Speaker 1: Anthem by Anne Ran, chapter one. It is a sin
Speaker 1: to write this. It is a sin to think words
Speaker 1: no others think, and to put them down on a
Speaker 1: paper no others are to see. It is base and evil.
Speaker 1: It is as if we are speaking alone to no
Speaker 1: ears but our own. And we know well that there
Speaker 1: is no transgression blacker than to do or think alone.
Speaker 1: We have broken the laws. The laws say that men
Speaker 1: may not write unless the Council of Vocations bid them.
Speaker 1: So may we be forgiven. But this is not the
Speaker 1: only sin upon us. We have committed a greater crime.
Speaker 1: And for this crime there is no name. What punishment
Speaker 1: awaits us if it be discovered, we know not, for
Speaker 1: no such crime has come in the memory of men,
Speaker 1: and there are no laws to provide for it. It is
Speaker 1: dark here. The flame of the candle stands still in
Speaker 1: the air. Nothing moves in this tunnel save our hand
Speaker 1: on the paper. We are alone here under the earth.
Speaker 1: It is a fearful word alone. The laws say that
Speaker 1: none among men may be alone, ever and at any time,
Speaker 1: for this is the great transgression and the root of
Speaker 1: all evil. But we have broken many laws, and now
Speaker 1: there is nothing here save our one body and it
Speaker 1: is strange to see only two legs stretched on the ground,
Speaker 1: and on the wall before us the shadow of our
Speaker 1: one head. The walls are cracked, and water runs upon
Speaker 1: them in thin threads, without sound, black and glistening as blood.
Speaker 1: We stole the candle from the larder of the home
Speaker 1: of the street sweepers. We shall be sentenced to ten
Speaker 1: years in the palace of corrective detention if it be discovered.
Speaker 1: But this matters not. It matters only that the light
Speaker 1: is precious, and we should not waste it to write
Speaker 1: when we need it for that work, which is our crime.
Speaker 1: Nothing matters save the work, our secret, our evil, our
Speaker 1: precious work. Still we must also write, for may the
Speaker 1: council have mercy upon us. We wish to speak for
Speaker 1: once to no ears, but our own. Our name is
Speaker 1: equality seven two five two one, as it is written
Speaker 1: on the iron bracelet which all men wear on their
Speaker 1: left wrist, with their names upon it. We are twenty
Speaker 1: one years old. We are six feet tall, and this
Speaker 1: is a burden, for there are not many men who
Speaker 1: are six feet tall. Ever, have the teachers and leaders
Speaker 1: pointed to us and frowned and said, there is evil
Speaker 1: in your bones? Equality seven two five two one. For
Speaker 1: your body has grown beyond the bodies of your brothers.
Speaker 1: But we cannot change our bones nor our body. We
Speaker 1: were born with a curse has always driven us to
Speaker 1: thoughts which are forbidden. It has always given us wishes
Speaker 1: which men may not wish. We know that we are evil,
Speaker 1: but there is no will in us and no power
Speaker 1: to resist it. This is our wonder and our secret fear,
Speaker 1: that we know and do not resist. We strive to
Speaker 1: be like all of our brother men, for all men
Speaker 1: must be alike. Over the portals of the Palace of
Speaker 1: the World Council, there are words cut in marble which
Speaker 1: we are required to repeat to ourselves whenever we are tempted.
Speaker 1: We are one and all, and all in one. There
Speaker 1: are no men but only the Great We one, indivisible
Speaker 1: and forever. We repeat this to ourselves, but it helps
Speaker 1: us not. These words were cut long ago. There is
Speaker 1: a green mold in the grooves of the letters, and
Speaker 1: yellow streaks in the marbles, which come from more years
Speaker 1: than men could count. And these words are truth, for
Speaker 1: they are written on the Palace of the World Council,
Speaker 1: and the World Council is the body of all truth.
Speaker 1: Thus has it been ever since the Great Rebirth, and
Speaker 1: farther back than that no memory can reach. But we
Speaker 1: must never speak of the times before the Great Rebirth,
Speaker 1: else we are sentenced to three years in the palace
Speaker 1: of corrective attention. It's only the old ones who whisper
Speaker 1: about it. In the evenings, in the home of the useless,
Speaker 1: they whisper many strange things, of the towers which rose
Speaker 1: to the sky in those unmentionable times, and of the
Speaker 1: wagons which moved without horses, and of the lights which
Speaker 1: burned without flame. But those times were evil, and those
Speaker 1: times passed away when men saw the great truth, which
Speaker 1: is this, that all men are won, and that there
Speaker 1: is no will save the will of all men. Together,
Speaker 1: all men are good and wise. It is only we
Speaker 1: equality seven two five two one, we alone who were
Speaker 1: born with a curse, for we are not like our brothers.
Speaker 1: And as we look back upon our life, we see
Speaker 1: that it has ever been thus, and that it has
Speaker 1: brought us, step by step to our last supreme transgression,
Speaker 1: our crime of crimes. Hidden here under the ground, we
Speaker 1: remember the home of the infants, where we lived till
Speaker 1: we were five years old, together with all the children
Speaker 1: of the city who had been born in the same year.
Speaker 1: The sleeping halls there were white and clean and bare
Speaker 1: of all things save one hundred beds. We were just
Speaker 1: like all our brothers. Then, save for one transgression, we
Speaker 1: fought with our bathers. There were few offenses blacker than
Speaker 1: to fight with our brothers at any age and for
Speaker 1: any cause whatsoever. The counsel of the home told us so,
Speaker 1: And of all the children of that year, we were
Speaker 1: locked in the cellar most often. When we were five
Speaker 1: years old, we were sent to the home of the students,
Speaker 1: where they were ten wards for our ten years of learning.
Speaker 1: Men must learn till they reached their fifteenth year. Then
Speaker 1: they go to work in the home of the students.
Speaker 1: We arose when the big bell rang in the tower,
Speaker 1: and we went to our beds. When it rang again,
Speaker 1: before we removed our garments, we stood in the great
Speaker 1: sleeping hall, and we raised our right arms, and we
Speaker 1: sat all together with the three teachers at the head.
Speaker 1: We are nothing mankind is all by the grace of
Speaker 1: our brothers, or we allowed our lives. We exist through
Speaker 1: by and for our brothers, who are the state Amen.
Speaker 1: Then we slept the sleeping halls were white and clean
Speaker 1: and bare of all things save one hundred beds. We
Speaker 1: Equality seven two five two one were not happy in
Speaker 1: those years in the home of the students. It was
Speaker 1: not that the learning was too hard for us. It
Speaker 1: was that the learning was too easy. This is a
Speaker 1: great sin to be born with a head which is
Speaker 1: too quick. It is not good to be different from
Speaker 1: our brothers, but it is evil to be superior to them.
Speaker 1: The teachers told us so, and they frowned when they
Speaker 1: looked upon us. So we fought against this curse. We
Speaker 1: tried to forget our lessons, but we always remembered. We
Speaker 1: tried not to understand what the teachers taught, but we
Speaker 1: always understood it before the teachers had spoken. We looked
Speaker 1: upon Union five three nine nine two, who were a pair,
Speaker 1: oh boy with only half a brain, and we tried
Speaker 1: to say and do as they did, that we might
Speaker 1: be like them, like Union five three nine nine two.
Speaker 1: But somehow the teachers knew that we were not, and
Speaker 1: we were lashed more often than all the other children.
Speaker 1: The teachers were just for they had been appointed by
Speaker 1: the councils, and the counsels are the voice of all justice,
Speaker 1: for they are the voice of all men. And if sometimes,
Speaker 1: in the secret darkness of our heart we regret that
Speaker 1: which befell us on our fifteenth birthday, we knew that
Speaker 1: it was through our own guilt we had broken a law,
Speaker 1: for we had not paid heed to the words of
Speaker 1: our teachers. The teachers had said to us, all, dare
Speaker 1: not choose in your mind the work you would like
Speaker 1: to do. When you leave the home of the students,
Speaker 1: you shall do what the Council of Vocations shall prescribe
Speaker 1: for you. The Council of Vocation knows in its great
Speaker 1: wisdom where you are needed by your brother men, better
Speaker 1: than you can know it in your unworthy little minds.
Speaker 1: And if you are not needed by your brother men,
Speaker 1: there is no reason for you to burden the earth
Speaker 1: with your bodies. We knew this well in the years
Speaker 1: of our childhood. But our curse broke our will. We
Speaker 1: were guilty, and we confessed it here. We were guilty
Speaker 1: of the great transgression of preference. We preferred some work
Speaker 1: and some lessons to others. We did not listen well
Speaker 1: to the history of the councils elected since the Great Rebirth,
Speaker 1: but we loved the science of things we wish to know.
Speaker 1: We wish to know about all the things which make
Speaker 1: the earth around us. We ask so many questions that
Speaker 1: the teachers forbade it. We think that there are mysteries
Speaker 1: in the sky and under the water, and in the
Speaker 1: plant which grow. But the Council of Scholars has said
Speaker 1: that there are no mysteries. And the Council of Scholars
Speaker 1: knows all things. And we learned much from our teachers.
Speaker 1: We learned that the earth is flat, and that the
Speaker 1: sun revolves around it, which causes the day and night.
Speaker 1: We learned the names of all the winds which blow
Speaker 1: over the seas and push the sails of our great ships.
Speaker 1: We learned how to bleed men, to cure them of
Speaker 1: all ailments. We loved the science of things. And in
Speaker 1: the darkness, in the secret hour, when we awoke in
Speaker 1: the night, and there were no brothers around us, but
Speaker 1: only their shapes in the beds and their snores, we
Speaker 1: closed our eyes, and we held our lips shut, and
Speaker 1: we stopped our breath, that no shudder might let our
Speaker 1: brothers see or hear or guess. And we thought that
Speaker 1: we wished to be sent to the home of the
Speaker 1: scholars when our time would come. All of the great
Speaker 1: modern inventions come from the home of scholars, such as
Speaker 1: the newest one, which was found only one hundred years ago,
Speaker 1: of how to make candles from wax and string, also
Speaker 1: how to make glass, which is put in our windows
Speaker 1: to protect us from the rain. To find these things,
Speaker 1: the scholars must study the earth and learn from the rivers,
Speaker 1: from the sands, from the winds and the rocks. And
Speaker 1: if we went to the home of scholars, we could
Speaker 1: learn from these. Also we could ask questions of these,
Speaker 1: for they do not forbid questions, and questions give us
Speaker 1: no rest. We know not why our curse makes us seek.
Speaker 1: We know not whatever and ever, but we cannot resist it.
Speaker 1: It whispers to us that there are great things on
Speaker 1: this earth of ours, that we must know them. We
Speaker 1: ask why must we know? But it has no answer
Speaker 1: to give us. We must know that we may know.
Speaker 1: So we wished to be sent to the home of scholars.
Speaker 1: We wished it so much that our hands trembled under
Speaker 1: the blankets in the night, and we bit our arm
Speaker 1: to stop that other pain which we could not endure.
