 
 happy and contented with their lot, although 
 there were several distinct grades of society. 
 I thought much on this subject, as I could not 
 understand how this great nation, consisting of 
 nearly half the population of the globe, managed 
 to carry on its business at home and defend its 
 interests abroad without police or military. 
 One day, when we were journeying homeward, 
 I asked the Recorder if society had reached 
 such a state of perfection that guardians of the 
 peace at home and abroad could be dispensed 
 with ? His reply was that he regretted that 
 
 such, unfortunately, was not the case, and con- 
 
 p 
 
218 meda : 
 
 tinuing, he said, " Nor do I see the possibility 
 of perfect harmony existing for long among 
 large communities of finite beings. From the 
 beginning it has been found necessary to 
 control and govern the actions of the multitude 
 by some power greater and better organized 
 than the multitude that is to be governed." 
 
 "Wars alas! we cannot hope always to avoid. 
 Ambitious men and ambitious nations will exist 
 to the end of time. But as the world grew 
 older the mode of carrying on war has been 
 altered. It would take a lonof time to describe 
 all the changes that have taken place, so I will 
 not attempt to enter on the subject at present, 
 but I will tell you something of the method 
 that is now adopted, as it is well that you 
 should understand what is going on around you. 
 
 " I have often mentioned to you before that 
 nowadays intelligence is all powerful and 
 omnipotent. 
 
 " Our mode of controlling the people of our 
 own nation is by authority given by the state 
 to the ruling elder of each community. He is 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 219 
 
 appointed to this post and entrusted with this 
 duty because it is presumed that he has 
 greater intellectual power than any one else 
 in his district. 
 
 " With us men possessed of the greatest 
 intellect have also the greatest physical power, 
 or to put it more plainly, the greater a man's 
 intellectual power the greater is his power to 
 utilize these mysterious forces by which we are 
 surrounded. A ruling elder, therefore, has not 
 only himself to depend on in case of need, but 
 he has also at his disposal an endless supply 
 of force if he is intellectually strong enough to 
 utilize it, and consequently has always at 
 command the means of subduing any tumult. 
 He can, also, if necessary, call to his assistance 
 the intellectual power of other members of this 
 community. 
 
 " In the event of serious and widespread 
 disturbances, which happily are now almost 
 unknown, the elders and higher intellects of the 
 various districts unite and by their combined 
 intellectual power crush the malcontents. 
 
220 meda: 
 
 "In internal questions and petty home disturb- 
 ances, this is a very easy thing to accomplish, 
 as invariably all the great intellects are banded 
 together on the side of law and order, and the 
 ruling elders have but rarely to oppose other 
 minds of equal calibre. 
 
 " But if two great nations of this era should 
 ever so far forget themselves as to war with 
 one another such a war would be ten thousand 
 times more terrible than any that has ever taken 
 place on this earth. 
 
 " Up to the present time since the re-union 
 of all English speaking nations, we have, thank 
 God, been able to settle our disputes by confer- 
 ences, but as we are told that to the end of time 
 there will be 'wars and rumours of wars/ we must 
 keep the possibility of such a sad eventuality 
 in view, and be prepared for it when it comes. 
 
 " My son, I have often tried to picture to 
 myself such a conflict. Only think of the awful 
 results ! Only try and realise the consequence 
 of hundreds of thousands of great minds having 
 at command such powerful and mysterious 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE, 221 
 
 forces meeting in battle with equal numbers of 
 another nationality, endowed with the same 
 intellectual power and having the same mys- 
 terious forces at their command ! 
 
 " Such a state of things is too awful to con- 
 template. Yet we must be and are prepared. 
 
 "While we make no military display, we 
 have among us those who make a study of 
 war. We know that much will depend on 
 strategy, generalship, and discipline ; and so 
 we have our generals, our officers, and petty 
 officers all prepared. 
 
 " It is our constant and sincere prayer that 
 such terrible events should never take place. 
 Oh yes ! My son, we have need to pray that 
 we may never be afflicted with a scourge of this 
 kind. It would mean the destruction of a laro-e 
 number of our greatest intellects, as all our 
 greatest minds must of necessity be the first to 
 meet the enemy. This destruction of intel- 
 lectual power would be a terrible blow to the 
 contending nations and to the entire world, a 
 blow that it would take ages to recover from. 
 
222 meda : 
 
 " In your day you sent your uneducated 
 citizens under a few intellectual commanders to 
 prosecute your wars. Now things have changed 
 and intellect must come to the front to meet 
 and cope with intellect. 
 
 " Now, my son, having given this short 
 sketch, as I am in duty bound, we will leave this 
 unpleasant subject with the hope and prayer 
 that the day is far, far, distant when man will 
 be obliged to face this terrible conflict. 
 
 " One thing I am sure of is that the English 
 nation will do all it can to avoid war, and should 
 war be forced upon us we will not shirk our 
 responsibility, but do our duty and preserve 
 untarnished that name for bravery, justice, per- 
 severance, and independence, which our fore- 
 fathers won and maintained through all 
 generations even down to the present." 
 
 During my travels, I was also shown those 
 wonderful aerial and naval fleets that the 
 Recorder had mentioned. I must say I was 
 much disappointed at the size of the aerial 
 vessels which I saw first, as compared with 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 223 
 
 my recollections of the great armour-clad and 
 other war vessels of the past, and of the 
 enormous merchant vessels, steered and pro- 
 pelled by steam, some of them ten and twelve 
 thousand tons burthen, with their great engines 
 and boilers, great holds for cargo, with enor- 
 mous cabins, and with every accommodation 
 for cooking and sanitary purposes. These 
 aerial vessels were mere pigmies in comparison 
 with our steamers. Before I describe their 
 construction, I must try and explain to you 
 the means by which they were propelled, as 
 explained to me by the Recorder, and as I am 
 neither an engineer nor a scientist, you must, 
 my dear reader, excuse anything that may not 
 be quite scientific or quite in keeping with 
 mechanics. Put all this want of explicitness 
 and correctness down to my shortcomings in 
 describing these wonderful triumphs of human 
 invention. Or failing this latitude to me, you 
 must attribute your non-comprehension to the 
 imperfect faculties you yourself possess for 
 understanding such things. Those of you who 
 
224 meda : 
 
 are scientific, and trustful by nature, will have 
 no difficulty in allowing for, and correcting my 
 mistakes ; but minds given to doubt will con- 
 tinue to doubt, and will be in doubt to the end 
 of time, because doubt will not allow them to 
 understand. As well as I can . remember, the 
 Recorder said : — 
 
 " My son, I promised to describe to you the 
 means by which we propel and control our 
 aerial and naval fleets, and I think I mentioned 
 something to you about lines of force. As I 
 know you are not a mechanic, and as I know 
 your scientific education is not even advanced 
 for the age in which you lived, I have prepared 
 some balls to represent our planet and our 
 atmosphere at various distances from the earth's 
 surface, and these I trust will assist you to 
 comprehend my explanations. There was a 
 philosopher in your day, or slightly prior to 
 it, named Newton, who is reputed by history 
 to have discovered the law of gravity. This 
 man got much more credit for this alleged 
 discovery than he deserved. The fact being 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 225 
 
 that (as the story goes) he saw an apple fall, 
 and called the force that caused it to fall, 
 gravity, but this law was known from the 
 beginning of time. There was not a living 
 man, in any age, who was not conscious that 
 if he stumbled, he would fall to the earth. 
 There was not a monkey or a climbing beast 
 of the old animal life that did not know that 
 if he failed to retain his footing or his hold, 
 he would fall to the earth beneath him. The 
 birds of the air knew that if they ceased to 
 keep their wings in motion they would fall. 
 So, it is evident that this fact which we call 
 the earth's attraction for bodies was known 
 although not named before Newton was 
 thought of. Still, he was undoubtedly a great 
 man, and reduced this force to a measurable 
 quantity for the use of science. Well, this 
 attraction of the earth is one of the great 
 powers that we use. To explain this, I take 
 this globe, and I take this piece of elastic, I 
 attach one end of the elastic to the elobe, and 
 another to this little model vessel. You see 
 
226 meda : 
 
 that I can pull this little vessel away to the 
 extent of the elastic limit of the elastic, but 
 when I suddenly release my hold, the little 
 model flies towards the globe with considerable 
 force. 
 
 " Now, you must clearly understand that this 
 illustration is not a correct one, and is simply 
 given to you to fix your ideas as to the principle 
 or law of the earth's attraction. Remember 
 that the model should (if uninfluenced by the 
 elastic), like what you called a balloon, float in 
 the atmosphere, and that in falling towards the 
 globe the power of the elastic should increase 
 instead of becoming exhausted. 
 
 " Well, here I have four globes of different 
 sizes : one is supposed to represent the earth 
 at its surface, that is at the tops of its highest 
 mountains, which are only, when compared 
 with the globe itself, but slight roughnesses like 
 those on an orange. You will notice that this 
 globe is wound round with red silk threads from 
 north to south diagonally. These represent the 
 north and south lines of force. Then you will 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 227 
 
 see another set of blue silk threads that repre- 
 sent the east and west lines of force, also 
 slightly diagonal. The north and south lines 
 of force are produced, we believe, by what you 
 call magnetism, and the east and west lines 
 of force by some power that is generated by 
 the earth's rotation, — some say it is electricity. 
 Now, the second globe is taken to represent 
 two thousand feet above the earth's surface, and 
 you will notice that the lines of force instead of 
 being nearly at right angles to one another, are 
 at an angle slightly more acute. Then if we 
 take the third and fourth balls, you will see that 
 the greater distance we get from the earth's 
 surface the more acute these lines of force get 
 to one another. 
 
 " We have three great powers at our disposal 
 for aerial navigation ; first, we have the earth's 
 attraction, which you will see, if it could be 
 destroyed or modified, would allow us to 
 ascend ; then, we have what we call the red 
 and blue lines of force. If we destroy or 
 partially destroy the earth's attraction, we will 
 
228 meda : 
 
 ascend as I told you from the earth, and in 
 doing - so the earth will travel westward from us 
 at a greater or less speed in proportion to the 
 distance we are from its surface, and if we again 
 bring the earth's attraction into play, we will 
 descend on the earth and travel with it. But 
 this alone would be a very useless advantage, 
 as we could only make easting, and it is here 
 that the north and south, east and west lines of 
 force come into play. The earth's attraction 
 is destroyed or modified at will by a great 
 instrument carried in the bottom of each vessel, 
 and the lines of forces are utilized at will by 
 other instruments, which act as steering and 
 pulling engines. You see that by allowing the 
 vessel to ascend and descend, bringing the red 
 or blue lines of forces into play, any position of 
 the earth's surface can be reached, the direction 
 north and south being controlled by the lines of 
 force at different altitudes." 
 
 I here ventured to ask how it was possible 
 for them to steer their vessels without any 
 land marks. 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 229 
 
 He replied; — "While we have had no land 
 marks we have the heavenly bodies to guide 
 us in the same way as your ships used to 
 be steered by the observations of the sun's 
 position at mid-day, and the stars by night. 
 Besides this we have a very beautiful apparatus 
 that was indeed foreshadowed in your day by 
 the gyroscopic compass. This apparatus con- 
 sists of a geographical globe, that after the 
 principle of a gyroscope is set in motion, and 
 is so arranged that it keeps in motion at a 
 uniform speed for three months ; this globe is 
 provided with a pointer that points to a 
 position on its surface corresponding to the 
 position that the vessel is in, in relation to the 
 earth, so that at all times we can tell within a 
 mile or two the exact position in which we are. 
 The steersman has simply to look at his globe, 
 and by working handles, one controlling the 
 earth's attraction, and the other two controlling 
 the action of the lines of force see that his 
 pointer is following the course laid down on 
 the globe before him. 
 
230 meda : 
 
 " There are many other refinements that I 
 will not trouble you with as you are not a 
 scientific man, such as resistance coils that 
 prevent the vessels when descending from 
 coming suddenly into contact with the earth's 
 surface, and attraction coils that prevent the 
 vessels ascending above a certain altitude. 
 These are practically self-acting governors 
 which come into action in the event of any 
 accident to the other instruments or careless- 
 ness on the part of the steersman. 
 
 " The naval fleets are not the same as these ; 
 they depend, except for anchoring, entirely on 
 the power of the red and blue lines of force, 
 and as they have the great buoyancy of the 
 water to assist them in carrying greater 
 weights, they are provided with propelling 
 engines that utilize these forces mechanically ; 
 the speeds they attain you would consider 
 very great, — they have reached one hundred 
 miles an hour, — but compared with the speed 
 of the aerial vessels their speed is as nothing. 
 The naval fleets are steered by a modification 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 231 
 
 of the same compass as is used by the aerial 
 fleet, and they have the advantage of being 
 able to make direct southing, northing, easting, 
 or westing, as by the use of a helm they can be 
 steered in any direction." 
 
 After this lecture on the nature of the power, 
 and the way in which it was utilized, I was 
 taken through an aerial vessel. She was in 
 shape a long flat oval ; I should say ioo feet 
 long by 30 wide, and about 10 feet deep, and 
 was entered by a door in her tortoise-shaped 
 back. The vessel appeared to me to be con- 
 structed of a material like aluminium, and its 
 shell was apparently very thin. The cabins, 
 for the size of the vessel, were very roomy, 
 being lighted, as there were no windows or 
 ports, by globes of luminous material. These 
 were fixed in such a way that one-half projected 
 through the vessel's skin, while the other pro- 
 jected into the cabin. The outer half was thus 
 beine charged with li^ht, while the inner half 
 was giving off light to the interior. The deck 
 was protected by a railing constructed of thin 
 
232 meda : 
 
 plates, stiffened at the edge by a metallic bead- 
 ing. The cabin furniture consisted of light 
 seats and couches, securely fixed to the floor 
 by means of screws. 
 
 In the centre of the vessel I saw all the 
 interesting apparatus that had been described 
 to me by the Recorder. He took me up to 
 these instruments and explained all about the 
 different functions of the different parts, but as 
 I had not a mind capable of understanding 
 such highly scientific subjects, I begged him to 
 desist, saying that while I was able to grasp 
 the general description of the principles and 
 laws that were utilized by these wonderful 
 contrivances, it would only make me confused, 
 if he tried to drum the details into me. 
 
 He said: — "My son, my enthusiasm for such 
 things leads me to forget that you are as yet 
 young in learning. I would have you study 
 these subjects, as in our day mechanical science 
 has been placed above all others. It has, as it 
 were, become chemically combined with all 
 sciences; no science can move without it. In 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 233 
 
 your day, the mechanical engineer had to make 
 money by his profession, and therefore a 
 beautiful science was defiled by a desire for gain. 
 Now, we study mechanics, because we love the 
 science itself, and not its financial results." 
 
 Having inspected the aerial ship, in which I 
 was greatly interested, the Recorder now said 
 he would next take me to the docks in order to 
 allow me to inspect the naval vessels. I was 
 all expectation to know what the docks of the 
 present day were like. " Here at least," I said 
 to myself, " there will be some resemblance to 
 what I had known in my previous life." During 
 our journey to the docks, I taxed my imagina- 
 tion, and tried to compare things as I had 
 known them with the things I now expected to 
 see. I said to myself : — " These docks won't 
 be clean — I never saw a dock that was clean. 
 There is sure to be a strong smell of pitch and 
 tar — there always is in docks. There will be 
 ropes, planks and chains to tumble over — such 
 things are always about docks. There will be 
 lots of bales of goods under sheds, and sailors 
 
234 meda : 
 
 and lumpers hanging about. They may have 
 reformed the land and the landsmen, but Jack 
 would retain many of his characteristics ; salt 
 water made these men what they were in my 
 day, and salt water would retain its hold on 
 them to the last." I got to be quite confident 
 in this belief. I actually grew so certain of it 
 that I chuckled to myself and rubbed my hands 
 together in delight, thinking that now I would 
 have a chance of having a " rise " out of the 
 Recorder. Now I would be able to say to 
 him : — " My good friend, in naval matters at 
 least you are to a very large extent indebted to 
 the intelligence of the despised ancients." I 
 noticed that the Recorder also looked very 
 happy, and I felt that this must be due to his 
 knowledge of what was passing through my 
 mind. I was confident that he, being a very 
 benevolent man, was happy, because I was at 
 last to see something that nearly resembled 
 what I had known, as ships, docks, sailors and 
 lumpers, and all the other things in connection 
 with docks that existed in my previous life. 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 235 
 
 But alas ! my visions and my dreams were to 
 be dashed aside. The Recorder's pleasant, 
 happy face was, I found, not due to the cause 
 I supposed. He was simply reading my 
 thoughts, and smiling at their folly. 
 
 After we had been travelling for about half 
 an hour, he said to me, pointing to the south- 
 ward : — " There are the docks I am taking you 
 to see. There are some of the vessels of our 
 naval fleet. Don't you see them ? " 
 
 I answered : " I see neither ships nor docks. 
 Your vision, you must remember, is much 
 stronger than mine. I certainly see a large 
 sheet of water, like a big ornamental sea full of 
 islands, but where are the docks, the ships, the 
 tar, the pitch, the sheds, the goods, the sailors, 
 the lumpers, the planks, the dirty water, yes, 
 and the nasty smells ? " 
 
 " My son," he replied, " These things that 
 you have named are all gone — they are all 
 things of the past. You ancients could not do 
 anything without smoke and dirt, pitch and 
 tar. You made your docks very cesspools for 
 
236 meda : 
 
 all the dirt and filth of your cities. You caged 
 your sailors in dirty dens on board your vessels. 
 So cramped and ill-ventilated were the quarters 
 you caused them to occupy, that you demoralized 
 them in mind and in body. They were slovenly 
 in their clothing, depraved in their minds, 
 immoral and intemperate in their habits when 
 ashore, yet withal, a good natured, innocent set 
 of men when at sea, and free from the tempta- 
 tions landsmen laid as snares for them. Yes," 
 he said, " it is well that these are things of the 
 past." We now drew nearer to the sheet of 
 water, and I saw that what I thought were 
 islands were floating bodies like immense mast- 
 less ships. Having first seen the aerial 
 vessels, which were very small, I was greatly 
 surprised now to see vessels of such great 
 magnitude. They did not stand high out of 
 the water, but the length was very great, and 
 the beam was about one-third of the length. 
 There were in all six of these island-like 
 vessels. They seemed to keep quite stationary 
 and yet I could see no chains, cables or anchors 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 237 
 
 holding them. The Recorder seeing my 
 wonder explained that they were held in 
 position by what are known as earth attractors 
 placed in the vessels' bottoms. " In very 
 small ships," he said, " there is one, but in 
 vessels of the size we now see there are 
 five such instruments. A very powerful 
 attractor is placed right in the centre, and 
 holds the vessel to the earth, by what I might 
 by way of illustration describe as innumerable 
 invisible cords or lines of attraction. When 
 held by the central attractor the vessel may be 
 swung round, but when the other four (two of 
 which are placed near the bow and two near the 
 stern) are brought into action, the vessel remains 
 perfectly stationary. So powerful are those 
 invisible cables, that no hurricane can shift her 
 when once she is thus moored. The seas may 
 wash over her decks, but can do her no harm, 
 as in such weather all openings are securely 
 covered in. How absurd it appears to us now 
 to read of your chains and your cables, your 
 anchors and other contrivances that were of no 
 
238 meda : 
 
 use until you got into shallow water that must 
 of necessity be near the rocks, the great source 
 of the danger you wished to avoid. In fact, 
 your would-be wise naval architects designed 
 vessels that had to seek shallow and therefore 
 dangerous waters to enable them to use the 
 miserable contrivances to which they had to 
 trust for a chance of safety ; whereas, we come 
 to anchor anywhere in any depth of water in 
 an instant. But we must not wait here longer. 
 Let us go on board." He led me down to a 
 landing stage where lay a number of little boats, 
 such as I previously described as having seen 
 spinning about the lakes. He got into one of 
 these directing me to follow. I did so, sitting 
 down in the bow. while he was seated in the 
 stern. He took up two small knobs at the ends 
 of lines like tiller lines, one in each hand, and 
 the little craft immediately seemed literally to 
 bound forward. I had at first to hold on to the 
 seat to prevent my body jumping right back 
 into the Recorder's face, but I soon got accus- 
 tomed to the rapid motion, and was able to 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 239 
 
 retain my seat, and see everything around me. 
 Looking towards the shore, I saw nothing 
 resembling my dear old dirty docks. No, there 
 was nothing but trees and flowers, with here 
 and there picturesque little landing stages and 
 small villas. The Recorder guided our little 
 craft round the various vessels to allow me to 
 get an idea of their external appearance. I 
 should say each vessel was nine hundred feet in 
 length. They had a very high freeboard, not 
 less than ten feet : the railing, which took the 
 place of bulwarks, was quite open and light in 
 construction, standing about three feet high. 
 
 The Recorder told me in passing that these 
 great vessels were built wholly of aluminium 
 bronze, which, he stated, resisted the effects of 
 the atmosphere and was very strong. In going 
 round the harbour we met many parties that the 
 Recorder told me were composed of seamen. 
 Such oddities. They were the same type of 
 being as my guides, only browned by the sun 
 and exposure, and instead of being dressed in 
 white, their little figures were clad in garments 
 
240 meda : 
 
 of the same cut but blue. While I was now 
 getting familiar with these strange people, I felt 
 shocked to hear such creatures as these called 
 seamen, and I could not help thinking that 
 civilization had reduced my ideal seaman to a 
 creature that one could not but think a miser- 
 able substitute at best. We ran alongside one 
 of the vessels, and ascending a little gangway 
 were met at the top by the commander. Here, 
 again, was a great change for me. I had 
 pictured to myself a man in blue, gold, and 
 epaulettes, as commander of this great vessel ; 
 but alas ! this sea kino- now before me was 
 dressed just like the Recorder, had the same 
 class of features, and was of about the same 
 stature. He turned out to be a relative of the 
 Recorder, and expressed great joy at meeting 
 him so unexpectedly. While greeting him his 
 eyes were never off me, he was evidently at a 
 loss to know who and what I was. Seeing 
 this the Recorder led him aside, no doubt to 
 explain my nationality and history. He came 
 back and politely showed me over his great 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 241 
 
 vessel from stem to stern, taking the greatest 
 pains to explain all its wonders. I shall not 
 attempt to give you a description of the 
 mechanism I saw and had explained to me on 
 board this vessel. It is enough to say that it 
 bore a strong resemblance to that which I had 
 seen in the aerial vessel, only it was of a much 
 greater size. The Recorder had previously told 
 me that in the naval fleets the power of the 
 lines of force was not utilised direct, but through 
 mechanism which enabled the commander to 
 take his vessel in any direction he desired. 
 
 I was shewn force converting and propelling 
 machinery, attractors, propellers, controllers and 
 any number of other contrivances, no doubt 
 necessary and useful, but to me incomprehen- 
 sible. At each instrument or machine was 
 seated an attendant, who received his instruc- 
 tions through a dial which stood before him. 
 The navigating instrument seemed to be very 
 perfect, while not very complex. It was exactly 
 the same as that in the aerial vessel, only the 
 globe was very much larger. The pointer was 
 
242 meda : 
 
 pointing to the part of England at which the 
 docks were situated. How very simple this 
 beautiful instrument made the science of navi- 
 gation. I asked the commander if it could 
 always be relied on, he told me that it was very 
 accurate, but when at sea, he said that all 
 commanders made it a rule to check and adjust 
 it by the sun and stars. 
 
 In going through the vessel the commander 
 explained that she was almost entirely used for 
 passenger service. There were numerous little 
 state rooms, and the same leading feature that 
 I had seen in connection with everything in this 
 strange country was here. This feature was 
 that everything in some measure is devoted 
 to instruction. 
 
 Here, on board this ship I found three great 
 rooms or cabins, fitted up as lecture halls. The 
 first we entered was the " Hall of Practical 
 Navigation ; " the second was the " Hall of 
 Forces of Marine Propulsion;" this, I was 
 given to understand, included all kinds of 
 apparatus for propelling, retarding or anchoring 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 243 
 
 vessels; the third was the "Hall for the In- 
 vestigation of Marine Animal, Insect and 
 Vegetable life." 
 
 How different was all this from my time! 
 The inscriptions over the door would probably 
 then have been :— " The Great Food Devour- 
 ing Cabin;" "The Intoxicating Drinks Cabin;" 
 and " The Smoking and Gambling Cabin." 
 The Recorder remarked that some day we 
 should take a long voyage in one of these 
 vessels, which would be both interesting and 
 instructive. I was shewn a large circular lens 
 in the floor of the " Marine Life Investigation 
 Hall." This was illuminated from above, and 
 the light was so powerful that when you looked 
 down through eyeholes you could examine the 
 waters to a great depth. There was also an 
 arrangement of reflectors that cast pictures of 
 what was going on below, on a large screen, 
 thus allowing all in the hall to see at one time 
 what was passing underneath the vessel. The 
 staff of every vessel included lecturers on 
 each of the three subjects, all of whom were 
 
244 meda : 
 
 selected from the most educated of the highest 
 order. Astronomy, I was told, could be much 
 better taught at the observatories, but in the 
 " Hall of Practical Navigation," this science 
 was largely made use of. 
 
 By the time we got on deck, we found that 
 hundreds of passengers had arrived, and we 
 learned that the packet would sail or rather be 
 drawn away in about an hour. The Recorder 
 soon said good-bye to his relative, and we got 
 into our little boat and made for the shore. I 
 told him that since I had seen this triumph of 
 naval architecture and engineering skill, I felt 
 a great desire to go a voyage. 
 