Speaker 1: It was evil, and we dared not face our brothers
Speaker 1: in the morning, for men may wish nothing for themselves,
Speaker 1: and we were punished when the Council of Vocations came
Speaker 1: to give us our life mandates, which tell those who
Speaker 1: reached their fifteenth year what their work is to be
Speaker 1: for the rest of their days. The Council of Vocations
Speaker 1: came in on the first day of spring, and they
Speaker 1: sat in the Great Hall, and we who were fifteen,
Speaker 1: and all the teachers came into the Great Hall, and
Speaker 1: the Council of Vocations sat on a high dais, and
Speaker 1: they had but two words to speak to each of
Speaker 1: the students. They called the students' names, and when the
Speaker 1: students stepped before them, one after another, the council said
Speaker 1: carpenter or doctor, or cook or leader. Then each student
Speaker 1: raised their right arm and said, the will of our
Speaker 1: brothers be done. Now. If the council said carpenter or cook,
Speaker 1: the students so assigned go to work and do not
Speaker 1: study any further. But if the council has said Leader,
Speaker 1: then those students go to the home of the Leaders,
Speaker 1: which is the greatest house in the city, for it
Speaker 1: has three stories, and there they study for many years,
Speaker 1: so that they may become candidates and be elected to
Speaker 1: the City Council, and the State Council and the World
Speaker 1: Council by a free and general vote of all men.
Speaker 1: But we wish not to be a leader, even though
Speaker 1: it is a great honor. We wish to be a scholar.
Speaker 1: So we awaited our turn in the Great Hall, and
Speaker 1: then we heard the Council of Vocations call our name
Speaker 1: equality seven two five two One walked to the dais,
Speaker 1: and our legs did not tremble, and we looked up
Speaker 1: at the council. There were five members of the council,
Speaker 1: three of the male gender and two of the female.
Speaker 1: Their hair was white, and their faces were cracked as
Speaker 1: the clay of a dry river bed. They were old.
Speaker 1: They seemed older than the marble of the Temple of
Speaker 1: the World Council. They sat before us, and they did
Speaker 1: not move, and we saw no breath to stir the
Speaker 1: folds of their white togas. But we knew that they
Speaker 1: were alive, for a finger of the hand of the
Speaker 1: oldest rose pointed to us and fell down again. This
Speaker 1: was the only thing which moved, for the lips of
Speaker 1: the oldest did not move. As they said, street sweeper,
Speaker 1: We felt the cords of our neck grow tight as
Speaker 1: our head rose higher to look upon the faces of
Speaker 1: the council, and we were happy. We knew we had
Speaker 1: been guilty, but now we had a way to atone
Speaker 1: for it. We would accept our life mandate, and we
Speaker 1: would work for our brothers gladly and willingly, and we
Speaker 1: would erase our sin against them, which they did not know,
Speaker 1: but we knew, for we were happy and proud of
Speaker 1: ourselves and of the victory over ourselves. We raised our
Speaker 1: right arm and we spoke, and our voice was the clearest,
Speaker 1: the steadiest voice in the hall that day, and we said,
Speaker 1: the will of our brothers be done. And we looked
Speaker 1: straight into the eyes of the council, But their eyes
Speaker 1: were as cold as blue glass buttons. So we went
Speaker 1: into the home of the street sweepers. It is a
Speaker 1: gray house on a narrow street. There is a sun
Speaker 1: dial in the courtyard by which the council of the
Speaker 1: home can tell the hours of the day and when
Speaker 1: to ring the bell. When the bell rings, we arise
Speaker 1: from our beds. The sky is green and cold in
Speaker 1: our windows to the east, and the shadow on the
Speaker 1: sun dial marks off a half hour. While we dress
Speaker 1: and eat our breakfast in the dining hall, where there
Speaker 1: are five long tables with twenty clay plates and twenty
Speaker 1: clay cups on each table. Then we go to work
Speaker 1: in the streets of the city with our brooms and
Speaker 1: our rakes. In five hours, when the sun is high,
Speaker 1: we return to the home and we eat our midday meal,
Speaker 1: for which one half hour is allowed. Then we go
Speaker 1: to work again. In five hours, the shadows are blue
Speaker 1: on the pavements, and the sky is blue with a
Speaker 1: deep brightness which is not bright. We come back to
Speaker 1: have our dinner, which last one hour. Then the bell
Speaker 1: rings and we walk in a straight column to one
Speaker 1: of the city halls for the social meeting. Other columns
Speaker 1: of men arrive from the homes of the different trades.
Speaker 1: The candles are lit, and the councils of the different
Speaker 1: homes stand in a pulpit, and they speak to us
Speaker 1: of our duties and our brother men. Then visiting leaders
Speaker 1: mount the pulpit and they read to us the speeches
Speaker 1: which were made in the city council that day. For
Speaker 1: the city council represents all men, and all men must know.
Speaker 1: Then we sing hymns, the Hymn of Brotherhood, the Hymn
Speaker 1: of Equality, and the hymn of the collective spirit. The
Speaker 1: sky is a soggy purple when we return to the home.
Speaker 1: Then the bell rings, and we walk in a straight
Speaker 1: column to the city theater for three hours of social recreation.
Speaker 1: Their a play is shown upon the stage, with two
Speaker 1: great choruses from the home of the actors, which speak
Speaker 1: and answer all together in two great voices. The plays
Speaker 1: are about toil, and how good it is. Then we
Speaker 1: walk back to the home in a straight column. The
Speaker 1: sky is like a black sieve, pierced by silver drops
Speaker 1: that tremble, ready to burst through. The moths beat against
Speaker 1: the street lanterns. We go to our beds, and we
Speaker 1: sleep till the bell rings again. The sleeping halls are
Speaker 1: white and clean and bare of all things save one
Speaker 1: hundred beds. Thus we have lived each day of four
Speaker 1: years until two springs ago, when our crime happened. Thus
Speaker 1: must all men live until they are forty. At forty
Speaker 1: they're worn out. At forty they are sent to the
Speaker 1: home of the useless, where the old ones live. The
Speaker 1: old ones do not work, for the state takes care
Speaker 1: of them. They sit in the sun and summer, and
Speaker 1: they sit by the fire in winter. They do not
Speaker 1: speak often, for they are weary. The old ones know
Speaker 1: that they are soon to die. When a miracle happens
Speaker 1: and some one lives to be forty five, they are
Speaker 1: the ancient ones, and children stare at them when passing
Speaker 1: by the home of the useless. Such is to be
Speaker 1: our life, as that of all our brothers, and of
Speaker 1: the brothers who came before us. Such would have been
Speaker 1: our life had we not committed our crime, which has
Speaker 1: changed all things for us. And it was our curse
Speaker 1: which drove us to our crime. We had been a
Speaker 1: good street sweeper, and like all our brothers, street sweepers,
Speaker 1: save for our cursed wish to know. We looked too
Speaker 1: long at the stars at night, and at the trees
Speaker 1: and the earth. And when we cleaned the yard of
Speaker 1: the home of the scholars, we gathered the glass vials,
Speaker 1: the pieces of metal, the dried bones which they had discarded.
Speaker 1: We wished to keep these things and to study them,
Speaker 1: but we had no place to hide them. So we
Speaker 1: carried them to the city cesspool, and then we made
Speaker 1: the discovery. It was on a day of the spring
Speaker 1: before last. We street sweepers worked in brigades of three,
Speaker 1: and we were with Union five three nine ninety two.
Speaker 1: They of the half brain, and with internet National for
Speaker 1: eight eight one eight now Union five three nine ninety
Speaker 1: two were a sickly lad, and sometimes they were stricken
Speaker 1: with convulsions, when their mouth froths and their eyes turn white.
Speaker 1: But International four eight eight one eight are different. They
Speaker 1: are tall, strong youth, and in their eyes are like fireflies,
Speaker 1: for there is laughter in their eyes. We cannot look
Speaker 1: upon International four eight eight one eight and not smile
Speaker 1: and answer for this. They were not liked in the
Speaker 1: home of the students, as it were not proper to
Speaker 1: smile without reason. And also they were not liked because
Speaker 1: they took pieces of coal, and they drew pictures upon
Speaker 1: the walls, and they were pictures which made men laugh.
Speaker 1: But it is only our brothers in the home of
Speaker 1: the artists, which are permitted to draw pictures. So International
Speaker 1: four eight eight one eight were sent to the home
Speaker 1: of the street sweepers like ourselves International four eight eight
Speaker 1: one eight, And we are friends. This is an evil
Speaker 1: thing to say, for it is a great transgression, the
Speaker 1: great transgression of preference, to love any among men better
Speaker 1: than the others. Since we must love all men, and
Speaker 1: all men are of our friends, so International four eight
Speaker 1: eight one eight. And we have never spoken of it,
Speaker 1: but we know, we know when we look into each
Speaker 1: other's eyes, and when we look thus without words, we
Speaker 1: both know other things, also, strange things for which there
Speaker 1: are no words. And these things frighten us. So on
Speaker 1: that day of the spring before last Union five three
Speaker 1: nine ninety two, we're stricken with convulsions on the edge
Speaker 1: to the city, near the city theater. We left them
Speaker 1: to lie in the shade of the theater tent, and
Speaker 1: we went with International four eight eight one eight to
Speaker 1: finish our work. We came together to the great ravine
Speaker 1: behind the theater. It is empty save for trees and weeds.
Speaker 1: Behind the ravine there is a plane, and behind the
Speaker 1: plane there lies the uncharted forest, about which men must
Speaker 1: not think. We were gathering the papers and the rags
Speaker 1: which the wind had blown from the theater when we
Speaker 1: saw an iron bar among the weeds. It was old
Speaker 1: and rusted by many rains. We pulled with all our strength,
Speaker 1: but we could not move it. So we called International
Speaker 1: four eight eight one eight, and together we scraped the
Speaker 1: earth around the bar. Of a sudden, the earth fell
Speaker 1: in before us, and we saw an old iron grill
Speaker 1: over a black holee National four eight eight one eight.
Speaker 1: Step back, but we pulled at the grill and it
Speaker 1: gave way. And then we saw iron rings as steps
Speaker 1: leading down a shaft into a darkness without bottom. We
Speaker 1: shall go down, we said to International four eight eight
Speaker 1: one eight. It is forbidden. They answered, We said, the
Speaker 1: Council does not know of this hole, so it cannot
Speaker 1: be forbidden. And they answered, since the Council does not
Speaker 1: know of this hole, there could be no law permitting
Speaker 1: to enter it, and everything which is not permitted by
Speaker 1: law is forbidden. But we said we shall go. Nonetheless,
Speaker 1: they were frightened, but they stood by and watched us go.
Speaker 1: We hung on the iron rings with our hands and
Speaker 1: our feet. We could see nothing below us, and above us.
Speaker 1: The hole open upon the sky grew smaller and smaller,
Speaker 1: till it came to be the size of a button.
Speaker 1: But still we went down. Then our foot touched the ground.
Speaker 1: We rubbed our eyes, for we could not see. Then
Speaker 1: our eyes became used to the darkness, and we could
Speaker 1: not believe what we saw. No man known to us
Speaker 1: could have built this place, nor the men known to
Speaker 1: our brothers who lived before us, and yet it was
Speaker 1: built by men. It was a great tunnel. Its walls
Speaker 1: were hard and smooth to the touch. It felt like stone,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't stone. On the ground there were long,
Speaker 1: thin tracts of iron, but it was not iron. It
Speaker 1: felt smooth and cold as glass. We knelt and we
Speaker 1: crawled forward, our hand groping along the iron line to
Speaker 1: see where it would lead. But there was an unbroken
Speaker 1: night ahead. Only the iron tracks glowed through it, straight
Speaker 1: and white, calling us to follow. But we could not follow,
Speaker 1: for we were losing the puddle of light behind us.