 He replied : " Good, my son, as I told you 
 before, we will enjoy this pleasure together 
 some day soon. If I can but spare the time we 
 will visit America and the other distant parts 
 of our country. You will find all in about the 
 same state of advancement there, as here. 
 Intercommunication has done wonders in 
 levelling national prejudices and local peculi- 
 arities." 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 245 
 
 PART XII 
 
 HAVING now visited all the places the 
 Recorder had promised to show me, 
 and having seen hundreds of other wonders 
 that it would take volumes to describe, we got 
 back again to our starting place. I had by this 
 time advanced so far in modern civilization that 
 I could do without food, and I could move about 
 with the Recorder without his assistance. I 
 had, in fact, learned to control my movements 
 and my leg weights by the power of will, and 
 this progress greatly pleased my friend and my 
 monitor. 
 
 When we got back to his house we were met 
 by his wife and daughter, and I somehow 
 thought that the daughter received me with 
 special favour. When seeing all these mechanical 
 and naval wonders I could not help thinking 
 where all this constructive work had been 
 executed. Throughout all our travels, I had 
 
246 meda : 
 
 not seen a single factory or shipyard anywhere. 
 I asked the Recorder where these great me- 
 chanical wonders and these great fleets were 
 made. He said : — " My son, in your day 
 you established your factories where fuel was 
 cheapest and most plentiful. We carry out 
 exactly the same plan. As I told you, we 
 do work by the concentrated heat of the sun. 
 So we establish all factories that use heat where 
 the sun's heat is strongest, that is in what your 
 geographers called the tropics. It is there all 
 this work is carried out, as you shall see when 
 we go on our travels." 
 
 After a short stay with his family, extending 
 in all to but a few hours, the Recorder said he 
 could not remain longer, as he must get back 
 to his office, having been now many days absent. 
 I was now for the first time left alone with the 
 ladies. They were most kind and attentive to 
 me. I was taken out for long walks, or rather 
 flights ; and we visited a number of their lady 
 friends. In many of these visits, I was made 
 aware of the fact that even the ladies of the 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 247 
 
 most refined modern type of this generation 
 were brimful of curiosity, as many that we 
 visited, when there was no man present, came 
 and gazed at me in a very rude way, in fact 
 on two occasions they actually pinched me, I 
 suppose to see if I was man or mummy. After 
 this my modesty caused me to decline visiting 
 except the Recorder was with us ; but through 
 all these pleasant little outings the Recorder's 
 daughter never said or did anything rude, and 
 I noticed when curiously-minded ladies took 
 these liberties with me, she looked very much 
 displeased with them for their want of courtesy. 
 In several of our flights I took her by the 
 hand : what a nice hand it was ; and then there 
 was that continued flow of force passing throuo-h 
 our fingers. At one time, it appeared to flow 
 from my fingers into hers, and then, it would 
 flow back again. I lost all recollection of her 
 deformity ; I thought no longer of her large 
 head and chest ; and I now became thoroughly 
 convinced that there was only one true model 
 for Venus, and that model was the Recorder's 
 
248 meda : 
 
 daughter. She conversed with me on all sub- 
 jects with the greatest freedom ; but when I 
 asked her to explain the history of the ruined 
 cities, she placed her fingers on her lips, and 
 shook her lovely head, saying : — 
 
 "No, no, that is father's duty, he will explain 
 all in good time." 
 
 This friendly intercourse lasted I am sure 
 for several weeks ; but to be candid, I was so 
 happy in this lady's company that I lost all 
 count of time, so I will not be answerable for 
 its duration ; it may have been months. I was 
 treated like the most loveable of lovely ladies' 
 pets ; the interest that they took in me was 
 something past conception. I must say, for 
 my part, that I was becoming thoroughly 
 spoiled. One day, I asked the ladies : — " Was 
 anyone ever punished in this refined age, and 
 what punishment was resorted to ?" 
 
 The elderly lady told me that trivial offences 
 were punished by admonitions from the elders 
 of the people, but no matter how great the 
 offence, no one's life was taken. " But for all 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 249 
 
 that," said she, " there is one offence that 
 cannot be named by any woman that is subject 
 to a dreadful punishment." 
 
 I asked her to let me know what this punish- 
 ment was, and with a serious face she said : — 
 " Men or women that are guilty of this terrible 
 crime are allowed to float away alone into 
 endless space ; what becomes of them there we 
 know not. Some say they journey with the 
 dead, and remain in life until the resurrection, 
 but as to what really becomes of them we are 
 ignorant, and must remain so until the 
 appointed day/' 
 
 I enquired how this terrible execution was 
 carried out. " Oh," she said, " the offender is 
 brought before the Court of Judges, and pleads 
 his own cause. If he is found guilty the men 
 of the district are called together, and on the 
 day fixed for the despatch he is brought before 
 the multitude, his leg weights are removed and 
 replaced by a gravity destroyer, fixed in a belt 
 around his waist, and at a given word he floats 
 upwards, the earth moves away past him and 
 
250 meda: 
 
 he is seen no more. Terrible ! terrible ! " 
 she said, and wept. 
 
 The description that I had just heard of this 
 most terrible punishment, took a great hold of 
 my mind. I wished to ask what the crime 
 was that was so cruelly dealt with ; but I dared 
 not enquire, all looked so grave at the very 
 mention of the punishment. It was truly an 
 intellectual refinement of cruelty. Only think 
 of a living being floating away into an inter- 
 minable space, and that being one who could 
 live without food, — a being that had a mind, 
 that could think, and hope, and fear. Where 
 would his misery end ? When would this poor 
 creature's torment cease ? Would birds of 
 prey follow him, flying round his head, gloat- 
 ing over him and pecking at his eyes ? But 
 it was useless for me to try to think it all 
 out, to realise the terrors he must endure, and 
 the end he must come to. As the Recorder's 
 wife said : — " Who can tell what becomes of 
 them ? This cannot be known, until the day 
 arrives that will clear up all mystery, and put 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 251 
 
 an end to all doubt, and, let us hope, sorrow." 
 I soon got over my feeling of commiseration for 
 these poor criminals, and drowned my thoughts 
 with the delightful intellectual surroundings in 
 which fortune had placed me, growing as I was 
 daily more and more accustomed to my new 
 life in this strange country. 
 
 The Recorder was very much occupied for 
 many days with state business, so we did not 
 see much of him. At last, when he had got 
 through his work that had fallen far behind, he 
 came to me one evening and said : — 
 
 " My son, I must try and give you the con- 
 tinuation of the history of the English race, 
 down to the present, as I think you are now in 
 a state of health, both in mind and body, that 
 will enable you to understand what I have to 
 reveal, and bear up against the relation of the 
 harrowing details of the destruction of the 
 cities and their inhabitants, with whom you 
 must naturally sympathise. But I will be 
 brief. I have told you how a universal 
 language was founded and established in all 
 
252 meda : 
 
 countries. I have told you of the great sect 
 that was formed, and of the principles this sect 
 adhered to and propagated. I have told you 
 of the good this sect did in the country 
 districts, and how the educated classes in the 
 cities joined them. I have told you how a 
 certain set of people in the cities opposed them 
 for selfish motives, and I have told you how 
 they influenced the uneducated people, and 
 succeeded in leading them astray. The conse- 
 quence was that the educated citizens, rather 
 than give up the principles that they had 
 adopted, left the cities and went to reside in 
 the country, thus allowing those who remained 
 full scope to carry out their foolish ways. The 
 cities throughout the empire again became 
 more and more depraved ; their inhabitants 
 seemed to again sink to the lowest depths of 
 degradation; they went to the greatest excesses 
 in eating and drinking ; and their physical 
 strength became lower and lower by this abuse. 
 Anarchy again rose, and wise men saw that 
 there were terrible times again in store for 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 253 
 
 these people. The great sect of reformers 
 remained steadfast to their principles, inducing 
 as many as they could from the cities to 
 join them in the country ; and by the 
 solidity, compactness, and power of their 
 institutions, they managed to keep those that 
 still adhered to the old and foolish way of living 
 in check. The American people were in exactly 
 the same position as the English. The inhabi- 
 tants of the cities all over the world became 
 degraded, while those who joined the great sect 
 and lived in the country became more and more 
 elevated. The consumption of food was reduced 
 to a minimum by believers in the sect's doctrine. 
 Lung power proportionately increased in them, 
 and it was found that their intelligence in- 
 creased also. It was a remarkable fact that 
 these reformers seemed to gain ground equally 
 all over the world ; they grew in power and 
 influence by living with nature ; but all their 
 power and all their influence was unable to 
 reform the cities. Love of money, of gam- 
 bling, and of excess, went on growing apace, 
 
254 meda : 
 
 until the cities again became regular dens of 
 vice and corruption. 
 
 " Things had got to such a pitch in the year 
 4200 that there were two distinct factions in 
 every country — the free eaters and those that 
 advocated extreme moderation. The latter 
 being the stronger and more intelligent held 
 well together, and being a world wide organis- 
 ation had the great advantage on their side of 
 united action. 
 
 " About this time great consternation was 
 caused by an announcement made by a phil- 
 osopher named Baria, who said that he had 
 discovered a new comet which he predicted 
 would either destroy or entirely alter the earth. 
 Most of the learned men, after examining the 
 comet, gave credence to his statement, and all 
 the astronomers confirmed the comet's existence. 
 It came gradually nearer and nearer to our 
 earth, but the city people and non-believers in 
 the great sect's doctrines, only laughed. They 
 said hundreds of comets had come before, and 
 had gone as they had come, without doing any 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 255 
 
 harm. But Baria proved that in pre-historic 
 days a great comet must have visited our planet 
 and altered its physical and climatic conditions, 
 and he said further that this comet would do 
 the same, or it might even destroy the world. 
 
 "The great sect to a man, believed in Baria's 
 statements. They visited the cities, and 
 preached reformation to the people while it 
 was yet time, but to no good. They were only 
 laughed at, and scoffed, and in many cases the 
 mobs stoned them, saying : ' This is another of 
 your mad notions ; you want to get possession 
 of our cities as you have of our country for your 
 own selfish ends.' 
 
 " Baria's prophecies were, alas ! but too true. 
 The comet came nearer and nearer to the 
 earth, and with it the awful day of tribulation 
 approached. It came so near that its attraction 
 seemed gradually to slow down the earth's 
 rotation. This was first noticed when it was 
 reported that all the chronometers were going 
 fast. It was found that while they registered 
 twenty-four hours, the sun did not reach the 
 
256 meda : 
 
 meridian for twenty-five hours. This difference 
 gradually increased, until at the end of a 
 month, it took thirty hours by the chronometer 
 for the earth to make its diurnal revolution, 
 and at last the period was increased to forty- 
 eight hours. Baria and many other philos- 
 ophers stated that the earth's velocity was 
 being retarded by the attraction of the comet ; 
 there was evidently a terrible struggle for the 
 mastery going on between it and the earth. It 
 was a case of the mighty wrestling with the 
 mighty ; two giants as it were on the grip for 
 life or death. 
 