Speaker 1: So we turned and we crawled back, our hand on
Speaker 1: the iron line, and our heart beat in our fingertips
Speaker 1: without reason. And then we knew, We knew suddenly that
Speaker 1: this place was left from the unmentionable times. So it
Speaker 1: was true, and those times had been, and all the
Speaker 1: wonders of those times, hundreds upon hundreds of years ago.
Speaker 1: Men knew secrets which we have lost. And we thought
Speaker 1: this is a foul place. They are damned to touch
Speaker 1: the things of the dimensionable times. But our hand, which
Speaker 1: followed the track as we crawled, clung to the iron
Speaker 1: as if it would not leave it, as if the
Speaker 1: skin of our hand were thirsty and begging of the metal,
Speaker 1: some secret fluid beating its coldness, we returned to the earth.
Speaker 1: International four eight eight one eight looked upon us and
Speaker 1: stepped back. Equality seven two five two one. They said,
Speaker 1: your face is white. But we could not speak, and
Speaker 1: we stood looking upon them. They backed away as if
Speaker 1: they dared not touch us. Then they smiled, but it
Speaker 1: was not a gay smile. It was lost and pleading.
Speaker 1: But still we could not speak. Then they said, we
Speaker 1: shall report our find to the city council, and both
Speaker 1: of us will be rewarded. And then we spoke. Our
Speaker 1: voice was hard, and there was no mercy in our voice.
Speaker 1: We said, we shall not report our find to the
Speaker 1: city council. We shall not report it to any men.
Speaker 1: They raised their hands to their ears, for never had
Speaker 1: they heard such words as these. International four eight eight
Speaker 1: one eight. We asked, will you report us to the
Speaker 1: council and see us lashed to death before your eyes?
Speaker 1: They stood straight of a sudden, and they answered, rather
Speaker 1: would we die? Then we said, keep silent. This place
Speaker 1: is ours. This place belongs to us Equality seven two
Speaker 1: five two one, and to no other men on earth.
Speaker 1: And if we ever surrender it, we shall surrender our
Speaker 1: life with it. Also then we saw that the eyes
Speaker 1: of International four eight eight one eight were fold to
Speaker 1: the lids with tears that dared not drop. They whispered,
Speaker 1: and their voice trembled, so that their words lost all shape.
Speaker 1: The will of the Council is above all things, for
Speaker 1: it is the will of our brothers, which is holy.
Speaker 1: But if you wish it so, we shall obey you.
Speaker 1: Rather shall we be evil with you than good with
Speaker 1: all our brothers. May the Council have mercy upon both
Speaker 1: our hearts. Then we walked away together and back to
Speaker 1: the home of the street sweepers, and we walked in silence.
Speaker 1: Thus did it come to pass that each night, when
Speaker 1: the stars are high and the streets sweepers sit in
Speaker 1: the city theater, we equality seven two five two one
Speaker 1: steal out and run through the darkness to our place.
Speaker 1: It is easy to leave the theater. When the candles
Speaker 1: are blown and the actors come on to the stage.
Speaker 1: No eyes can see us as we crawl under our
Speaker 1: seat and under the cloth of the tent. Later, it
Speaker 1: is easy to steal through the shadows and fall in
Speaker 1: nine next to International four eight eight one eight. As
Speaker 1: the column leaves the theater, it is dark in the streets,
Speaker 1: and there are no men about, for no men may
Speaker 1: walk through the city when they have no mission to
Speaker 1: walk there. Each night we run to the ravine and
Speaker 1: we remove the stones we have piled upon the iron
Speaker 1: grill to hide it from men. Each night, for three
Speaker 1: hours we are under the earth alone. We have stolen
Speaker 1: candles from the home of the street sweepers. We have
Speaker 1: stolen flints and knives and paper, and we have brought
Speaker 1: them to this place. We have stolen glass vials and
Speaker 1: powders and acids from the home of the scholars. Now
Speaker 1: we sit in the tunnel for three hours each night,
Speaker 1: and we study. We melt strange metals, and we mix acids,
Speaker 1: and we cut open the bodies of the animals which
Speaker 1: we find in the city cesspool. We have built an
Speaker 1: oven of the bricks we gathered in the streets. We
Speaker 1: burn the wood we find in the ravine. The fire
Speaker 1: flickers in the oven, and the blue shadows dance upon
Speaker 1: the walls, and there is no sound of men to
Speaker 1: disturb us. We have stolen manuscripts. This is a great offense.
Speaker 1: Manuscripts are precious for our brothers in the home of
Speaker 1: the clerks spend one year to copy one single script
Speaker 1: in their clear handwriting. Manuscripts are rare, and they are
Speaker 1: kept in the home of the scholars. So we sit
Speaker 1: under the earth and we read the stolen scripts. Two
Speaker 1: years have passed since we found this place, and in
Speaker 1: these two years we have learned more than we had
Speaker 1: learned in the ten years at the home of the students.
Speaker 1: We have learned things which are not in the scripts.
Speaker 1: We have solved secrets of which the scholars have no knowledge.
Speaker 1: We have come to see how great is the unexplored,
Speaker 1: and how many lifetimes will not bring us to the
Speaker 1: end of our quest. We wish nothing save to be
Speaker 1: alone and to learn, and to feel as if with
Speaker 1: each day our sight were growing sharper than the hawks
Speaker 1: and clearer than the rock crystal. Strange are the ways
Speaker 1: of evil. We are false in the faces of our brothers.
Speaker 1: We are defying the will of our councils. We alone,
Speaker 1: of the thousands who walk the earth, We alone, in
Speaker 1: this hour, are doing a work which has no purpose
Speaker 1: save that we wish to do it. The evil of
Speaker 1: our crime is not for the human mind to probe
Speaker 1: the nature of our punishment, if it be discovered, is
Speaker 1: not free for the human heart to ponder. Never not
Speaker 1: in the memory of the ancient ones. Ancients, never have
Speaker 1: men done what we are doing. And yet there is
Speaker 1: no shame in us and no regret. We say to
Speaker 1: ourselves that we are a wretch and a traitor, but
Speaker 1: we feel no burden upon our spirit, and no fear
Speaker 1: in our heart. And it seems to us that our
Speaker 1: spirit is clear as a lake, troubled by no eyes
Speaker 1: save those of the sun. And in our heart strange
Speaker 1: are the ways of evil. In our heart there is
Speaker 1: the first peace we have known in twenty years. End
Speaker 1: of Chapter one, Chapter two. Liberty five three thousand, Liberty
Speaker 1: five three thousand, Liberty five three thousand. We wish to
Speaker 1: write this name, we wish to speak it, but we
Speaker 1: dare not speak it above a whisper. For men are
Speaker 1: forbidden to take notice of women, and women are forbidden
Speaker 1: to take notice of men. But we think of one
Speaker 1: among women, those whose name is Liberty, five three thousand,
Speaker 1: and we think of no others. The women who have
Speaker 1: been assigned to work the soil live in the homes
Speaker 1: of the peasants beyond the city. Where the city ends,
Speaker 1: there is a great road winding off to the north,
Speaker 1: and we street sweepers must keep this road clean. For
Speaker 1: the first mile post. There is a hedge along the road,
Speaker 1: and beyond the hedge lies the fields. The fields are
Speaker 1: black and plowed, and they lie like a great fan
Speaker 1: before us, furrows gathered in some hand beyond the sky,
Speaker 1: spreading forth from that hand, opening wide apart as they
Speaker 1: come toward us, like black pleats that sparkle with thin
Speaker 1: green spangles. Women work in the fields, and their white
Speaker 1: tunics in the wind are like the wings of sea
Speaker 1: gulls beating over the black soil. And there it was
Speaker 1: that we saw Liberty five three thousand, walking along the furrows.
Speaker 1: Their body was straight and thin as a blade of iron.
Speaker 1: Their eyes were dark and hard and glowing, with no
Speaker 1: fear in them, no kindness, and no guilt. Their hair
Speaker 1: was golden as the sun. Their hair flew in the wind,
Speaker 1: shining and wild, as if it defied men to restrain it.
Speaker 1: They threw seeds from their hands as if they were
Speaker 1: designed to fling a scornful gift, and the earth was
Speaker 1: a beggar under their feet. We stood still for the
Speaker 1: first time we knew fear and then pain, and we
Speaker 1: stood still that we might not spill this pain, more
Speaker 1: precious than pleasure. Then we heard a void from the
Speaker 1: others call their name, Liberty five three thousand, and they
Speaker 1: turned and walked back. Thus we learned their name, and
Speaker 1: we stood watching them go till their white tunic was
Speaker 1: lost in the blue mist. And the following day, as
Speaker 1: we came to the northern road, we kept our eyes
Speaker 1: upon Liberty five three thousand in the field. And each
Speaker 1: day thereafter we knew the illness of waiting for our
Speaker 1: hour on the northern road, and there we looked at
Speaker 1: Liberty five three thousand. Each day. We knew not whether
Speaker 1: they looked at us also, but we think they did.
Speaker 1: Then one day they came close to the hedge, and
Speaker 1: suddenly they turned to us. They turned in a whirl,
Speaker 1: and the movement of their body stopped, as if slashed off,
Speaker 1: as suddenly as it had started. They stood still as
Speaker 1: a stone, and they looked straight upon us, straight in
Speaker 1: our eyes. There was no smile on their face, and
Speaker 1: no welcome, but their face was taut and their eyes
Speaker 1: were dark. Then they turned its swiftly and they walked
Speaker 1: away from us. But the following day, when we came
Speaker 1: to the road, they smiled. They smiled to us and
Speaker 1: for us, and we smiled in answer. Their head fell back,
Speaker 1: and their arms fell, as if their arms and their
Speaker 1: thin white neck were stricken. Suddenly, with a great lassitude,
Speaker 1: they were not looking upon us, but upon the sky.
Speaker 1: Then they glanced at us over their shoulder, and we
Speaker 1: felt as if a hand had touched our body, slipping
Speaker 1: softly from our lips to our feet. Every morning thereafter
Speaker 1: we greeted each other with our eyes. We dared not speak.
Speaker 1: It is a transgression to speak to men of other trades,
Speaker 1: save in groups at the social meetings. But once standing
Speaker 1: at the hedge, we raised our hand to our forehead
Speaker 1: and then moved it slowly, palm down towards Liberty five
Speaker 1: three thousand. Had the others seen it, they would have
Speaker 1: guessed nothing, or it looked only as if we were
Speaker 1: shading our eyes for the sun. But Liberty five to
Speaker 1: three sat thousand saw it and understood. They raised their
Speaker 1: hand to their forehead and moved it as we had.
Speaker 1: Thus each day we greet Liberty five three thousand, and
Speaker 1: they answer, And no men can suspect we do not
Speaker 1: wonder at this new sin of ours. It is our
Speaker 1: second transgression of preference. For we do not think of
Speaker 1: all of the brothers as we must, but only of one,
Speaker 1: and their name is Liberty five three thousand. We do
Speaker 1: not think of why we think of them. We do
Speaker 1: not know why. When we think of them, we feel
Speaker 1: of a sudden that the earth is good and that
Speaker 1: it is not a burden to live. We do not
Speaker 1: think of them as Liberty five three thousand any longer.