 " The consternation was terrible. The at- 
 mosphere of the earth began to change, and a 
 great plague fell upon the people of the cities, 
 they could not breathe freely. They gradually 
 died by thousands, and to make matters worse, 
 earthquakes took place all over the world, and 
 the surface of the earth cracked. Thousands 
 of cities were levelled to the ground in one day 
 — the people in them who had not died of what 
 they called the plague were crushed beneath 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 257 
 
 the ruins. A great flow of icebergs came 
 floating down the North Atlantic ; thousands 
 of ships and steamers were lost, captains found 
 that they were out of their reckonings by 
 hundreds of miles, and all thought that the last 
 day had come. The members of the great sect 
 spent their days and nights in prayer in the 
 open country. Strange to say, they did not 
 feel many bad effects from the changes that 
 were taking place. They felt in most cases 
 stronger and better than ever they did. They 
 saw the citizens and non-believers succumb in 
 thousands ; they tried to help them, but it was 
 useless, all died. The very animals gave way, 
 horses, cattle, sheep, birds, and vermin seemed 
 to sicken and die. The sights by which the sur- 
 vivors were surrounded were terrible to look on, 
 there was nothing but ruins, death and corrup- 
 tion. The cities were huge charnel pits. Dead 
 cattle lay in every direction over the land, and 
 but few animals survived the general destruction. 
 The courses of rivers were in many parts of the 
 world changed ; the sea receded in some places, 
 
258 meda : 
 
 and encroached on the land in others. At last, 
 the comet began to recede ; the fight was over ; 
 the earth gradually regained its normal speed, 
 and in about three months it was found to have 
 made up its lost diurnal velocity, and began to 
 accomplish its revolution in twenty-four hours 
 by the chronometers. But what extraordinary 
 changes had taken place. There was not a 
 single city standing. It was found that the 
 British Channel now occupied the latitude of 
 the south of France ; Spain was where north 
 Africa used to be ; the Arctic Ocean was free 
 from ice ; and there was now a navigable water 
 passage around the north of Canada. Fresh 
 reports were coming in daily from survivors by 
 the cables that had escaped injury. Australia 
 was now hundreds of miles further south, and 
 its southern portion was visited by snow storms. 
 Astronomers were busy taking observations all 
 over the world ; and it was proved beyond a 
 doubt that owing to the attraction of the comet 
 the earth's axis had permanently shifted. The 
 ice-clad northern seas and lands were free 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 259 
 
 from ice, it had drifted down the Atlantic, and 
 melting, was dissipated. A new frozen region 
 was forming at the earth's new axis, but the 
 strangest thing of all was the change of atmo- 
 sphere. It was found that its component parts 
 were quite different, being now composed of 
 new life-sustaining gases on which man could 
 live, but it was very destructive to iron and 
 steel. This at once explained the cause of the 
 plague amongst the free eaters and drinkers. 
 Their lungs not having been accustomed, as 
 were those of the great sect, to gather sup- 
 port from the air, could not inhale or utilize 
 these stronger life-sustaining gases ; while they 
 imparted life and vigour to our sect, to the 
 rest of the world's inhabitants they acted as a 
 slow poison. Then in the confusion of that 
 terrible period of suspense, the non-believers 
 also suffered terribly for the want of proper 
 food ; whereas in the case of the believers the 
 simplest kind of food sufficed to keep them in 
 life, and very little of it. This amount of food 
 was gradually reduced as time went on, until, 
 
260 meda : 
 
 as you see, my son, we can now live on our 
 life-giving atmosphere alone, and enjoy strength 
 and happiness without any food and but little 
 water. Can you now understand the present 
 state of things ? Can you now understand 
 why all cities are ruined, and deserted ; why 
 we abhor and avoid them ? Can you now 
 understand why iron and steel have become 
 things of the past ? 
 
 " You may not yet see all this as we see it, 
 my son, but you will soon be able to do so. 
 Iron and steel are of no use now ; the corrosive 
 power of our atmosphere is so great, that the 
 heaviest and strongest structure if made of 
 these metals would soon be eaten away. The 
 great war ships of the ancients and their great 
 merchant fleets soon became useless by corro- 
 sion. This was well, because we now have no 
 use for them. We do not require them to carry 
 food, having no need of it. We do not want 
 them for carrying fuel, having no use for it. 
 All we now require is clothing, and this is of 
 the simplest kind. As previously explained to 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 261 
 
 you, all our sea and aerial fleets are constructed 
 of the metal you know as aluminium, which is 
 light and strong ; and it is to be had in every 
 country where you understand its manufacture. 
 
 " Have you ever reflected or thought since 
 you have been with us what a horrible people 
 you used to be ? Think of the terrible things 
 you did. Think of a people that would be 
 base enough to defile their mouths with the 
 flesh of the lower animals, flesh that must turn 
 to corruption. The bare idea of this barbarous 
 custom causes me to shudder." I here could 
 not help asking how it was that the people of 
 the present day retained their teeth when they 
 could have no possible use for them. I had 
 often remarked to myself what lovely white 
 teeth they had. The Recorder remarked : — 
 
 " This is a pertinent question, my son, and 
 shows me that you are possessed of consider- 
 able reasoning power. The fact is that we 
 have no teeth of our own ; they are all artificial, 
 look here/' he said, and putting his hand to his 
 mouth he took out a complete set of teeth, and 
 
262 meda : 
 
 showed them to me, saying, after he replaced 
 them : " A number of generations having lived 
 without food, nature saw that we had no use 
 for teeth, and caused them gradually to dis- 
 appear. The consequence was that our mouths 
 closed up very much, and we could not speak 
 fluently, so we were obliged to use false teeth. 
 The ladies, strange to say, were the leaders in 
 this fashion, and we now feel obliged to them, 
 as the faculty of speech is of great value to us." 
 I here mentioned that while they were far 
 advanced in many things, I had seen nothing 
 that resembled the phonograph or speech 
 registering: and re-uttering machine. 
 
 "No," he said, "we do not wish to encourage 
 such inventions as these, they are only fit for 
 the uneducated who can neither read nor speak 
 themselves. We want our people to be fluent 
 writers, brilliant musicians, and fluent speakers. 
 We have a duty to perform, and that is to keep 
 them occupied and educated. If we were to do 
 away with the art of writing and encouraged 
 such inventions as these, we have proved by 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 263 
 
 experience that the people who depend on 
 them get too lazy to learn. Again, people that 
 are lazy get selfish, and a selfish-minded man 
 or woman is an abomination. Selfishness is 
 a sin we use all our power and will to stamp 
 out from our midst, as a sin not worthy of our 
 manhood, a sin that would degrade us, were it 
 allowed, below the level of humanity, whose 
 greatest function is, and must ever be, to live 
 for the sfood of others and not for self's selfish 
 ends, at least, if we wish to be happy." 
 
264 med a : 
 
 PART XIII. 
 
 AFTER the Recorder's hurried explanation 
 of what had taken place since my day, 
 I could now realize the cause of many things 
 that were a continual puzzle to me during my 
 first lifetime. I had read many books in days 
 long past trying to explain the causes of the 
 disappearance of ice in various parts of the 
 world. I had read that there were in pre- 
 historic days what were termed by philosophers 
 the ice ages, and the boulder age. Now none 
 of the arguments that were put forward in 
 these books were to my mind satisfactory. We 
 were told that at one time Great Britain, and 
 in fact the north of Europe, must have been 
 covered with great fields of ice, and we were 
 told that, in the Arctic Regions, there were 
 evidences discovered of the existence at some 
 pre-historic date of tropical forests and vegeta- 
 tion. Now, how had this ice disappeared, and 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 265 
 
 how had this tropical vegetation existed in a 
 place that is now covered with perpetual snow ? 
 
 The Recorder's revelations about the effect 
 of the comet " Baria " on the earth, to my mind 
 explains the whole question. At some period, 
 before the creation of man, probably this same 
 comet had come close to this planet, and so 
 influenced it by attraction as to cause it to shift 
 its axis in the same way as the Recorder 
 described as having taken place in later days. 
 Then the ice that covered the land would 
 gradually melt and slide down the sides of the 
 hills and valleys, forming the serrated ice cuts 
 that we saw traces of all over the country in 
 my day. Possibly at one time Great Britain 
 was the North Pole, and possibly the present 
 North Pole was at some still earlier date in the 
 tropics. This would surely be a natural way to 
 account for the marks of ice in Britain, and for 
 tropical vegetation in the Arctic Regions. 
 
 Possibly, after a lapse of tens of thousands 
 of years, that comet will return after travelling 
 in interminable space and attract the earth still 
 
2GG meda : 
 
 further round, and so the shifting scene will go 
 on for ages and ages as endless as the space 
 the comet has retired into. 
 
 With such thoughts as these I beguiled many- 
 hours while the ladies were busy. I seemed 
 to be the only idle person in the kingdom ; and 
 I often wished I had had some occupation, I 
 felt so like a pet dog that was made much of, 
 but was absolutely of no use except for the 
 amusement of those around. For one who 
 used to take a leading part in his country's 
 affairs, and who was considered a man of some 
 parts, the position I now occupied was to me a 
 mean one. I wished I could do something, 
 but what could I do ? The merest child knew 
 more than I knew. I chafed and grumbled to 
 myself, but what was the use ? I could not 
 help my position, so must put up with it. I 
 therefore determined to be as happy as I could. 
 I can't say how long I had been residing with 
 the Recorder ; but as far as I could put days 
 together, I made it out to be about three 
 months. I had been able to pick up many 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 2G7 
 
 words of the modern English lansruaefe. I was 
 thrown very much into the company of the 
 Recorder's daughter, and I must say I by no 
 means objected to this. I told her all about 
 the world as I knew it, and in return she told 
 me much about the world as it was. She 
 instructed me in modern English ; and I soon 
 began to understand the construction of this 
 language, that now was universal. She told 
 me her name was Meda : I thought this a very 
 sweet name. We used to take one another's 
 hands and flit about in playful joy ; and when 
 our hands were thus united, the power, or spirit, 
 or life, or love, or whatever it was, used to flow 
 from one to the other. It appeared as if one's 
 energy passed from one, going into the other, 
 and there mixing with the other's life, or spirit, 
 or love, then flowing back again, amalgamated. 
 Dear reader, how can I illustrate this feeling ? 
 It was very pleasant; yes, I have it! It was 
 like the sand flowing from one end of an hour- 
 glass to the other ; when all had flowed in, the 
 glass appeared to turn of itself, and the sand 
 
268 meda : 
 
 began to flow back again. So it was when I 
 held Meda by the hand ; we were very happy, 
 and she was beautiful, yes, beautiful both in 
 mind and body. The Recorder and his wife 
 must have seen that we were getting fond of 
 one another ; and they certainly never dis- 
 couraged us. We began to live, as it were, in 
 a land of perfect bliss. I told her my name 
 was Kenneth : and we now addressed one 
 another as Meda and Kenneth. The fact is, 
 dear reader, we were in love. I forgot all 
 about my previous self and previous life ; I saw 
 nothing that was strange around me now ; I 
 could only see one being clearly, and that was 
 Meda, my own, my dearest, my beloved Meda, 
 a very angel of beauty, an angel of intelligence, 
 an angel of affection, love so sincere, love so 
 truly love, love so pure and so intense, that 
 my soul, my body, my very existence, was 
 wrapt up in her. I felt, I knew, that this 
 feeling was mutual, but I feared to ask her; 
 I lived in such bliss and happiness that I 
 dreaded to do anything to disturb it. I did 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 269 
 
 not know the modern customs or mode of love- 
 making, so thought it better to wait and not 
 run any risk of endangering my prospects of 
 years and years of pleasure by imprudent haste. 
 Haste, that might destroy an intensity of 
 sublime happiness that mortal rarely enjoys ; 
 haste, that might sever a chord of love that 
 could not be re-united ; haste, that might for 
 ever and ever render two lives bound up in 
 each other miserable. 
 
 So we continued to enjoy each other's com- 
 pany undisturbed, unopposed, and apparently 
 unheeded. Meda's sympathies were my sym- 
 pathies, Meda's joys were my joys. I was 
 going to say that Meda's sorrows were my 
 sorrows ; but, now that I think of it, Meda 
 had never known what sorrow was. Could we 
 but have divined what was in store for us ? 
 Could we but have known in time the great 
 calamity that was hanging, ay, thickening over 
 us, then would we have shunned one another, 
 as we would have shunned that king of dark- 
 ness that destroys all peace and all happiness 
 
270 meda: 
 
 by his vile machinations, that are as insidious 
 and as penetrating as the musk-rat's odour. 
 But, alas ! such was not to be. The inevitable 
 must, must have its way. We lived on in love 
 that was to be rudely cast aside ; we lived in a 
 holy, sincere trust in one another, that must be 
 rent in twain : we lived, we joyed, we breathed, 
 as if we were one being, one existence, one life, 
 and one soul. Yet all this was to be broken in 
 shreds, all was to be crushed to the veriest 
 atoms, and these atoms the veriest concentra- 
 tion of misery. How long we lived in this 
 Elysium of quiet joy : how long we continued 
 this commune of souls ; how long we remained 
 as it were one being, in harmony of thought, in 
 harmony of action, and in harmony of desire, 
 I know not. Day seemed to blend into day, 
 week seemed to blend into week, month into 
 month, and year into year, and still we con- 
 tinued to love and to be loved by all around. 
 The Recorder and his wife gave us every 
 encouragement. I felt that we must be united; 
 I felt that I had gained the love, the true, 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 271 
 
 devoted, yes, the sincere, and loving love, of 
 the most perfect and pure being that had ever 
 been created. I declared my love : I was 
 accepted. I spoke to her father and mother, 
 and they gave their consent. The elders of 
 the people were told, and all approved of 
 Meda's selection. At first they objected on 
 the plea that I was not equal to Meda in edu- 
 cation ; but my great knowledge of ancient 
 history was allowed to place me on an equality 
 with Meda, and this difficulty was overcome. 
 The marriage day was fixed. The elders 
 assembled ; young maidens gathered from far 
 and near. Great rejoicings were to take place 
 on our marriage day ! This day came about, 
 and it was the first day of May. I felt the old 
 Scotch superstition against marriages in May 
 strong in my heart. I mentioned my fears and 
 objections to the Recorder, and requested him 
 to have the day altered to a day in June. But 
 he said : — 
 
 " My son, these are silly, old world, notions 
 that are only the outcome of superstition and 
 
272 meda : 
 
 ignorance ; an ignorance that was the bane 
 and the curse of past generations ; an ignorance 
 that wise people have rooted out thousands of 
 years ago ; an ignorance that must never again 
 be tolerated, as all such superstitions are but an 
 insult to intellectual refinement and knowledge." 
 Our marriage day came. We were to be 
 married in a lovely country glen in the midst of 
 nature. Trees, plants, flowers, would be all 
 around us. Birds would sing songs of joy ; 
 butterflies would haunt the scene ; all was to be 
 beautiful ; nature crowning the union of nature 
 in the union of God's greatest masterpiece — 
 two intellectual beings. All the time I had 
 been in this land of intellectual pleasure and joy, 
 I had never been able to see a marriage ; but 
 some of my friends had explained to me the 
 nature of the ceremony, which varied with the 
 intellectual standing of the bride and bridegroom. 
 The Recorder being of very high standing, and 
 his daughter's mental attainments being of the 
 very highest rank, her marriage was to be a 
 splendid pageant. For two days prior to our 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 273 
 
 marriage, I was not allowed to see my bride ; 
 she stayed alone in her room, preparing her 
 mind for the change that was about to take 
 place in her life. 
 