Speaker 1: We have given them a name in our thoughts. We
Speaker 1: call them the Golden One. But it is a sin
Speaker 1: to give men other names which distinguished them from other men.
Speaker 1: Yet we call them the Golden One. But they are
Speaker 1: not like the others. The Golden One are not like
Speaker 1: the others. And we take no heed of the law
Speaker 1: which says that men may not think of women save
Speaker 1: the time of mating. This is the time each spring
Speaker 1: when all the men older than twenty and all the
Speaker 1: women older than eighteen, are sent for one night to
Speaker 1: the city palace of Mating, and each of the men
Speaker 1: have one of the women assigned to them by the
Speaker 1: Council of Eugenics. Children are born each winter, but women
Speaker 1: never see their children, and children never know their parents.
Speaker 1: Twice have we been sent to the Palace of mating.
Speaker 1: But it is an ugly and shameful matter of which
Speaker 1: we do not like to think. We had broken so
Speaker 1: many laws, and today we have broken one more. Today
Speaker 1: we spoke to the Golden One. The other women were
Speaker 1: far off in the field when we stopped at the
Speaker 1: hedge by the side of the road. The Golden One
Speaker 1: were kneeling along the moat which runs through the field,
Speaker 1: and the drops of water falling from their hands as
Speaker 1: they raised the water to their lips were like sparks
Speaker 1: of fire in the sun. Then the Golden One saw us,
Speaker 1: and they did not move, kneeling there looking at us,
Speaker 1: and circles of light played upon their white tunic from
Speaker 1: the sun on the water of the moat, and one
Speaker 1: sparkling drop fell from a finger of their hand, held
Speaker 1: as frozen in the air. Then the Golden One rose
Speaker 1: and walked to the hedge, as if they had heard
Speaker 1: a command in our eyes. The two other street sweepers
Speaker 1: of our brigade were a hundred paces away down the road,
Speaker 1: and we thought that International four eight eight one eight
Speaker 1: would not betray us, and Union five three nine nine
Speaker 1: two would not understand. So we looked straight upon the
Speaker 1: golden one, and we saw the shadows of their lashes
Speaker 1: on their white cheeks, and the sparks of sun on
Speaker 1: their lips, and we said, you are beautiful, Liberty five
Speaker 1: three thousand. Their face did not move, and they did
Speaker 1: not avert their eyes. Only their eyes grew wider, and
Speaker 1: there was a triumph in their eyes. And it was
Speaker 1: not triumph over us, but over things we could not guess.
Speaker 1: Then they asked, what is your name? Equality seven two
Speaker 1: five two one. We answered, you are not one of
Speaker 1: our brothers, Equality seven two five two one, for we
Speaker 1: do not wish you to be. We cannot say what
Speaker 1: they meant, for there are no words for their meaning.
Speaker 1: But we knew it without words, and we knew it.
Speaker 1: Then no, we answered, nor are you one of our sisters?
Speaker 1: If you could see among scores of women, will you
Speaker 1: look upon us? We shall look upon you, Liberty five
Speaker 1: three thousand, if we see you among all the women
Speaker 1: of the earth. Then they asked, our street sweepers sent
Speaker 1: to different parts of the city, or do they always
Speaker 1: work in the same places. They always work in the
Speaker 1: same places, we answered, and no one will take this
Speaker 1: road away from us. Your eyes, they said, are not
Speaker 1: like the eyes of any among men. And suddenly, without
Speaker 1: cause for the thought which came to us, we felt cold,
Speaker 1: cold to our stomach. How old are you, we asked.
Speaker 1: They understood our thought, for they lowered their eyes for
Speaker 1: the first time seventeen they whispered, and we sighed, as
Speaker 1: if a burden had been taken from us. For we
Speaker 1: had been thinking, without reason, of the palace a mating,
Speaker 1: and we thought that we would not let the Golden
Speaker 1: One be sent to the palace. How to prevent it,
Speaker 1: how to bar the will of the councils, we knew not,
Speaker 1: But we knew suddenly that we would. Only we do
Speaker 1: not know why such thought came to us, For these
Speaker 1: ugly matters bear no relation to us in the Golden One,
Speaker 1: what relation can they bear? Still, without reason, as we
Speaker 1: stood there by the hedge, we felt our lips drawn
Speaker 1: tight with hatred, a sudden hatred for all our brother men.
Speaker 1: And the Golden One saw it and smiled slow, slowly,
Speaker 1: And there was in their smile the first sadness we
Speaker 1: had seen in them. We think that in the wisdom
Speaker 1: of women, the Golden One had understood more than we
Speaker 1: can understand. Then three of the sisters in the field
Speaker 1: appeared coming toward the road, So the Golden One walked
Speaker 1: away from us. They took the bag of seeds, and
Speaker 1: they threw the seeds into the furrowers of earth as
Speaker 1: they walked away. But the seeds flew wildly, for the
Speaker 1: hand of the Golden One was trembling. Yet, as we
Speaker 1: walked back to the home of the street sweepers, we
Speaker 1: felt that we wanted to sing without reason. So we
Speaker 1: were reprimanded to in the dining hall, for without knowing it,
Speaker 1: we had begun to sing aloud some tune we had
Speaker 1: never heard. But it is not proper to sing without reason,
Speaker 1: save at the social meetings. We are singing because we
Speaker 1: are happy, we answered the one of the home counsel,
Speaker 1: who reprimanded us. Indeed, you are happy, they answered, How
Speaker 1: else can men be when they live for their brothers.
Speaker 1: And now, sitting here in our tunnel, we wonder about
Speaker 1: these words. It is forbidden not to be happy, for,
Speaker 1: as it has been explained to us, men are free,
Speaker 1: and the earth belongs to them, and all things on
Speaker 1: earth belong to all men, and the will of all
Speaker 1: men together is good for all, and so all men
Speaker 1: must be happy. Yet, as we stand at night in
Speaker 1: the Great Hall, removing our garments for sleep, we look
Speaker 1: upon our brothers, and we wonder. The heads of our
Speaker 1: brothers are bowed. The eyes of our brothers are dull,
Speaker 1: and never do they look one another in the eyes.
Speaker 1: The shoulders of our brothers are hunched, and the muscles
Speaker 1: are drawn, as if their bodies were shrinking and wished
Speaker 1: to shrink out of sight. And a word steals into
Speaker 1: our mind as we look upon our brothers, and that
Speaker 1: word is fear. There is a fear hanging in the
Speaker 1: air of the sleeping halls, and in the air of
Speaker 1: the streets. Fear walks through our city, fear without name,
Speaker 1: without shape. All men feel it, and none dare to speak.
Speaker 1: We feel it also, and we are in the home
Speaker 1: of the street sweepers. But here in our tunnel we
Speaker 1: feel it no longer. The air is pure. Under the ground,
Speaker 1: there is no odor of men. And these three hours
Speaker 1: give us strength. For our hours above the ground, our
Speaker 1: body is betraying us, for the counsel of the home
Speaker 1: looks with suspicion upon us. It is not good to
Speaker 1: feel too much joy, nor to be glad that our
Speaker 1: body lives, for we matter not, and it must not
Speaker 1: matter to us whether we live or die, which is
Speaker 1: to be as our brothers will it. But we Equality
Speaker 1: seven two five two one are glad to be living.
Speaker 1: If this is a vice, then we wish no virtue.
Speaker 1: Yet our brothers are not like us. All is not
Speaker 1: well with our brothers. There are Fraternity two five five
Speaker 1: o three, a quiet boy with wise kind eyes, who
Speaker 1: cry suddenly without reason, and in the midst of the
Speaker 1: day or night, and their body shakes with sobs, so
Speaker 1: they cannot explain. There are Solidarity nine six three four seven,
Speaker 1: who are bright youth without fear in the day, but
Speaker 1: they scream in their sleep, and they scream, help us,
Speaker 1: help us, help us into the night, in a voice
Speaker 1: which chills our bones. But the doctors cannot cure Solidarity
Speaker 1: nine six three four seven. And as we all undress
Speaker 1: at night in the dim light of candles, our brothers
Speaker 1: are silent, for they dare not speak the thoughts of
Speaker 1: their minds, for all must agree withal, and they cannot
Speaker 1: know if their thoughts are the thoughts of all, so
Speaker 1: they fear to speak, And they are glad when the
Speaker 1: candles are blown for the night, and we equality seven
Speaker 1: two five two, one look through the window upon the sky,
Speaker 1: and there is peace in the sky, and cleanliness and dignity.
Speaker 1: And beyond the city there lies the plane, and beyond
Speaker 1: the plane black upon the black sky, there lies the
Speaker 1: uncharted forest. We do not wish to look upon the
Speaker 1: uncharted forests, we do not wish to think of it.
Speaker 1: But ever do our eyes return to that black patch
Speaker 1: upon the sky. Men never enter the uncharted forests, for
Speaker 1: there is no power to explore it, and no path
Speaker 1: to lead among its ancient trees, which stands as guards
Speaker 1: of fearful secrets. It is whispered that once or twice
Speaker 1: in a hundred years one among the men of the
Speaker 1: city escape alone and run into the uncharted forests without
Speaker 1: call or reason. These men do not return. They perish
Speaker 1: from hunger and from the claws of the wild beasts
Speaker 1: that roam the forests. But our councils say this is
Speaker 1: only a legend. We have heard that there are many
Speaker 1: uncharted forests over the lands among the cities, and it
Speaker 1: is whispered that they have grown over the ruins of
Speaker 1: many cities of the unmentionable Times. The trees have swallowed
Speaker 1: the ruins, and the bones under the ruins, and all
Speaker 1: the things which perished. And as we look upon the
Speaker 1: uncharted forest far in the night, we think of the
Speaker 1: secrets of the unmentionable times, and we wonder how it
Speaker 1: came to pass that these secrets were lost to the world.
Speaker 1: We have heard the legends of the great fighting, in
Speaker 1: which many men fought on one side, and only a
Speaker 1: few on the other. These few were the evil Ones,
Speaker 1: and they were conquered. Then great fires raged over the land,
Speaker 1: and in these fires the evil Ones were burned. And
Speaker 1: the fire which is called the dawn of the Great
Speaker 1: Rebirth was the script fire, where all the scripts of
Speaker 1: the evil Ones were burned, and with them all the
Speaker 1: words of the evil Ones. Great mountains of flames stood
Speaker 1: in the squares of the city for three months. Then
Speaker 1: came the Great Rebirth. The words of the evil Ones,
Speaker 1: the words of the unmentionable Times. What are the words
Speaker 1: which we have lost? May the Council have mercy upon us.
Speaker 1: We had no wish to write such a question, and
Speaker 1: we knew not what we were doing till we had
Speaker 1: written it. We shall not ask this question, and we
Speaker 1: shall not think it, we shall not call death on
Speaker 1: our head. And yet, and yet there is some word,
Speaker 1: one single word, which is not in the language of men,
Speaker 1: but which has been And this is the unspeakable word,
Speaker 1: which no men may speak nor hear. But sometimes, and
Speaker 1: it is rare, sometimes somewhere one among men find that word.