 During these two days, I felt perfectly miser- 
 able ; every doubt, every fear, that I could 
 conjure up, seemed to come uppermost and 
 torment me, but at last all this came to an end. 
 On the morning of my marriage twelve young 
 men in complete new costumes made of the 
 finest white silk came to me, and led me away 
 to the scene of the ceremony. What a sight 
 there awaited me ! Thousands of people lined 
 the sides of the Men. In the centre was a 
 
 o 
 
 group of elders. At the opposite end of the 
 valley to that at which my party was standing, 
 I saw a procession of young girls coming slowly 
 along. Now they stop and form into two great 
 groups with a space between them, and then I 
 saw that there was a similar group of young men 
 on either side of me. Now I noticed that all 
 were looking towards the far end of the valley. 
 Presently the Recorder and his wife joined 
 
274 meda : 
 
 the elders in the centre of the glen. At a 
 signal from the elders the whole multitude 
 sang softly in the most beautiful harmony, a 
 melody that was more like the melody of saints 
 than that of ordinary mortals. The music 
 seemed to come from their very souls ; it was 
 at one moment like a gentle, refreshing shower, 
 that pattered on the leaves ; then, the rain 
 would clear away, and bright rays of soft, genial, 
 sunshine would break as it were through clouds, 
 lighting the whole scene with joyfulness. 
 Then, it would come on again with a sweet, 
 rolling, rippling sound, gliding softly with 
 quivering intonations that seemed to strike on 
 the ear with a cushioned re-echoing of melodious 
 sympathy, which could not fail to penetrate the 
 hardest and most cruel heart, melting its flinty 
 cells into sympathetic love strains laden with 
 condescension, humility, and feeling for others. 
 Birds were flying about in sportive joy, and 
 the butterflies with their gem-like wings fluttered 
 over the entire glen. Truly it was a scene of 
 beauty never to be forgotten, so long as memory 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 275 
 
 recalls the incidents of the past. Presently the 
 melody ceased and the music became measured 
 in its time. I was told to advance towards the 
 elders. I now saw my bride advancing from 
 the other end of the glen, accompanied by about 
 one hundred maidens, all clad in white and 
 adorned with flowers, singing and waving green 
 branches. My male friends joined in the song, 
 and advancing we soon reached the group of 
 elders, my bride and her maidens coming up at 
 the same time. Her bearing was majestic, her 
 face was beaming with pleasure, her eyes 
 sparkled with animation. I was fascinated ; I 
 could see none but Meda ; I could hear nothing 
 but her voice ; all else after her arrival appeared 
 to me a piece of dumb show. I saw people all 
 around me ; I heard a confusion of voices ; I 
 was conscious that a ceremony had been gone 
 through ; and I knew that this ceremony was 
 our marriage. I remember having made some 
 eloquent oration. I remember the elders laying 
 their hands on us. But all was so confused, so 
 mixed up in my mind, that for me to describe 
 
276 meda : 
 
 the details of the ceremony would be simply 
 impossible. All I knew was that my Meda 
 was my own, my very own wife ; I knew that 
 I felt the happiest and the proudest man on 
 earth. I knew that a little modest villa was 
 allotted to us. I felt a king amongst men, 
 knowing as I did, that I had secured the queen 
 of women. 
 
 We lived in our little house for some months 
 in the most supreme happiness, Meda devoting 
 her time to instructing me in modern history, 
 in modern languages, in modern art, and in 
 music. Her love and devotion made me an 
 apt pupil. How sweet is that instruction that 
 is breathed to you as it were, wrapped in love. 
 Each word, each idea, each thought, is clad 
 with a pleasure that makes all sweet and 
 acceptable. No matter how the subjects may 
 differ, no matter how the ideas may vary, no 
 matter even if they be antagonistic, if they are 
 but set in loving kindness they will be like a 
 bouquet of flowers, all of distinct families, all of 
 different colours, and perfumes, yet all indi- 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 277 
 
 vidually and collectively beautiful, sweet, and 
 pure. 
 
 When Meda had instructed me in many 
 things that were modern, and therefore to me 
 strange, she began to look further afield for 
 information. The time that was allowed for 
 lovers' idleness was drawing to a close, and we 
 must both soon besfin to work for the State. I 
 was promised by the Recorder a long journey 
 as a delegate to various parts of our empire ; 
 part of the journey was to be performed in 
 aerial, and part in naval vessels. Meda was to 
 go with me. With all these treats in store, we 
 looked forward to a long and happy life 
 together, but alas! this was not to be. A blow 
 was to be dealt to this happiness, and the hour 
 was at hand. To me this subject is one of 
 terror ; would that I could avoid it, would that 
 I could erase it from my memory, but such 
 cannot be ; it is burned into memory's register 
 like the inscription that is burned into china ; 
 you may break the china into pieces, but those 
 will still retain their mark to the end. 
 
278 med a : 
 
 The terrible catastrophe of our separation 
 
 came about in this way : — I told you, dear 
 
 reader, that after a sojourn for many months 
 
 with this strange people I got accustomed to 
 
 their ways, and gradually forgot my past 
 
 history. The things that happened to me in 
 
 my previous state became as a blank in my 
 
 mind, but, after my marriage, my memory of my 
 
 own doings seemed to come back — doubtless 
 
 brightened by the many questions that Meda 
 
 put to me. I was now able to tell many tales 
 
 and describe many incidents that had taken 
 
 place in my previous life. I had out of 
 
 modesty avoided relating anything about my 
 
 own doings, nor had I said anything about 
 
 my family, or about my previous marriage 
 
 with my well-beloved Mary, who was now but 
 
 dust. I loved all as dearly as man could love 
 
 them, but with a lapse of over three thousand 
 
 years, what was the use of thinking of 
 
 them ? Their very dust would by this time be 
 
 scattered to the four quarters of the globe ; the 
 
 gases of which they were largely formed, must 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 279 
 
 have passed through millions of other mortals 
 and now would be lost to all. The identity of 
 all I loved had fled, and I alone was revived as 
 it were from death. I supposed, and made 
 myself believe, it must be for some good end, 
 and that end was my union with Meda. It 
 so happened that Meda was in the habit of 
 inviting a number of the elders, male and 
 female, to hear my stories of the past, and 
 I had explained much that had taken place in 
 my day to them. On one occasion there was a 
 very old lady in the company, and she, though 
 perhaps innocently, was the cause of all my 
 sorrow. 
 
 Women are, I verily believe, at the root of 
 all mischief; had this old hag held her tongue 
 or had she stayed away, I might never have 
 got into the trouble I did. 
 
 She said to me: "Young man, I notice in all 
 you relate that you have always avoided the 
 part you yourself took in the past history of 
 our nation. Why is this ? Are you ashamed 
 of what you have done, or is it modesty ? " 
 
280 meda: 
 
 I said that in the times in which I had lived 
 a man who was continually speaking of himself 
 and his doings was called an egotist, and was 
 despised. We used in those days to make it a 
 rule therefore, to keep silence as to our own 
 doings, allowing others to speak for us. 
 
 u But," she said, " you are here alone, we 
 can get none other to speak and tell us about 
 your actions, so you must speak for yourself." 
 All the rest joined with her, and as Meda added 
 her request to that of the others, I consented. 
 Had I but known the result that my simple 
 narrative brought about, I would rather a hun- 
 dred times have had my tongue cut out and 
 thrown to the dogs (had there been any,) than 
 have uttered a word. 
 
 I told them where I was born. I told them 
 about my much beloved father and mother, and 
 I moved them almost to tears when I described 
 with all the fervour of my gratitude my mother's 
 loving care for me ; I told them how she gave 
 up every pleasure to gratify mine ; I told them 
 how she had laboured and toiled after my 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 281 
 
 father's death to provide that food, which in 
 those days was necessary for my sustenance ; 
 how she instilled pure, honourable, and holy 
 thoughts into my mind ; how she had nursed 
 me through sickness; and how she had cheered 
 me in sorrow; how she had lived; how she had 
 died in peace, in trust, and in confident faith in 
 the future. Through all this history I was 
 listened to with respect, nay, I might say, if I 
 were to judge by their rapt attention, I was 
 listened to with admiration. 
 
 But I went on and told them that after my 
 mother's death I felt very lonely, and began to 
 look out for a suitable companion to take my 
 mother's place in my affections. I found one in 
 my Mary, I wooed, I won her; we were married 
 and had a family. When I pronounced the 
 word "married," and said I had a family, I 
 heard a terrible scream, and looking in the 
 direction of the sound I saw my Meda stretched 
 on the floor, looking like a corpse. I rushed 
 towards her to lift her, but the whole company 
 rose and flew at me, as one, and laying hold of 
 
282 meda : 
 
 me dragged me away from my darling when she 
 was so ill. They glared at me saying : — 
 
 " Cruel, deceitful man, you have ruined the 
 life of the most respected and honoured of our 
 daughters; but your infamy will have its reward, 
 your punishment will be terrible — so terrible, 
 that even though we despise you, we sorrow for 
 you." 
 
 Saying this, they took me forcibly out of my 
 own home and spirited me away into a dungeon, 
 as they said, to await my trial. 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 283 
 
 PART XIV. 
 
 HOW I wondered, as I sat in my dark 
 room, what I could have done to 
 deserve such barbarous treatment ; it was 
 beyond my comprehension to understand why 
 a people could turn on me as it were with one 
 will, at the same moment, and snatch me away 
 from my poor wife who evidently was very ill. 
 1 had struggled hard to get to her, but the more 
 I fought the more I was resisted. Had I been 
 an unclean thing that carried pestilence with it, 
 I could not have been resisted more fiercely. I 
 felt terribly cast down; the depths of my misery 
 were greater than I can describe, far, far greater 
 than I had ever experienced during all the 
 sorrows and trials of my previous life. 
 
 It was strange that the joys and pleasureable 
 feelings of this intellectual people were so 
 intense. Did enlightenment add to the inten- 
 sity of enjoyment ? And did it also add to the 
 
284 meda : 
 
 intensity of sorrow ? Yes, I fully believe it did. 
 The more intellectual man or woman is, the 
 more acute are their joys and their sorrows, and 
 the more acutely they feel pain, The lower 
 animals do not suffer the same bodily pain that 
 men do, nor do the lower or uneducated mortals 
 experience the intensity of pleasure, or the same 
 intensity of pain as the educated and refined. 
 All great pleasures are, as it were, balanced by 
 proportionably great sorrows. Possibly this is 
 intended to be so, and no doubt it is ordained 
 for the best. The solitude of my cell caused 
 me to ruminate over the last hours I spent in 
 my own home. I went over every word I had 
 said until I came to the statement I had made 
 regarding my marriage and my family. This 
 portion of my narrative I repeated over and 
 over again to myself, when, suddenly, it flashed 
 upon me that this was the cause of the whole 
 commotion. I now remembered that one of the 
 laws of this people was that no man could 
 marry a second time, even after his wife's death, 
 but here I was married a second time ; and I 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 285 
 
 did not know whether my dear old Mary lived 
 or not. Here was I married again after more 
 than three thousand years. I had denied, I 
 had degraded the finest creature God had ever 
 made, and I had forgotten one of the best of 
 creatures, who, in the old world days, I dearly 
 loved. I had allowed my Mary's memory to 
 die and be a blank to me. I felt that I was one 
 of the greatest monsters in the world ; I lay 
 down and rolled about on the dark, damp floor; 
 I cared not what they would do with me now. 
 I prayed that I might be killed to put me out 
 of this mental torture ; but the release from life 
 to death was not for me, I was too vile for this. 
 I think I must have been two days in confine- 
 ment, when I was taken from my cell. I was 
 led into a room, at one end of which were 
 seated three judges (the same that I had seen 
 when with the Recorder). A clerk sat at a 
 table under them, and was arranging tablets 
 when I entered. At the side of the table 
 opposite to me, sat my late friend, the 
 Recorder. I was told to be seated opposite 
 
286 meda : 
 
 to him. The presiding judge said : — " Proceed 
 with the case." 
 