Speaker 1: They find it upon scraps of old manuscripts, or cut
Speaker 1: into the fragments of ancient stones. But when they speak it,
Speaker 1: they are put to death. There is no crime punished
Speaker 1: by death in this world save this one crime of
Speaker 1: speaking the unspeakable word. We have seen one of such
Speaker 1: men burned alive in the square of the city. And
Speaker 1: it was a sight which has stayed with us through
Speaker 1: the years, and it haunts us and follows us, and
Speaker 1: it gives us no rest. We were a child, then
Speaker 1: ten years old, and we stood in the great square
Speaker 1: with all the children and all the men of the city,
Speaker 1: sent to behold the burning. They brought the transgressor out
Speaker 1: into the square and led them into the pyre. They
Speaker 1: had torn out the tongue of the transgressor so that
Speaker 1: they could speak no longer. The transgressor were young and tall.
Speaker 1: They had hair of gold and eyes of blue as morning.
Speaker 1: They walked to the pyre, and their step did not falter.
Speaker 1: And of all the faces in that square, of all
Speaker 1: the faces which shrieked and screamed and spat curses upon them,
Speaker 1: theirs was the calmest and happiest face. As the chains
Speaker 1: were wound over their body at the stake, and a
Speaker 1: flame set to the pyre, the transgressor looked upon the city.
Speaker 1: There was a thin thread of blood running from the
Speaker 1: corner of their mouth, but their lips were smiling. And
Speaker 1: a monstrous thought came to us then, which has never
Speaker 1: left us. We had heard of saints. There are the
Speaker 1: saints of labor, the saints of the councils, the saints
Speaker 1: of the Great Rebirth. But we had never seen a saint,
Speaker 1: nor what the likeness of a saint should be. And
Speaker 1: we thought, then, standing in the square, that the likeness
Speaker 1: of a saint was the face we saw before us
Speaker 1: in the flames, the face of the transgressor of the
Speaker 1: unspeakable word. As the flames rose, a thing happened which
Speaker 1: no eyes saw but ours, else we would not be
Speaker 1: living today. Perhaps it had only seemed to us, but
Speaker 1: it seemed to us that the eyes of the transgressor
Speaker 1: had chosen us from the crowd and were looking straight
Speaker 1: upon us. There was no pain in their eyes, and
Speaker 1: no knowledge of the agony of their body. There was
Speaker 1: only joy in them, and pride, a pride holier than
Speaker 1: it it is fit for human pride to be. And
Speaker 1: it seemed as if these eyes were trying to tell
Speaker 1: us something through the flames, to send into our eyes
Speaker 1: some word without sound. And it seemed as if these
Speaker 1: eyes were begging us to gather that word and not
Speaker 1: let it go from us and from the earth. But
Speaker 1: the flames rose, and we could not guess the word. What,
Speaker 1: even if we had to burn for it like the
Speaker 1: saint of the Pyre? What is the unspeakable word? End
Speaker 1: of Chapter two, Chapter three we equality seven two five
Speaker 1: two one have discovered a new power of nature, and
Speaker 1: we have discovered it alone, and we are to know it.
Speaker 1: It is said, now, let us be lashed for it,
Speaker 1: if we must. The Council of Scholars has said that
Speaker 1: we all know the things which exist, and therefore all
Speaker 1: the things which are not known by all do not exist.
Speaker 1: But we think that the Council of Scholars is blind
Speaker 1: The secrets of this earth are not for all men
Speaker 1: to see, but only for those who will seek them.
Speaker 1: We know, for we have found a secret unknown to
Speaker 1: all our brothers. We know not what this power is,
Speaker 1: nor whence it comes, but we know it is nature.
Speaker 1: We have watched it and worked with it. We saw
Speaker 1: it first two years ago. One night we were cutting
Speaker 1: open the body of a dead frog when we saw
Speaker 1: its leg jerking. It was dead, yet it moved. Some
Speaker 1: power unknown to men was making it move. We could
Speaker 1: not understand it. Then, after many tests, we found the answer.
Speaker 1: The frog had been hanging on a wire of copper,
Speaker 1: and it had been the metal of our knife which
Speaker 1: had sent a strange power to the copper through the
Speaker 1: brine of the FOG's body. We put a piece of
Speaker 1: copper and a piece of zinc into a jar of brine.
Speaker 1: We touched a wire to them, and there under our
Speaker 1: fingers was a miracle which had never occurred before, a
Speaker 1: new miracle and a new power. This discovery haunted us.
Speaker 1: We followed it in preference to all our studies. We
Speaker 1: worked with it. We tested it in more ways than
Speaker 1: we can describe, and each step was another miracle unveiling
Speaker 1: Before us. We came to know that we had found
Speaker 1: the greatest power on earth, for it defies all the
Speaker 1: laws known to men. It makes the needle move and
Speaker 1: turn on the compass, which we stole from the house
Speaker 1: of scholars. But we had been taught, when still a child,
Speaker 1: that the load stone points to the north, and this
Speaker 1: is a law which nothing can change. Yet our new
Speaker 1: power defied all laws. We found that it causes lightning,
Speaker 1: and never have men known what causes lightning in thunderstorms.
Speaker 1: We raised a tall rod of iron by the side
Speaker 1: of our hole and watched it from below. We have
Speaker 1: seen the lightning strike it again and again, and now
Speaker 1: we know that metal draws the power of the sky,
Speaker 1: and that metal can be made to give it forth.
Speaker 1: We have built strange things with this discovery of ours.
Speaker 1: We used it for the copper wires which we found
Speaker 1: here under the ground. We have walked the length of
Speaker 1: our tunnel with a candle lighting the way. We could
Speaker 1: go no further than a half a mile, for earth
Speaker 1: and rock had fallen at both ends. But we gathered
Speaker 1: all the things we found, and we brought them to
Speaker 1: our workplace. We found strange boxes with bars of metal inside,
Speaker 1: with many cords and strands and coils of metal. We
Speaker 1: found wires that led to strange little globes of glass
Speaker 1: gass on the walls. They contain threads of metal thinner
Speaker 1: than a spider's web. These things help us in our work.
Speaker 1: We do not understand them, but we think that the
Speaker 1: men of the unmentionable times had known our power of
Speaker 1: the sky, and these things had some relation to it.
Speaker 1: We do not know, but we shall learn. We cannot
Speaker 1: stop now, even though it frightens us that we are
Speaker 1: alone in our knowledge. No single one can possess greater
Speaker 1: wisdom than the many scholars who are elected by all
Speaker 1: men for their wisdom. Yet we can, we do. We
Speaker 1: have fought against saying it, But now it is said.
Speaker 1: We do not care. We forget all men, all laws,
Speaker 1: and all things save our medals and our wires. So
Speaker 1: much is still to be learned. So long a road
Speaker 1: lies before us, And what care we if we must
Speaker 1: travel it alone? End of Chapter three, Chapter four. Many
Speaker 1: days passed before we could speak to the Golden One again.
Speaker 1: But then came the day when the sky turned white,
Speaker 1: as if the sun had burst and spread its flame
Speaker 1: in the air, and the fields lay still without breath,
Speaker 1: and the dust of the road was white in the glow.
Speaker 1: So the women of the field were weary, and they
Speaker 1: tarried over their work, and they were far from the
Speaker 1: road when we came, But the Golden One stood alone
Speaker 1: at the hedge, waiting. We stopped, and we saw that
Speaker 1: their eyes, so hard and scornful to the world, were
Speaker 1: looking at us as if they would obey any word
Speaker 1: we might speak. And we said, we have given you
Speaker 1: a name in our thoughts, Liberty five three thousand. What
Speaker 1: is our name? They asked the Golden One, Nor do
Speaker 1: we call you equality seven two five two one when
Speaker 1: we think of you? What name have you given us?
Speaker 1: They looked straight into our eyes, and they held their
Speaker 1: head high, and they answered the unconquered. For a long
Speaker 1: time we could not speak. Then we said, such thoughts
Speaker 1: are forbidden, Golden One, But you think such thoughts as these,
Speaker 1: and you wish us to think them. We looked into
Speaker 1: their eyes and we could not lie. Yes, we whispered,
Speaker 1: and they smiled, and then we said, our dearest one,
Speaker 1: do not obey us. They stepped back and their eyes
Speaker 1: were wide, and still speak those words again? They whispered,
Speaker 1: Which words we asked? But they did not answer, and
Speaker 1: we knew it. Our dearest one, we whispered, Never have
Speaker 1: men said this to women. The head of the Golden
Speaker 1: One bowed slowly, and they stood still before us, there,
Speaker 1: arms at their sides, the palms of their hands turned
Speaker 1: to us, as if their body were delivered in submission
Speaker 1: to our eyes, and we could not speak. Then they
Speaker 1: raised their head, and they spoke simply and gently, as
Speaker 1: if they wished us to forget some anxiety of their own.
Speaker 1: The day is hot, they said, and you have worked
Speaker 1: for many hours, and you must be weary. No, we answered,
Speaker 1: It is cooler in the fields, they said, and there
Speaker 1: is water to drink. Are you thirsty, yes, we answered,
Speaker 1: but we cannot cross the hedge. We shall bring the
Speaker 1: water to you, they said. Then they knelt by the moat,
Speaker 1: they gathered water into their two hands. They rose, and
Speaker 1: they held the water out to our lips. We do
Speaker 1: not know if we drank that water. We only knew
Speaker 1: suddenly that their hands were empty, but we were still
Speaker 1: holding our lips to their hands, and that they knew it,
Speaker 1: but did not move. We raised our head and stepped back,
Speaker 1: for we did not understand what had made us do this,
Speaker 1: and we were afraid to understand it. And the golden
Speaker 1: One stepped back and stood looking upon their hands in wonder.
Speaker 1: Then the golden One moved away, even though no others
Speaker 1: were coming. And they moved, stepping back as if they
Speaker 1: could not turn from us, their arms bent before them,
Speaker 1: as if they could not lower their hands. End of
Speaker 1: Chapter four, Chapter five. We made it, we created it,
Speaker 1: We brought it forth from the night of the ages.
Speaker 1: We alone, our hands, our mind ours alone, and only
Speaker 1: we know not what we are saying. Our head is reeling.
Speaker 1: We look upon the light which we we had made.
Speaker 1: We shall be forgiven for anything we say tonight. Tonight,
Speaker 1: after more days in trials than we can count, we
Speaker 1: finished building a strange thing from the remains of the
Speaker 1: unmentionable times, a box of glass, devised to give forth
Speaker 1: the power of the sky, of greater strength than we
Speaker 1: had ever achieved before. And when we put our wires
Speaker 1: to this box, when we closed the current, the wire glowed,
Speaker 1: it came to life, it turned red, and a circle
Speaker 1: of light lay on the stone before us. We stood,
Speaker 1: and we held our head in our hands. We could
Speaker 1: not conceive of that which we had created. We had
Speaker 1: touched no flint, made no fire, Yet there was light,
Speaker 1: light that came from nowhere, light from the heart of metal.
Speaker 1: We blew out the candle. Darkness swallowed us, and there
Speaker 1: was nothing left around us, nothing save the night and
Speaker 1: a thin thread of flame in it, as a crack
Speaker 1: in the wall of a prison. We stretched our hands
Speaker 1: to the wire, and we saw our fingers in the
Speaker 1: red glow. We could not see our body nor feel it.