 The Recorder stood up immediately and 
 opened his case in a most eloquent speech that 
 was very moderate in its tone, in fact, I felt that 
 he was performing a duty that he would have 
 avoided if it were possible : I felt that he was, 
 while accusing me of a horrible crime — as sorry 
 for me as he was for his daughter. He tried 
 to make his charge against me as leniently as 
 he could. To go over all he said in support of 
 the laws of his nation would be more than I 
 could do, and more, dear reader, than you could 
 stand. Suffice it to say that I was accused of 
 what, in the eyes of this people, was the most 
 heinous of heinous crimes, and that was — having 
 married a second time. He said that he him- 
 self was much to blame as he had never asked 
 me had I been married, but he added, as an 
 excuse for his neglect, "How could I think that 
 one so young had been married before?" (I 
 did not quite see the force of this argument, as 
 I was forty years old.) He said, to further 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 287 
 
 excuse himself; "I have been much in this 
 young man's company, and while in his com- 
 pany I have constantly read his thoughts, and 
 can testify that he never once thought of his 
 first wife while in my company." He explained 
 that his daughter was ruined for life, and 
 degraded in the eyes of the people. She was 
 now a defiled woman. His sorrow and grief 
 were great — great indeed — but his belief in a 
 divine Providence caused him to think that 
 some good might yet come out of this terrible 
 sorrow ; and he said further, " I loved this 
 stranger who had come among us ; I was 
 pleased with his intelligence, besides believing 
 that my daughter's marriage with him would be 
 for the good of the people, because of the great 
 distance in time of the relationship between 
 them, dating back as it does over 3000 years. 
 I feel for this man, knowing as I do that he 
 was ignorant of the law of our people that for- 
 bids any man to be married a second time." 
 
 He now sat down, and the President of the 
 court asked me had I anything to say in my 
 
288 meda : 
 
 defence. I stood up and said, that no one 
 could be more grieved at what had taken place 
 than I was, no one could be more cast down 
 than I was, no one was more desirous to make 
 reparation for my unconscious mistake, my un- 
 known sin, than I was. If there had been any 
 means of making this reparation I would make 
 any sacrifice even with my life, to restore Meda 
 to the happiness that she had enjoyed before 
 she knew me. I expressed my gratitude to the 
 Recorder for the kind and moderate way in 
 which he had stated his case against me. But, 
 I said, I would not be honest if I allowed the 
 court to think that I was not conscious that it 
 was against the laws of this country for a man 
 to marry a second time. I had heard that such 
 was the law from the Recorder or some one 
 else. " But, at the same time," I said, " I feel 
 perfectly innocent of having done anything 
 wrong, as when wooing and gaining the 
 affections of this gentleman's daughter, I was 
 for the time oblivious of all my previous life's 
 history. I forgot that I had existed before ; I 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 289 
 
 forgot that I had ever had wife or child — all was 
 an utter blank to me; my memory of the past 
 had, for the time, flown ; nor did it return until 
 some months after my marriage. And even 
 when memory returned to me, I saw no harm 
 in my second marriage after a lapse of over 
 three thousand years. My first wife and my 
 family and their descendants for generations and 
 generations must have returned to the rases and 
 to the dust from which they were made. Nor 
 had my thoughts or my feelings any objections 
 to second marriages, as such was in accordance 
 with the laws and customs of my time." 
 
 I appealed with all my soul's fervour to the 
 court to do what was most likely, in their 
 opinion, to restore my dearly beloved Meda to 
 happiness and social position. If anything, I 
 said, that can be done to me, even unto my 
 death, will help her, let it be done. I saw that 
 my appeal touched the hearts of all in the 
 court ; I saw that many were moved to tears ; 
 but I also saw in the solemn, thoughtful faces 
 of my judges that my fate was sealed. 
 
290 meda : 
 
 The President asked the Recorder had he 
 anything further to say. The Recorder imme- 
 diately rose, and with a quivering voice said: 
 
 " My Lords, — I would not for worlds ask 
 you to evade the laws of our nation, particularly 
 as regards this terrible crime ; I know that this 
 man has acted against the law while unconscious 
 that he was doing so ; and I believe all he has 
 stated to be true. I know he is desirous from 
 his heart to repair the damage that he has thus 
 unconsciously done to my much beloved 
 daughter, my only child. In your consideration 
 of your verdict, I would therefore pray of you 
 to be as lenient to him as the laws of our 
 country will permit. Remember that the 
 customs of his people allowed and encouraged 
 the action that he has been guilty of; remember 
 his inexperience, and act towards him, in 
 considering his sentence, with mercy." 
 
 I was now asked if I had anything further to 
 say in reply. I bowed towards the President 
 and said, " No." 
 
 The judges then retired to consider their 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 291 
 
 verdict. After an absence, that to me appeared 
 like ages, they returned, and after being seated, 
 the President besran : — 
 
 " Young man, we find you guilty of the 
 gravest offence that it is possible for a man of 
 our day to commit against our laws. It is an 
 offence of such a serious nature that no woman 
 dare mention it. By the laws of our country 
 you are condemned by this court to float away 
 into unmeasurable space. Where you will go 
 to or what will become of you no man can tell. 
 After considering your ignorance and your 
 w T ant of appreciation of the necessity of this 
 law, and after making every allowance for you 
 on these heads, the most we can do for you is 
 to so far modify the usual conditions of this 
 sentence, and order that you be provided with 
 instruments, by means of which you can guide 
 your course through space, so long as strength 
 is left you. Whether or not this indulgence is 
 of any value to you no one can tell. The 
 sentence will be carried out the day after to- 
 morrow in the presence of our people in order 
 
292 meda: 
 
 to show them the result that must follow any 
 departure from the moral laws that are the out- 
 come of intellect. The condemned may now 
 be removed." 
 
 While the President was pronouncing my 
 sentence, I sat and gazed at him stupefied with 
 horror. My whole life's actions from my early 
 babyhood's sins down to the present seemed to 
 come before me with vivid distinctness. Every 
 little petty sin that I had committed came 
 before me with all its details and surroundings, 
 the rapidity of their appearance and disappear- 
 ance being something miraculous. I thought 
 of how, as a child, I had deceived my dear, 
 kind mother ; I thought of how that father 
 who had toiled and worked for me, had been 
 often vexed and worried by me ; I thought of 
 my quarrels with my brothers and sisters. I 
 remembered how at school I had deceived my 
 masters ; I remembered how I had used unfair 
 means to advance my interests as an artist ; I 
 remembered some quarrels with my dear, first 
 wife, Mary ; I remembered that I had been 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 293 
 
 often unjust to her, and had often given this 
 kind, patient creature great pain; I remembered 
 everything that could possibly tell against me ; 
 and all this life-like panorama seemed to flash 
 through my brain in a moment. I tried to 
 think that the crime I was convicted of, 
 and sentenced for, was a terrible crime, 
 but somehow I could not think it was a crime 
 at all. I thought rather that I was sinned 
 against and persecuted. In my agony when 
 the sentence was pronounced, and when the 
 President said I was to be removed, I rose 
 to my feet and begged him to hear me before 
 I left them for ever. To this request he 
 acquiesced, but said, "You must be brief." I 
 then began : — 
 
 " Mr. President, you have pronounced this 
 terrible sentence on one who, in his own eyes, 
 and in the eyes of Almighty God, is innocent 
 of having committed any crime. To commit a 
 crime surely you must allow that one must feel 
 that he is doing something wrong. Had I 
 been conversant with your laws, and had I 
 
294 meda : 
 
 knowingly wooed and won the affections of this 
 lady with the knowledge that I was acting 
 against your laws, then would I have been 
 sinning, but acting as I did, without any con- 
 sciousness of doing wrong, I hold that in the 
 eyes of reason, in the eyes of common-sense, 
 and in the eyes of unbiassed justice, I have 
 committed no sin. I do not say this with any 
 desire to evade the sentence that you have 
 passed on me ; but I say it to let you and your 
 people know that I consider that you, in making 
 an ignorant man amenable to laws that he did 
 not know or understand, are committing an act 
 of injustice that is unworthy of the intelligence 
 that your nation is undoubtedly in possession 
 of- — an intelligence that is beyond all that it is 
 possible for me to conceive, an intelligence that 
 has astonished me beyond all measure. And, 
 Mr. President, I would pray you in your great 
 wisdom, should any such similar case as mine 
 ever come before you, to think of the remarks 
 that one so humble as I am in point of intellect 
 and intelligence has ventured to make. But, 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 295 
 
 Mr. President, when I think of the punishment 
 itself I am astonished that a people of such 
 culture could be so intellectually refined in their 
 cruelty as to invent this most awful, this most 
 cruel means of torturing a fellow- creature. 
 Why can you not kill outright ? Why can you 
 not spill my heart's blood ? Why can you not 
 shred my flesh, and grind my bones to atoms, 
 rather than let a living, conscious creature float 
 away, away to that awful desert of space that 
 is so vast, that the greatest and the most 
 enlightened mind among you cannot conceive 
 where it begins, and knows not where it ends ? 
 Think but of the thoughts of your victim, who 
 will float about for years and years, unable to 
 live as he should live, yet unable to die. And 
 while you are not asked to alter your laws for 
 one so mean and humble as I am, I pray that in 
 justice to yourselves, as a nation, you will oblit- 
 erate this terribly cruel punishment from your 
 so-called book of justice which is alike a disgrace 
 to humanity, and to the intelligence with which 
 humanity has been endowed by the Creator. 
 
296 meda : 
 
 " Now, Mr. President, I will conclude. I do 
 not know if your laws will allow me to see my 
 wife before I float away, but should this be 
 denied me, or should the lady object from feel- 
 ings that may in her be justified according to 
 her light, I wish, if it be not permitted, that 
 this court will kindly convey to her my regret, 
 my sincere regret for all that has taken place. 
 Tell her that all I have done was done with the 
 purest and most loving intentions towards her, 
 and that if I have erred (and this, according to 
 my light, which is perhaps but a dim and 
 flickering one, I have not), it has been 
 through inexperience and ignorance that I 
 have had no means of enlightening. I have 
 now said all that I have to say, and must 
 thank you, Mr. President, along with your 
 colleagues, for the patient hearing you have 
 given me." 
 
 As I sat down I could notice that all in the 
 court were much affected by my short speech. 
 The judges coughed, and looked at one 
 another until at last the President pulled 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 297 
 
 himself together, and casting all sympathy from 
 him, he spoke, simply saying : — 
 
 "Young man, we are sorry for you. You 
 are a man of wonderful refinement of thought 
 and feeling considering the antiquity of your 
 origin, yet we can make no more distinction in 
 your case than in that of any other culprit ; our 
 forefathers have made, and we have carried out 
 this law for over six hundred years. We have 
 found it to be beneficial to the morality of our 
 people, and while perhaps it is, as you have 
 described it, refined in its cruelty, it is the law 
 and as such we respect it. Guards, remove 
 the prisoner." 
 
 I was now taken back to my dungeon to 
 await my fate. 
 
 After I was left alone, I lay down on the 
 floor and slept the sleep of the exhausted. What 
 hour it was when I awoke, I cannot tell ; but I 
 found the dungeon lighted with a glow lamp, 
 and five men of the guide type sitting around 
 me. After I awoke, I continued to look at them 
 with apathetic indifference. I wondered what 
 
298 meda : 
 
 they were in my company for ; but did not 
 trouble to ask. I noticed that they had several 
 curious-looking instruments with them, and it 
 passed through my mind that these might be 
 instruments of torture, but even to this I was 
 indifferent. At last, one who seemed to be the 
 chief amongst them, came to me, and said in 
 Latin, "Arise, I wish to instruct you in the use 
 of these instruments before you take them 
 away with you as your sole and only friends. 
 They are friends that will be true to you for 
 evermore." I told him not to trouble me, but 
 he persisted, and for the sake of getting rid of 
 him, I stood up. 
 
 Then he said : — " I hold a most honourable 
 and responsible position in the State, I am 
 chief executioner. Although I do not cut off 
 heads nor yet hang culprits by the neck, as I 
 am told the ancients did, I cut off their connec- 
 tion with the earth, as effectually as if I severed 
 their vertebrae or closed their wind-pipes. My 
 life is devoted to science — that glorious science 
 that teaches men all things. Were you a 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 299 
 
 learned and scientific man, I would give you 
 quick despatch, you would go up like a rocket. 
 In your case the court has given instructions 
 that on account of the greatness of your ignor- 
 ance, or as they put it, your having through 
 ignorance committed a terrible sin, your 
 punishment is not to be so great as it other- 
 wise would have been. In fact, young man, 
 you must be a great favourite with the judges, 
 as they have instructed me to supply you with 
 the means of guiding yourself in the air and 
 through space, and it is for the purpose of 
 instructing you in the use of certain instru- 
 ments that I am here with my assistants. 
 Now, hurry up ! we have not long to devote to 
 you, as time flies, do what we will to control 
 its action." 
 