Speaker 1: And in that moment nothing existed save our two hands
Speaker 1: over a wire, glowing in a black abyss. Then we
Speaker 1: thought of the meaning of that which lay before us.
Speaker 1: We can light our tunnel, and the city, and all
Speaker 1: the cities of the world with nothing save metal and wires.
Speaker 1: We can give our brothers a new light, cleaner and
Speaker 1: brighter than any they have ever known. The power of
Speaker 1: the sky can be made to do men's bidding. There
Speaker 1: are no limits to its secrets and its might, and
Speaker 1: it can be made to grant us anything if we
Speaker 1: but choose to ask. Then we knew what we must do.
Speaker 1: Our discovery is too great for us to waste our
Speaker 1: time in sweeping streets. We must not keep our secret
Speaker 1: to ourselves, nor buried under the ground. We must bring
Speaker 1: it into the sight of all men. We need all
Speaker 1: our time. We need the workrooms of the Home of
Speaker 1: the Scholars. We want the help of our brother scholars
Speaker 1: and the wisdom joined to ours. There is so much
Speaker 1: work ahead for all of us, for all the scholars
Speaker 1: of the world. In a month, the World Council of
Speaker 1: Scholars is to meet in our city. It is a
Speaker 1: great council to which the wisest of all lands are elected,
Speaker 1: and it meets once a year in the different cities
Speaker 1: of the earth. We shall go to this council, and
Speaker 1: we shall lay before them as our gift, the glass box.
Speaker 1: With the power of the sky. We shall confess everything
Speaker 1: to them. They will see, understand, and forgive, for our
Speaker 1: gift is greater than our transgression. They will explain it
Speaker 1: to the Council of Vocations, and we shall be assigned
Speaker 1: to the Home of the Scholars. This has never been
Speaker 1: done before, but neither has a gift such as ours
Speaker 1: ever been offered to men. We must wait. We must
Speaker 1: guard our tunnel as we have never guarded it before.
Speaker 1: For should any men, save the scholars, learn of our secret,
Speaker 1: they would not understand it, nor would they believe us.
Speaker 1: They would see nothing save our crime of working alone,
Speaker 1: and they would destroy us and our light. We care
Speaker 1: not about our body, but our light is yes, we
Speaker 1: do care. For the first time, we do care about
Speaker 1: our body, for this wire is a part of our body,
Speaker 1: as a vein torn from us, glowing with our blood.
Speaker 1: We are proud of this threat of metal, or of
Speaker 1: our hands which made it? Or is there a line
Speaker 1: to divide these two? We stretch out our arms for
Speaker 1: the first time. Do we know how strong our arms are?
Speaker 1: And a strange thought comes to us. We wonder for
Speaker 1: the first time in our life what we look like.
Speaker 1: Men never see their own faces and never ask their
Speaker 1: brothers about it, for it is evil to have concern
Speaker 1: for their own faces or bodies. But tonight, for a
Speaker 1: reason we cannot fathom, we wish it were possible to
Speaker 1: us to know the likeness of our own person. End
Speaker 1: of Chapter five, Chapter six. We have not written for
Speaker 1: thirty days. For thirty days we have not been here
Speaker 1: in our tunnel. We had been caught. It happened on
Speaker 1: that night when we wrote last. We forgot that night
Speaker 1: to watch the sand in the glass, which tells us
Speaker 1: when three hours have passed and it's time to return
Speaker 1: to the city theater. When we remembered the sand had
Speaker 1: run out, hastened to the theater, but the big tent
Speaker 1: stood gray and silent against the sky. The streets of
Speaker 1: the city lay before us, dark and empty. If we
Speaker 1: went back to hide in our tunnel, we would be
Speaker 1: found in our light with us. So we walked to
Speaker 1: the home of the street sweepers. When the council of
Speaker 1: the home questioned us, we looked upon the faces of
Speaker 1: the council, but there was no curiosity in those faces,
Speaker 1: and no anger, and no mercy. So when the oldest
Speaker 1: of them asked, where have you been, we thought of
Speaker 1: our glass box and of our light, and we forgot
Speaker 1: all else, and we answered, we will not tell you.
Speaker 1: The oldest did not question us further. They turned to
Speaker 1: the two youngest and said, and their voice was bored,
Speaker 1: take our brother equality two five two one to the
Speaker 1: Palace of corrective Detention. Lashed them until they tell. So
Speaker 1: we were taken to the stone room under the Palace
Speaker 1: of Corrective Detention. This room has no windows, and it
Speaker 1: is empty save for an iron post. Two men stood
Speaker 1: by the post, naked for leather aprons and leather hoods,
Speaker 1: over their faces. Those who had brought us departed, leaving
Speaker 1: us to the two judges who stood in a corner
Speaker 1: of the room. The judges were small, thin men, gray
Speaker 1: and bent. They gave the signal to the two strong
Speaker 1: hooded ones. They tore our clothes from our body. They
Speaker 1: threw us down upon our knees, and they tied our
Speaker 1: hands to the iron post. The first blow of the
Speaker 1: lash felt as if our spine had been cut in two.
Speaker 1: The second blow stopped the first, and for a second
Speaker 1: we felt nothing. Then pain struck us in our throat,
Speaker 1: and fire ran in our liu without air, but we
Speaker 1: did not cry out. The lash whistled like a singing wind.
Speaker 1: We tried to count the blows, but we lost count.
Speaker 1: We knew that the blows were falling upon our back,
Speaker 1: only we felt nothing upon our back any longer. A
Speaker 1: flaming grill kept dancing before our eyes, and we thought
Speaker 1: of nothing save that grill, a grill, a grill of
Speaker 1: red squares. And then we knew that we were looking
Speaker 1: at the squares of the iron grill in the door.
Speaker 1: And there was also the squares of the stone on
Speaker 1: the walls, and the squares which the lash was cutting
Speaker 1: upon our back, crossing and recrossing itself in our flesh.
Speaker 1: Then we saw a fist before us. It knocked our
Speaker 1: chin up, and we saw the red froth of our
Speaker 1: mouth on the withered fingers. And the judge asked, where
Speaker 1: have you been? But we jerked our head away, our
Speaker 1: face upon our tied hands, and bit our lips. The
Speaker 1: lash whistled again. We wondered who was sprinkling burning coal
Speaker 1: dust upon the floor, for we saw drops of red
Speaker 1: twinkling on the stones around us. Then we knew nothing
Speaker 1: save two voices snarling steadily, one after the other, even
Speaker 1: though we knew that they were speaking many minutes apart.
Speaker 1: Where have you been? Where have you been? Where have
Speaker 1: you been? Where have you been? And our lips moved,
Speaker 1: but the sound trickled back in our throat, and the
Speaker 1: sound was only the light, the light, the light. Then
Speaker 1: we knew nothing. We opened our eyes, lying on our
Speaker 1: stomach on the brick floor of a cell, we looked
Speaker 1: upon two hands lying before us on the bricks, and
Speaker 1: we moved them, and we knew that they were our hands,
Speaker 1: but we could not move our body. Then we smile mild,
Speaker 1: for we thought of the light and that we had
Speaker 1: not betrayed it. We lay in ourselves for many days.
Speaker 1: The door opened twice each day, once for the men
Speaker 1: who brought us bread and water, and once for the judges.
Speaker 1: Many judges came to our cell, first the humblest and
Speaker 1: then the most honored judges of the city. They stood
Speaker 1: before us in their white togas, and they asked, are
Speaker 1: you ready to speak? But we shook our head, lying
Speaker 1: before them on the floor, and they departed. We counted
Speaker 1: each day and each night as it passed. Then tonight
Speaker 1: we knew that we must escape, for tomorrow the World
Speaker 1: Council of Scholars is to meet in our city. It
Speaker 1: was easy to escape from the Palace of Corrective Detention.
Speaker 1: The locks are old on the doors, and there are
Speaker 1: no guards about. There is no reason to have guards,
Speaker 1: for men have never defied the councils so far as
Speaker 1: to escape from whatever place they were ordered to be.
Speaker 1: Our body is healthy, and strength returns to it speedily.
Speaker 1: We lunged against the door, and it gave way. We
Speaker 1: stole through the dark passages, and through the dark streets,
Speaker 1: and down into our tunnel. We lit the candle, and
Speaker 1: we saw that our place had not been found, and
Speaker 1: nothing had been touched, And our glass box stood before
Speaker 1: us on the cold oven, as we had left it.
Speaker 1: What matter they now the scars upon our back. Tomorrow,
Speaker 1: in the full light of day, we shall take our
Speaker 1: box and leave our tunnel open, and walk through the
Speaker 1: streets to the home of the scholars. We shall put
Speaker 1: before them the greatest gift ever offered to men. We
Speaker 1: shall tell them the truth. We shall hand to them
Speaker 1: as our confession these pages we have written. We shall
Speaker 1: join our hands to theirs. We shall work together with
Speaker 1: the power of the sky for the glory of mankind.
Speaker 1: Our blessing upon you, our brothers. Tomorrow you will take
Speaker 1: us back to your fold, and we shall be an
Speaker 1: outcast no longer. Tomorrow we shall be one of you
Speaker 1: again tomorrow. End of chapter six, Chapter seven. It is
Speaker 1: dark here in the forest. The leaves rustle over our head,
Speaker 1: black against the last gold of the sky. The moss
Speaker 1: is soft and warm. We shall sleep on this moss
Speaker 1: for many nights till the beasts of the forest come
Speaker 1: to tear our body. We have no bed now save
Speaker 1: the moss, and no future save the beasts. We are
Speaker 1: old now, yet we were young this morning when we
Speaker 1: carried our glass box through the streets of the city
Speaker 1: to the home of the scholars. No men stopped us,
Speaker 1: for there were none about the Palace of corrective Detention,
Speaker 1: and the others knew nothing. No men stopped us at
Speaker 1: the gate. We walked through the empty passages and into
Speaker 1: the Great Hall, where the World Council of Scholars sat
Speaker 1: in solemn meeting. We saw nothing as we entered, save
Speaker 1: the sky in the great windows, blue and glowing. Then
Speaker 1: we saw the scholars, who sat around a long table.
Speaker 1: They were as shapeless clouds, huddled at the rise of
Speaker 1: a great sky. There were the men whose famous names
Speaker 1: we knew, and others from distant lands whose names we
Speaker 1: had not heard. We saw a great painting on the
Speaker 1: wall over their heads, of the twenty illustrious men who
Speaker 1: had invented the candle. All the heads of the Council
Speaker 1: turned to us as we entered. These great and wise
Speaker 1: of the earth did not know what to think of us,
Speaker 1: and they looked upon us with wonder and curiosity, as
Speaker 1: if we were a miracle. It is true that our
Speaker 1: tunic was torn and stained with brown stains which had
Speaker 1: been blood. We raised our right arm, and we said
Speaker 1: our greeting to you, our honored brothers of the World
Speaker 1: Council of Scholars. Then collective zero zero zero zero nine,
Speaker 1: the oldest and wisest of the council spoke and asked,
Speaker 1: who are you, our brother for you do not look
Speaker 1: like a scholar. Our name is Equality seven two five
Speaker 1: two one, we answered, and we are a street sweeper
Speaker 1: of this city. Then it was as if a great
Speaker 1: wind had stricken the hall, for all the scholars spoke
Speaker 1: at once, and they were angry and frightened. A street sweeper,
Speaker 1: a street sweeper walking in upon the World Council of Scholars.