 I went to him. He first let me see what he 
 termed the insulator. " The use of this instru- 
 ment," he said, " is to destroy the earth's 
 attraction." In a playful way, he continued : — ■ 
 " This is my axe, this is my rope," and he 
 patted and fondled it as if it were some living 
 
300 MEDA : 
 
 pet, for which he had a great affection. 
 " Now, culprit, I will give you a practical illus- 
 tration of its use." So saying, he took the 
 instrument, which resembled a great metallic 
 belt, and secured it around my waist by means 
 of a spring and lock, his assistants holding me 
 all the time. " Now," he said, " I will secure 
 this string to your feet, and when you are 
 ready we will pass one end of it through this 
 ring which is secured to the floor. In a little 
 I am going to turn on the exciter, and when 
 this is done you will find that you will ascend. 
 Now, I will provide you with guiding power 
 and explain its use ; " and so saying, he 
 fastened two metallic strings to my belt, one 
 on the right hand side, and the other to the 
 left hand side. These strings were about a 
 yard long, and one end was provided with a 
 bracelet having a valve case or ball about two- 
 and-a-half inches in diameter secured to it. 
 He clasped the bracelets around my wrists so 
 that one of the balls lay in the palm of each 
 hand. I noticed that each ball was provided 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 301 
 
 with two buttons placed in such a position as 
 to allow the fingers when closed to press on 
 one or other or both of them. My instructor 
 said : — " No doubt you understand all about 
 these lines of force, seeing that you are a 
 friend of the Recorder. Well, if you press the 
 top button on the left hand globe you will go 
 to the left ; and if you press the top button on 
 the right hand ball you will go to the right, at 
 the angles of the lines of force in whatever 
 altitude you may be in. If you wish to steer a 
 mid-course, then press both buttons in both 
 balls equally, and you can deviate your course, 
 more or less, from one side to the other by 
 more or less pressing the buttons. Although 
 this dungeon is not very high, you will be able 
 to put my instructions to a practical test." He 
 took the string he had previously fastened to 
 my feet, and passing it through a bronze ring 
 in the floor, secured it ; then he went to my 
 back and said, " I am now going to excite your 
 girdle." I felt him moving some kind of a 
 handle at my back, calling at the same time 
 
302 meda : 
 
 to his assistants to let me go ; they did so, and 
 immediately I sprang as it were into the air, 
 the string bringing me to an anchor, with a 
 jerk that showed the force with which I had 
 ascended. I did not rest vertically, but I 
 found that I was held by the string at an 
 angle to the floor, as if I were pulled by the 
 heels by some moving body. He now told 
 me to press the right hand button, and in 
 doing so, I veered around to the right, and 
 when I pressed the left hand I veered to 
 the left. I also noticed that as I pressed 
 the buttons the strain on my anchorage 
 became greater, until my ancles seemed almost 
 cut through ; so I at once desisted, as I thought 
 my feet would be cut off by the cord. I was 
 now at such an angle to the ground that my 
 face nearly touched it, and there was a rush of 
 something past me that made me feel as though 
 I was standing in a hurricane. Possibly it was 
 the effect of the passing lines of force by which I 
 was now influenced. Speed of thought enabled 
 me to take in the whole situation. This girdle 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 303 
 
 of mine being excited by turning the handle, 
 had destroyed the force of gravity, and this 
 force being destroyed, I was trying to get away 
 from the earth, while I at the same time was 
 being dragged by the string attached to the 
 ring in the floor, at a tremendous speed by the 
 earth's motion. Had the string broken I would 
 of a certainty have been smashed to atoms 
 against the roof or walls of the dungeon ; and 
 I could see that when I pressed the buttons, I 
 brought the lines of force into play, and was 
 drawn by this mysterious power in an opposite 
 direction to the earth's rotation, which added 
 to the strain on the string. I begged to be 
 taken down, and this curious specimen of an 
 executioner said, " Oh yes ! certainly, friend ; 
 I can do that now, as such are my instructions ; 
 but to-morrow I will let you loose for ever and 
 ever, in the same way as I have released a 
 number of criminals before. You see we have 
 no room here for people who disrespect or dis- 
 obey our just and wise laws. We don't allow 
 even their bones or ashes to remain to pollute 
 
304 
 
 MEDA : 
 
 the earth." He turned the handle in my girdle 
 again, and I fell flat on the floor, bruising my 
 face and chest against it ; but after this first 
 taste of the terrible punishment that was in 
 store for me, I wished that I had been killed 
 outright by the fall. The executioner now 
 removed his ingenious but horrible apparatus 
 from me, and carried it away with him, leaving 
 two of his assistants in charge. I tried to pass 
 away the time by speaking to these creatures, 
 but this was a hopeless task. They had but few 
 ideas except about executions ; this evidently 
 was their specialty, and they stuck to it. 
 
 Broken-hearted, and worn out in mind and 
 in body, and in very soul, I retired to a corner 
 of the dungeon, and threw myself down on the 
 floor, and there I started for the hundredth 
 time to try and unravel the mystery of my 
 position. My recollections of my first life, 
 my first wife, and my children, were all mixed 
 up in a mysterious jumble with modern habits 
 and customs, modern language, music, art, and 
 science. Where one begun or the other ended, 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE, 305 
 
 or how I orot mixed with both I could not tell ; 
 all I knew was that I was miserable, yes, utterly 
 miserable. I prayed to God to save me from a 
 continuance of this horrible trial, or I should go 
 mad. How my brain stood it all, I can never 
 explain. I was racked, worn, and miserable in 
 mind, still I often thought of Meda. I never 
 thought ill of her, and seemed to mix her with 
 my earliest life. I thought I had known her as 
 a child ; I thought she was my Mary, my first 
 wife ; I could not disassociate her from every 
 incident in my many troubles. Sleep I could 
 not, rest I could not, but lay on the floor in the 
 veriest and most abject misery, through the 
 long dreary hours of waiting. Had I been 
 condemned to death, I should have prized 
 every moment ; but being condemned to a 
 long weary life floating about in endless space, 
 I moaned aloud at the duration of time. At 
 times a moment of calm would come ; and then 
 I would begin to regret that I had so soon got 
 into this trouble which compelled me to leave 
 the modern world before I had visited all the 
 
306 
 
 MEDA 
 
 great seats of intelligence in America, Australia, 
 Africa, India, and Europe. I had at one time 
 lived in the fond hope that I should have a 
 voyage in those wonderful aerial and naval 
 vessels along with Meda ; I had hoped to be 
 able to study modern navigation ; I had hoped 
 to be able to investigate the principles of the 
 mysterious forces that man had now summoned 
 to his aid. I felt I had lost the chance of 
 making use of all the valuable opportunities 
 that I expected to have. And yet it was not 
 my fault ; it was the fault of that miserable hag 
 of a woman who would insist on making me 
 speak of myself. I believed she was a fiend in 
 woman's clothing, sent to lead me to ruin by 
 her master, the devil. I cried out in agony : — 
 " Oh Lord ! excuse my presumption, but why 
 do you allow these fiends to enter into the form 
 of women and tempt us and lead us astray ? " 
 I no sooner had said this than I felt full of 
 remorse. Why should I blame anyone more 
 than myself ? Why should men blame women ? 
 Are they not worse, yes, far worse themselves ? 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 307 
 
 But I was in such a highly strung, nervous and 
 exhausted state that I was not answerable for 
 what I thought, said, or did. I remember not 
 what took place after this, until I was led to 
 my execution. I must have swooned away. 
 
308 med a : 
 
 PART XV. 
 
 THE next thing that I recollect was being 
 conscious of beino- led out of the dun- 
 geon, and taken away to a hill. Around the 
 top of the hill was a multitude of men, in the 
 centre of which was a number of elders who 
 formed a ring on the most elevated portion of 
 the ground. I was taken into the centre of 
 the ring of elders, amongst whom I now noticed 
 the Recorder, looking years older than when 
 I saw him last. He was bowed down with 
 grief for me ; yet I could see that while he loved 
 and grieved for me ; and while he loved his 
 daughter, his love and respect for his duty to 
 the laws of his country were greater, yes, far 
 greater than any considerations such as these. 
 I felt my respect for this large-minded, noble, 
 yet modest man growing greater and greater ; 
 I felt that in him, at least, was engrafted a 
 noble, generous and right-minded nature, that 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 309 
 
 one must respect, that one must admire, that 
 one must love. The sight of his sorrow caused 
 me to cast my dejection aside. I tried to look 
 cheerful to cheer him ; I tried to look happy to 
 make him happy. 
 
 An elder came up to me and said : " Young 
 man, have you any further reasons to bring 
 forward as to why your sentence should not 
 be carried out ? You have been tried before 
 our judges, and they have found you guilty 
 according to the laws of our people." 
 
 I replied: "Sir, I feel that I am according to 
 yours laws found guilty of a great crime, and I 
 feel, looking at my sentence from your point of 
 view, that it is a just one. I blame no one in 
 this country for what has taken place, nor can 
 I blame myself. What I have done, has been 
 done in ignorance ; and I feel that while it is a 
 transgression in the eyes of your laws, it is not 
 a sin in the eyes of the great Creator, to whom 
 all owe their being." 
 
 " Now," he said, " your sentence must be 
 carried out ; are you prepared ? " 
 
310 meda : 
 
 I replied, "I am ready. — Am I to be allowed 
 to see my wife before I leave ? " 
 
 He said : " The law forbids any women to be 
 present at such scenes as this." 
 
 " Then," I said, " bring it to a close with all 
 speed." 
 
 The executioner now advanced towards me, 
 putting on the same apparatus that I had on 
 before, but no cord was tied to my feet this time. 
 His four assistants laid hold of me, and at a 
 word from the leading elder, he turned the 
 handle of the exciter, and I darted into the air, 
 the earth whirling past me at the rate of a 
 thousand miles per hour. At first I was quite 
 dazed, but gradually I began to regain con- 
 sciousness, I saw land, and hills, and lakes, and 
 valleys, and oceans passing beneath me in quick 
 succession, and gradually growing more and 
 more indistinct. Sometimes I was lost in 
 clouds ; sometimes I was in pure, pure atmo- 
 sphere ; I seemed to float onward and upwards. 
 At times I imagined that some one situated like 
 myself followed in my path, but I could not 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 311 
 
 turn round to see if such was the case, as I had 
 forgotten for the time the executioner's instruc- 
 tions, so I just floated on and on through space. 
 I experienced no pain, no thirst, no hunger, no 
 pleasure. I lived as it were in space, devoid 
 of all feelinof. The nicrht came on ; I could now 
 see no earth, but I saw stars innumerable, — 
 such bright, such beautiful gems of the heavens. 
 Was it possible that I should float away to one 
 of these ? Was it possible that I should find 
 there another race, another people, more or 
 perhaps less intellectual than those I had just 
 left ? With such thoughts my mind was filled, 
 and with such thoughts passing through my 
 brain I be^an while floating about to dose. I 
 felt a pleasant, happy feeling of stupor coming 
 over me. I roused myself however by a great 
 effort, and seeing a figure floating before me 
 some hundred yards ahead, I began to examine 
 it. It was like the figure of an old man with a 
 lonor flowing white beard that extended below 
 his feet. Although it was now night, it was not 
 quite dark ; I could see distinctly all before me. 
 
312 meda : 
 
 I did not seem to get any nearer to this figure, 
 yet I must have floated about with it in view 
 for some hours. Its hands were outstretched, 
 and its ringers and the nails were of prodigious 
 length, while the nails of its toes hung below 
 the feet. I now began to remember the 
 instructions given by the executioner as to 
 the use and method of working the guiding- 
 apparatus ; and my thoughts once started in 
 this direction, all my instructions came to my 
 memory in an instant. I remembered now his 
 explanation about pressing the buttons of the 
 right or left hand ball. I thought I should try 
 pressing my right hand fingers on the buttons 
 first. The moment I did this, I felt as if I had 
 laid hold of an invisible rope travelling at a 
 great speed. I was pulled away at an angle 
 towards the right, and so fast was I moving 
 that my body assumed a horizontal position. 
 I was, as it were, flying forward. When I 
 started, the figure was directly in front of me, 
 but being drawn by this line of force towards 
 the right, I passed at lightning speed to the 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 313 
 
 right of the figure. I had hoped to be able to 
 come up to it, and find out what kind of man it 
 was, if man it could be called ; but when I 
 came near it, I had not the presence of mind to 
 take my fingers off the buttons. When I was 
 passing, however, I saw more clearly that the 
 figure was truly that of an old man. He held 
 out both his hands, as it were, to stop me, but 
 I shot past out of his reach. I could see that 
 his great gaunt limbs were quite naked ; he had 
 the same apparatus around his waist that I 
 wore, but he evidently was not provided with 
 any guiding power. I lifted my fingers off the 
 buttons when I was well past him, and then 
 came to a stop, assuming once again a vertical 
 position. I tried several times to turn towards 
 him, but this was impossible. Having over- 
 shot my mark, I could not now get any 
 information from him ; it was clear to me 
 that I must wait for another chance meeting. 
 So I touched the left hand buttons, and I 
 sped away at an angle to the left ; I then 
 touched both, and I was drawn straight ahead. 
 