Speaker 1: It is not to be believed. It is against all
Speaker 1: the rules and all the laws. But we knew how
Speaker 1: to stop them. Our brothers, we said, we matter not
Speaker 1: nor our transgression. It is only our brother men who matter.
Speaker 1: Give no thought to us, for we are nothing. But
Speaker 1: listen to our words, for we bring you a gift
Speaker 1: such as has never been brought to men. Listen to us,
Speaker 1: for we hold the future of mankind in our hands.
Speaker 1: Then they listened. We placed our glass box on the
Speaker 1: table before them. We spoke of it, and of our
Speaker 1: long quest, and of our tunnel, and of our escape
Speaker 1: from the palace of corrective detention. Not a hand moved
Speaker 1: in that hall as we spoke, nor an eye. Then
Speaker 1: we put the wires to the box, and they all
Speaker 1: bent forward and sat still, watching. And we stood still,
Speaker 1: our eyes upon the wire, and slowly, slowly, as a
Speaker 1: flush of blood, a red flame trembled in the wire.
Speaker 1: Then the wire glowed. But terror struck the men of
Speaker 1: the council. They leaped to their feet. They ran from
Speaker 1: the table. They stood pressed against the wall, huddled together,
Speaker 1: seeking the warmth of one another's bodies to give them courage.
Speaker 1: We looked upon them, and we laughed and said, fear nothing,
Speaker 1: our brothers. There is a great power in these wires.
Speaker 1: But this power is tamed. It is yours. We give
Speaker 1: it to you. Still they would not move. We give
Speaker 1: you the power of the sky, we cried, We give
Speaker 1: you the key to the earth. Take it, and let
Speaker 1: us be one of you, the humblest among you. Let
Speaker 1: us work together and harness this power, and make it
Speaker 1: ease the toil of men. Let us throw away our
Speaker 1: candles and our torches. Let us flood our cities with light.
Speaker 1: Let us bring a new light to men. But they
Speaker 1: looked upon us and suddenly we were afraid, for their
Speaker 1: eyes were still and small and evil. Our brothers, we cried,
Speaker 1: have you nothing to say to us? Then Collective zero
Speaker 1: zero zero zero nine moved forward. They moved to the table,
Speaker 1: and the others followed. Yes, spoke Collective zero zero zero
Speaker 1: zero nine, we have much to say to you. The
Speaker 1: sound of their voice brought silence to the hall, and
Speaker 1: to the beat of our heart. Yes, said Collective zero
Speaker 1: zero zero zero nine. We have much to say to
Speaker 1: a wretch who have broken all the laws, and who
Speaker 1: boast of their infamy. How dared you think that your
Speaker 1: mind held greater wisdom than the minds of your brothers?
Speaker 1: And if the council had agreed that you'd be a
Speaker 1: street sweeper, how dared you think that you could be
Speaker 1: of greater use to men than in sweeping the streets?
Speaker 1: How dared you gut her cleaner? Spoke Fraternity nine three
Speaker 1: four five two. To hold yourself as one alone, and
Speaker 1: with thoughts of one and not of many, You shall
Speaker 1: be burned at the stake, said Democracy four six nine
Speaker 1: ninety eight. No, this should be lashed, said Unanimity seven
Speaker 1: three three o four, till there is nothing left under
Speaker 1: the lashes. No, said Collective zero zero zero zero nine.
Speaker 1: We cannot decide upon this, our brothers. No such crime
Speaker 1: has ever been committed, and it is not for us
Speaker 1: to judge, nor for any small council. We shall deliver
Speaker 1: this creature to the World Council itself and let their
Speaker 1: will be done. We looked upon them, and we pleaded,
Speaker 1: our brothers, you are right. Let the will of the
Speaker 1: Council be done upon our body. We do not care
Speaker 1: but the light. What will you do with the light?
Speaker 1: Collective zero zero zero zero nine looked upon us, and
Speaker 1: they smiled. So you think you have found a new power,
Speaker 1: said Collective zero zero zero zero nine. Do you think
Speaker 1: all your brothers think that? No, we answered, what is
Speaker 1: not thought by all men cannot be true, said Collective
Speaker 1: zero zero zero zero nine. You have worked on this alone,
Speaker 1: asked International one five five three seven. Yes, we answered,
Speaker 1: what is not done collectively cannot be good, said International
Speaker 1: one five five three seven. Many men in the homes
Speaker 1: of the scholars have had strange new ideas in the past,
Speaker 1: said Solidarity eight one one six four. But when the
Speaker 1: majority of their brother scholars voted against them, they abandoned
Speaker 1: their ideas. As all men must. This box is useless,
Speaker 1: said Alliance six seven three four nine. Should it be
Speaker 1: what they claim of it, said Harmony nine two six
Speaker 1: four to two, then it would bring ruin to the
Speaker 1: department of candles. The candle is a great boon to mankind,
Speaker 1: as approved by all men. Therefore it cannot be destroyed
Speaker 1: by the whim of one. This would wreck the plans
Speaker 1: of the world councils, said Unanimity two nine nine one three.
Speaker 1: And without the plans of the World Council, the sun
Speaker 1: cannot rise. It took fifty years to secure the approval
Speaker 1: of all the councils for the candle, and to decide
Speaker 1: upon the number needed, and to refit the plans so
Speaker 1: as to make the candles instead of the torches. This
Speaker 1: touched upon thousands and thousands of men working in scores
Speaker 1: of states. We cannot alter the plans again so soon.
Speaker 1: And if this should lighten the toil of men, said Similarity,
Speaker 1: five zero three zero six, then it is a great evil,
Speaker 1: for men have no cause to exist save in toiling
Speaker 1: for other men. Then Collective zero zero zero zero nine
Speaker 1: rose and pointed at our box. This thing, they said,
Speaker 1: must be destroyed, and all the others cried as one,
Speaker 1: it must be destroyed. Then we leapt to the table,
Speaker 1: We seized our box. We shoved them aside, and we
Speaker 1: ran to the window. We turned, and we looked at
Speaker 1: them for the last time, and a rage such as
Speaker 1: is not fit for humans to know, choked our voice
Speaker 1: in our throat. You fools, we cried, you fools, do
Speaker 1: you thrice? Damned fools? We swung our fists through the windowpane,
Speaker 1: and we leapt out in a ringing rain of glass.
Speaker 1: We fell, but we never let the box fall from
Speaker 1: our hands. Then we ran. We ran blindly, and men
Speaker 1: and houses streaked past us in a torrent without shape,
Speaker 1: and the road seemed not to be flat before us,
Speaker 1: but as if it were leaping up to meet us.
Speaker 1: And we waited for the earth to rise and strike
Speaker 1: us in the face. But we ran. We knew not
Speaker 1: where we were going. We knew only that we must run,
Speaker 1: run to the end of the world, to the end
Speaker 1: of our days. Then we knew suddenly that we were
Speaker 1: lying on a soft earth, and that we had stopped.
Speaker 1: Trees taller than we had ever seen before stood over
Speaker 1: us in a great silence. Then we knew we were
Speaker 1: in the uncharted forest. We had not thought of coming here,
Speaker 1: But our legs had carried our wisdom, and our legs
Speaker 1: had brought us to the uncharted forest against our will.
Speaker 1: Our glass box lay beside us. We crawled to it.
Speaker 1: We fell upon it, our face in our arms, and
Speaker 1: we lay still. We lay thus for a long time.
Speaker 1: Then we rose. We took our box and walked on
Speaker 1: into the forest. It mattered not where we went. We
Speaker 1: knew that men would not follow us, for they never
Speaker 1: entered the uncharted forest. We had nothing to fear from them.
Speaker 1: The forest disposes of its own victims. This gave us
Speaker 1: no fear either. Only we wished to be away from
Speaker 1: the city and the air that touches upon the air
Speaker 1: of the city. So we walked on, our box in
Speaker 1: our arms, our heart empty. We are doomed. Whatever days
Speaker 1: are left to us, we shall spend them alone. And
Speaker 1: we have heard of the corruption to be found in solitude.
Speaker 1: We have torn ourselves from the truth, which is our
Speaker 1: brother men. And there is no road back for us,
Speaker 1: and no redemption. We know these things, but we do
Speaker 1: not care. We care for nothing on earth. We are tired.
Speaker 1: Only the glass box in our arms is like living
Speaker 1: heart that gives us strength. We have lied to ourselves.
Speaker 1: We have not built this box for the good of
Speaker 1: our brothers. We built it for its own sake. It
Speaker 1: is above all our brothers. To us, it is truth
Speaker 1: above their truth. Why wonder about this? We have not
Speaker 1: many days to live. We are walking to the fangs
Speaker 1: awaiting us somewhere among the great silent trees. There is
Speaker 1: not a thing behind us to regret. Then a blow
Speaker 1: of pain struck us, our first and our only. We
Speaker 1: thought of the Golden One. We thought of the golden One,
Speaker 1: whom we shall never see again. Then the pain passed.
Speaker 1: It is best we are one of the damned. It
Speaker 1: is best if the Golden One forget our name and
Speaker 1: the body which bore that name. End Chapter seven, Chapter eight.
Speaker 1: It has been a day of wonder. This our first
Speaker 1: day in the forest. We awoke when a ray of
Speaker 1: sunlight fell across our face. We wanted to leap to
Speaker 1: our feet, as we have had to leap to our
Speaker 1: feet every morning of our life. But we remembered suddenly
Speaker 1: that no bell had rung, and there was no bell
Speaker 1: to ring anywhere. We lay on our back. We threw
Speaker 1: our arms out, and we looked up at the sky.
Speaker 1: The leaves had edges of silver that trembled and rippled
Speaker 1: like a river of green, and fire flowing high above us.
Speaker 1: We did not wish to move. We thought suddenly that
Speaker 1: we could lie thus as long as we wished, and
Speaker 1: we laughed loud at the thought. We could also rise,
Speaker 1: or run, or leap or fall down again. We were
Speaker 1: thinking that these were things without sense. But before we
Speaker 1: knew it, our body had risen in one leap. Our
Speaker 1: arms stretched out of their own will, and our body
Speaker 1: whirled and whirled till it raised a wind to rustle
Speaker 1: through the leaves of the bushes. Then our hands seized
Speaker 1: a branch and swung us high into a tree, with
Speaker 1: no aim save the wonder of learning the stretch of
Speaker 1: our body. The branch snapped under us, and we fell
Speaker 1: upon the moss that was soft as a cushion. Then
Speaker 1: our body, losing all sense, rolled over and over on
Speaker 1: the moss, dry leaves, and our tunic in our hair,
Speaker 1: in our face, and we heard suddenly that we were laughing,
Speaker 1: laughing aloud, laughing, as if there were no power left
Speaker 1: in us save laughter. Then we took our glass box
Speaker 1: and we went into the forest. We went on, cutting
Speaker 1: through the branches, and it was as if we were
Speaker 1: swimming through a sea of leaves, with the bushes as waves,
Speaker 1: rising and falling and rising around us, and flinging their
Speaker 1: green sprays high on the tree tops. The trees parted
Speaker 1: before us, calling us forward. The forest seemed to welcome us.