314 MEDA : 
 
 I found considerable pleasure in experiment- 
 ing with this mysterious power that pulled me 
 about until I at last, by practice, became accus- 
 tomed to its management, and could travel in 
 any direction I liked within the angles of the 
 lines of force. But this became very trying 
 work ; my arms felt as though they were drawn 
 out of their sockets. I wished I could now 
 meet another figure floating about, as I would 
 be able to converse with it, if it spoke any 
 language that I understood ; but I had lost my 
 chance, at least, for the present. I could see 
 nothing but the stars and the moon that looked 
 terribly bright and distinct ; I imagined I saw a 
 second moon below me, but its outline was 
 only dimly bright. Could it be possible that 
 this was the earth that I had left ? If it was so, 
 how could I ever get back to it again ? Was I 
 forever to float about in space like that poor 
 desolate figure that I had passed ? Would my 
 beard grow like his and stream about me as his 
 did ? Would my limbs become gaunt ? Would 
 my eyes become fixed and glazed as his were ? 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 315 
 
 Yes, such must be my miserable fate ; I must 
 float about in this terrible solitude for all time. 
 Here my spirit rose in indignation for the 
 hundredth time against this cruel punishment. 
 Death by torture, death by burning, anything 
 would be preferable to this. But I said to 
 myself, I have one resource left, and that is the 
 power of motion. I grieve to say that I tried 
 to kill myself by this power. I clutched my 
 right hand on the buttons and away I sped to 
 the right ; then I would clench the left hand 
 buttons, and away I went to the left, diving 
 and twisting from right to left and then from 
 left to right ; I would close both hands, and off 
 I started straight ahead. I went on thus with- 
 out ceasing for hours, until I became perfectly 
 exhausted. I was unable to do anything now, 
 so I stood at rest. 
 
 [I had now been many days sitting in 
 Folingsby's garden, engaged in writing his 
 adventures. As his health had not improved, 
 I feared that the excitement of relating what he 
 
316 meda : 
 
 had seen in space would be too much for him. 
 In fact, his wife had given me several scold- 
 ings, and she said that I was encouraging him 
 to talk nonsense and injuring his health. I 
 noticed also that when he came to relate what 
 he saw in space, his manner quite changed, and 
 he spoke like one in a dream, with his eyes 
 fixed stedfastly, as if he saw all he described. 
 
 Although highly interested, I felt it my duty 
 to Folingsby and his wife not to allow him to 
 continue relating his floating experiences for 
 the present, but rather encouraged him to keep 
 them until he was quite well and strong. I at 
 last got him persuaded to skip all this por- 
 tion of his experiences, and to be content with 
 relating how he got released from his curious 
 position.] 
 
 " Well," he said, " I suppose I must jump 
 to the conclusion, since you and Mary have 
 conspired against me, and I am too weak to 
 resist you. After floating about for months 
 and months, and seeing many strange things, 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 317 
 
 I felt one night as if I were half asleep 
 and half awake. I thought I heard voices 
 whispering : I thought I felt a kindly hand 
 bathing my brow ; and I thought some one was 
 feeling my pulse. I heard a woman's voice 
 say, ' Doctor, he is better ; do say my darling- 
 is better,' And then I heard a strong, kindly 
 voice say : ' Yes, the crisis is past, I can now 
 give you some hope, but the greatest prudence 
 must be exercised, a relapse would have terrible 
 results. You must now go to bed, and leave 
 the nurse to attend to the patient.' 
 
 "' But I cannot leave my darling, doctor,' the 
 voice pleaded. 
 
 " ' I insist on your doing so,' was the reply. 
 And then I listened and thought I heard them 
 retiring. Where had I heard that woman's 
 voice before ? It was quite familiar to me, I 
 knew it ; yes, it was my first dear wife Mary's 
 voice. I was sure of this ; how could it be, 
 though ? She has been dead more than three 
 thousand years. What has become of me ? 
 No, it is not her voice. I tried to open my 
 
318 mkda : 
 
 eyes ; I did so with great difficulty. I looked 
 around and saw I was in a room the exact 
 counterpart of the one I had occupied in the 
 latter days of my first life. Who was that dark 
 man standing at the foot of the bed looking so 
 grave ? I knew his face. Yes, yes, that is 
 good, kind, doctor Brown, that I knew of old, 
 the same face. I tried to speak, but could not ; 
 I tried to move, but could not stir, I felt quite 
 faint. The doctor came up to the head of the 
 bed, and laid his hand on my forehead, saying : 
 
 " ' Thank God, you are better, Folingsby ; 
 but you must be very prudent and do not 
 speak on any account ; you have had a terrible 
 time of it. Take this.' He poured some- 
 thing down my throat from a drinking cup, and 
 I again became unconscious. 
 
 " My next recollection of consciousness was 
 a feeling of soreness and tiredness all over my 
 body. My eyes were closed. I was trying to 
 move myself, but I felt so worn-out, so tired, 
 and so weak that I had not energy to do any- 
 thing. My mouth was dry and hard ; when I 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 319 
 
 moved my tongue about, it seemed to rattle 
 against my teeth. My very teeth appeared 
 loose in my gums. I could not breathe 
 through my nose, my head seemed stuffed 
 up. What could it all mean ? I had a 
 distinct recollection of having revisited my 
 old home, of having heard my first wife 
 speak, of having seen my old doctor. What 
 had come over me now ? Had I gone away 
 again on the lines of force ? One time on 
 the blue track, and another time on the red 
 track, had I got away from my old home 
 again, and jumped ahead three thousand 
 years ? 
 
 ' ; I groaned aloud in perfect misery ; and 
 immediately a soft, gentle hand was placed on 
 my brow, bathing it with perfume ; then, drop 
 by drop, moisture was let fall between my lips, 
 but not a word was spoken. I moved my 
 tongue now with greater freedom ; it got 
 gradually moist and pliable, and my teeth 
 seemed to get more securely fixed. I could not 
 speak, nor could I open my eyes, but my sense 
 
320 meda : 
 
 of hearing was most acute, and I was conscious 
 that there was only one person in the room, 
 and that that person was a woman. No hands 
 save those of a woman could be so gentle and 
 kindly as those hands were. They were not 
 those kind of hands that are hard all over ; 
 hands that when they try to caress you, only 
 dab at you or probe you, as if they were made 
 of a combination of jointed bits of wood, with- 
 out feeling or sense of touch. No, these were 
 nice, soft, gentle, sympathetic hands ; the 
 fingers did not move in rows like a company of 
 soldiers or the teeth of a rake. No, they 
 moved individually, guided in the gentleness of 
 their touch by the veriest love in sympathy with 
 suffering. You must, dear reader, have had 
 experience in hands. What a deal of character 
 there is displayed by this member! I would 
 know a gentle heart at once by a hand shaking. 
 I don't care how big, how clumsy the hand is, 
 if there is sympathy in the grip there is a 
 sympathetic heart behind. 
 
 " As I lay in this weak but conscious state, 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 321 
 
 I wondered who this could be that was attend- 
 ing to my wants with such gentle care. My 
 first thought was of Meda ; I thought she must 
 have followed me up into the clouds and was 
 now nursing me ; but no, that was not the case, 
 those hands were not hers. I began now to 
 think of Meda. What a curious creature she 
 was, with her large head, and big chest! How 
 did I ever love her ? What queer people I 
 had been with ! And how cruel they had been 
 to me to send me off to the skies in the way 
 they did ! But, after all. I thought it was a 
 good thing they did so, as it got me clear away 
 from Meda. Oh, how cruel was this thought ! 
 Poor Meda ! did she love me ? I certainly 
 loved her ; but somehow I have changed. I 
 wonder where I am ? 
 
 " Then I began thinking of my early life, my 
 first life, my first love, my Mary, my own wife ! 
 I tried several times to speak, but could not. 
 The moisture was kindly and regularly applied 
 to my lips ; I got more strength ; I managed to 
 mutter the word 'Mary,' and to my great delight 
 
322 meda : 
 
 I heard as in a whisper, — ' Hush, love, your 
 Mary is beside you.' 
 
 " What did it all mean? Had I not died? 
 Had I not been born again more than three 
 thousand years later ? Had I not lived with 
 the people of the future ? Had I not been 
 married a second time to Meda ? Had these 
 people not acted cruelly towards me ? Had I 
 not floated away into interminable space ? And 
 had I not seen terrible and interesting things 
 there ? How was it now that a voice said, 
 'Your Mary is beside you?' Was I dreaming? 
 Was I mad ? What was it ? Yet those hands, 
 that gentle, kindly sympathetic touch ; yes, that 
 was Mary's, my Mary's hand, I should know it 
 amid a thousand. I again essayed to speak, 
 and at last managed to say, ' My Mary, are you 
 there ? ' 
 
 '"Yes, dear one, I am here, but oh, Kenneth 
 darling, do be quiet. I will get such a scolding 
 from the doctor if I speak or allow you to speak, 
 so do be quiet, like a good, dear fellow.' 
 
 " I said, ' Give me your hand.' She placed 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 323 
 
 her hand in mine, and then I knew it was not 
 a dream ; I knew that wherever I was, Mary- 
 was with me, in reality, in truth, yes, in very 
 life ; I felt happy, so truly happy, that my 
 exhausted state mattered not to me now. I 
 then said, 'Where am I, Mary ? ' 
 
 " ' You are in your own room, in your own 
 house, near your own garden, dear ; but it is the 
 middle of the night now, and all is darkness, 
 and the fact is, Kenneth dear, you must go to 
 sleep. I will not speak another word to you ; it 
 is, the doctor says, as much as your life is 
 worth ; there now.' 
 
 " I knew from experience that it was useless 
 for me to say another word to Mary when she 
 wound up with ' There now.' There was no 
 use in trying to move her, so I tried to please 
 her, and at last I fell into a gentle slumber, 
 and did not awake again until the sun was 
 shining brightly. Then I was able to open my 
 eyes and examine my surroundings. I could 
 not lift my head from my pillow I was so weak, 
 but before me, asleep in an easy chair, was 
 
324 meda : 
 
 my Mary. But oh ! how changed. Her face 
 bore a worn-out expression ; her cheeks, that I 
 had known as blooming and fresh, were now 
 thin and hollow ; her whole figure seemed hag- 
 gard and exhausted ; her sleep seemed broken 
 and restless. But although my mouth was dry 
 and parched, I would not for all the water in the 
 world have disturbed her, so I lay and watched 
 and thought. I could hear the birds singing 
 such lovely songs of love ; ah ! that I could but 
 look out through the window and see them. I 
 could hear the gentle breeze rustling amongst 
 the trees. All seemed love; all seemed pleasure; 
 all seemed happiness. At last Mary awoke, 
 and starting up as if she had committed some 
 sin, she came over to me, and seeing my eyes 
 open she burst into tears, and stooping, kissed 
 me. The hot tears I knew were not tears of 
 sorrow, but tears of joy. I wept also ; my very 
 weakness and joy caused me to be overcome. 
 
 " It was three days after this that I got a 
 short account of what had taken place. I had 
 had a very serious illness that for a long time 
 
A TALE OF THE FUTURE. 325 
 
 puzzled the doctor. I lay like one dead, so like, 
 that at one time the doctor thought I was gone. 
 This state of coma, it appears, lasted for five 
 weeks ; and the doctor told me that had it not 
 been for the untiring care of my dear wife I 
 could not have lived. For weeks and weeks 
 she had sat up with me, day and night ; all 
 wondered that she stood this terrible fatigue, 
 but her devoted loving devotion pulled me 
 through. For my part I have never since been 
 the same man. My conviction is that while 
 iriy body lay in that state of coma my spirit has 
 been away in the far future, gleaning informa- 
 tion to lay before the people of 1888, a warning 
 to them of what is to come. 
 
 " You have prevented me telling you what I 
 saw while floating in space, but this will keep 
 until I am stronger. I am glad I have been 
 able to tell you what I have told, as it is a 
 great relief to my mind." 
 
 FINIS. 
 
r 
 
 . . n