Speaker 1: We went on without thought, without care, with nothing to
Speaker 1: feel save the song of our body. We stopped when
Speaker 1: we felt hunger. We saw birds in the tree branches,
Speaker 1: and flying from under our footsteps. We picked a stone
Speaker 1: and scent it as an arrow at a bird. It
Speaker 1: fell before us. We made a fire, We cooked the bird,
Speaker 1: We ate it, and no meal had ever tasted better
Speaker 1: to us. And we thought suddenly that there was this
Speaker 1: great satisfaction to be found in the food which we
Speaker 1: need and obtained by our own hand. And we wished
Speaker 1: to be hungry again, and soon that we might know
Speaker 1: again this strange new pride in eating. Then we walked on,
Speaker 1: and we came to a stream which lay as a
Speaker 1: streak of glass among the trees. It lay so still
Speaker 1: that we saw no water, but only a cut in
Speaker 1: the earth in which the trees grew down, upturned, and
Speaker 1: the sky at the bottom, we knelt by the stream,
Speaker 1: and we bent down to drink. Then we stopped, for
Speaker 1: upon the blue of the sky below us, we saw
Speaker 1: our own face for the first time. We sat still,
Speaker 1: and we held our breath, for our face and our
Speaker 1: body were beautiful. Our face was not like the faces
Speaker 1: of our brothers, for we felt no pity when we
Speaker 1: looked upon it. Our body was not like the bodies
Speaker 1: of our brothers, for our limbs were straight and thin,
Speaker 1: and hard and strong. And we thought that we could
Speaker 1: trust this being who looked upon us from the stream,
Speaker 1: and that we had nothing to fear from this being.
Speaker 1: We walked on till the sun had set. When the
Speaker 1: shadows gathered among the trees, we stopped in a hollow
Speaker 1: between the roots, where we shall sleep tonight. And suddenly,
Speaker 1: for the first time this day, we remembered that we
Speaker 1: are the damned. We remembered it, and we laughed. We
Speaker 1: are writing this on the paper we had hidden in
Speaker 1: our tunic, together with the written pages we had brought
Speaker 1: for the World Council of Scholars, but never given to them.
Speaker 1: We have much to speak of to ourselves, and we
Speaker 1: hope we shall find the words for it in the
Speaker 1: days to come. Now we cannot speak, for we cannot understand.
Speaker 1: End Chapter eight, Chapter nine. We have not written for
Speaker 1: many days. We did not wish to speak, for we
Speaker 1: needed no words to remember that which has happened to us.
Speaker 1: It was our second day in the forest that we
Speaker 1: heard steps behind us. We hidden the bushes and we waited.
Speaker 1: The steps came closer, and then we saw the fold
Speaker 1: of a white tunic among the trees, and a gleam
Speaker 1: of gold. We leapt forward. We ran to them, and
Speaker 1: we stood looking upon the Golden One. They saw us,
Speaker 1: and their hands closed into fists, and the fists pulled
Speaker 1: their arms down, as if they wished their arms to
Speaker 1: hold them, while their bodies swayed, and they could not speak.
Speaker 1: We dared not come too close to them. We asked,
Speaker 1: and our voice trembled, how come you to be here,
Speaker 1: Golden One? But they whispered, only we have found you.
Speaker 1: How came you to be in the forest, we asked.
Speaker 1: They raised their head, and there was a great pride
Speaker 1: in their voice. They answered, we have followed you. Then
Speaker 1: we could not speak, and they said, we heard that
Speaker 1: you had gone to the uncharted forest. For the whole
Speaker 1: city is speaking of it. So on the night of
Speaker 1: the day when we heard it, we ran away from
Speaker 1: the home of the peasants. We found the marks of
Speaker 1: your feet across the plain where no men walk. So
Speaker 1: we followed them, and we went into the forest, and
Speaker 1: we followed the path where the branches were broken by
Speaker 1: your body. Their white tunic was torn, and the branches
Speaker 1: had cut the skin of their arms. But they spoke
Speaker 1: as if they had never taken notice of it, nor
Speaker 1: of weariness, nor of fear. We have followed you, they said,
Speaker 1: and we shall follow you wherever you go. If danger
Speaker 1: threatens you, we shall face it. Also, if it be death,
Speaker 1: we shall die with you. You are damned, and we
Speaker 1: wish to share your damnation. They looked upon us, and
Speaker 1: their voice was low, but there was bitterness and triumph
Speaker 1: in their voice. Your eyes are as a flame, but
Speaker 1: our brothers have neither hope nor fire. Your mouth is
Speaker 1: cut of granite, but our brothers are soft and humble.
Speaker 1: Your head is high, but our brothers cringe. You walk,
Speaker 1: but our brothers crawl. We wish to be damned with you,
Speaker 1: rather than be blessed with all of our brothers. Do
Speaker 1: as you please with us, but do not send us
Speaker 1: away from you. Then they knelt and bowed their golden
Speaker 1: head before us. We had never thought of that which
Speaker 1: we did. We bent to raise the golden One to
Speaker 1: their feet, but when we touched them, it was as
Speaker 1: if madness had stricken us. We seized their body, and
Speaker 1: we pressed our lips to theirs. The golden one breathed once,
Speaker 1: and their breath was a moan, and then their arms
Speaker 1: closed around us. We stood together for a long time,
Speaker 1: and we were frightened that we had lived for twenty
Speaker 1: one years and had never known what joy is possible
Speaker 1: to men. Then we said, our dearest one, fear nothing
Speaker 1: of the forest. There is no danger in solitude. We
Speaker 1: have no need of our brothers. Let us forget their
Speaker 1: good and our evil. Let us forget all things save
Speaker 1: that we are together, and that there is joy between us.
Speaker 1: Give us your hand. Look ahead. It is our own world,
Speaker 1: golden one, a strange, unknown world, but our own. Then
Speaker 1: we walked on into the forest, their hand in ours,
Speaker 1: And that night we knew that to hold the body
Speaker 1: of a woman in our arms is neither ugly nor shameful,
Speaker 1: but the one ecstasy granted to the race of men.
Speaker 1: We have walked for many days. The forest has no end,
Speaker 1: and we seek no end. But each day added to
Speaker 1: the chain of days between us and the city is
Speaker 1: like an added blessing. We have made a bow and
Speaker 1: many arrows. We can kill more birds than we need
Speaker 1: for our food. We find water and fruit in the forest.
Speaker 1: At night, we choose a clearing, and we build a
Speaker 1: ring of fires around it. We sleep in the midst
Speaker 1: of that ring, and the beasts dare not attack us.
Speaker 1: We can see their eyes, green and yellow as coals,
Speaker 1: watching us from the tree branches beyond. The fires smolder
Speaker 1: as a crown of jewels around us, and smoke stands
Speaker 1: still in the air in columns made blue by the moonlight.
Speaker 1: We sleep together in the midst of the ring, the
Speaker 1: arms of the Golden One around us, their head upon
Speaker 1: our breast. Someday we shall stop and build a house,
Speaker 1: when we shall have gone far enough. But we do
Speaker 1: not have to hasten. The days before us are without end,
Speaker 1: like the forest. We cannot understand this new life which
Speaker 1: we have found. Yet it seems so clear and so simple.
Speaker 1: When questions come to puzzle us, we walk faster, then
Speaker 1: turn and forget all things as we watch the golden
Speaker 1: one following the Shahadows of leaves fall upon their arms
Speaker 1: as they spread the branches apart, but their shoulders are
Speaker 1: in the sun. The skin of their arms is like
Speaker 1: a blue mist, but their shoulders are white and glowing,
Speaker 1: as if the light fell not from above, but rose
Speaker 1: from under the skin. We watched the leaf which has
Speaker 1: fallen upon their shoulder, and it lies at the curve
Speaker 1: of their neck, and a drop of dew glistens upon
Speaker 1: it like a jewel. They approach us, and they stop laughing,
Speaker 1: knowing what we think, and they wait obediently without question,
Speaker 1: till it pleases us to turn and go on. We
Speaker 1: go on, and we bless the earth under our feet.
Speaker 1: But questions come to us again as we walk in silence.
Speaker 1: If that we have found is the corruption of solitude,
Speaker 1: then what can men wish for save corruption? If this
Speaker 1: is the great evil of being alone, then what is
Speaker 1: good and what is evil? Everything which comes from the
Speaker 1: many is good, everything which comes from one is evil.
Speaker 1: Thus we have been taught with our first breath, we
Speaker 1: have broken the law, but we have never doubted it.
Speaker 1: Yet now, as we walk the forest, we are learning
Speaker 1: to doubt. There is no life for men save in
Speaker 1: useful toil for the good of their brothers, But we
Speaker 1: live not. When we toiled for our brothers, we were
Speaker 1: only weary. There is no joy for men save the
Speaker 1: joy shared with all their brothers. But the only things
Speaker 1: which taught us joy were the power created in our
Speaker 1: wires and the Golden One. And both these joys belonged
Speaker 1: to us alone. They came from us alone. They bear
Speaker 1: no relation to our brothers, and they do not concern
Speaker 1: our brothers in any way. Thus do we wonder there
Speaker 1: is some error, one frightful error, in the thinking of men.
Speaker 1: What is that error? We do not know. But the
Speaker 1: knowledge struggles within us, struggles to be born today. The
Speaker 1: Golden One stopped suddenly and said, we love you. But
Speaker 1: then they frowned and shook their head and looked at
Speaker 1: us helplessly. No, they whispered, that is not what we
Speaker 1: wished to say. They were silent. Then they spoke slowly,
Speaker 1: and their words were halting, like the words of a
Speaker 1: child learning to speak for the first time. We are
Speaker 1: one alone and only, and we love you, who are
Speaker 1: one alone and only. We looked into each other's eyes,
Speaker 1: and we knew that the breath of a miracle had
Speaker 1: touched us and fled and left us groping vainly, and
Speaker 1: we felt torn, torn for some word we could not find.
Speaker 1: End Chapter nine, Chapter ten. We are sitting at a table.
Speaker 1: We were writing this upon paper made thousands of years ago.
Speaker 1: The light is dim, and we cannot see the golden one,
Speaker 1: only one lock of gold on the pillow of an
Speaker 1: ancient bed. This is our home. We came upon it
Speaker 1: to day at sunrise. For many days we have been
Speaker 1: crossing a chain of mountains. The forest rose among cliffs,
Speaker 1: and whenever we walked out upon a barren stretch of rock,
Speaker 1: we saw great peaks before us in the west, and
Speaker 1: to the north of us, and to the south. As
Speaker 1: far as our eyes could see. The peaks were red
Speaker 1: and brown, with the green streaks of forest as vanes
Speaker 1: upon them, with blue mists as veils over their heads.
Speaker 1: We had never heard of these mountains, nor seen them
Speaker 1: marked on any map. The uncharted forest has protected them
Speaker 1: from the cities and from the men of the cities.
Speaker 1: We climbed paths where the wild goat dared not follow.
Speaker 1: Stones rolled from under our feet, and we heard them
Speaker 1: striking the rocks below. Farther and farther down, and the
Speaker 1: mountains rang with each stroke, and long after the strokes
Speaker 1: had died. But we went on, for we knew that
Speaker 1: no men would ever follow our track nor reach us here.
Speaker 1: Then to day, at sunrise, we saw a white flame
Speaker 1: among the trees, high on a sheer peak before us.
Speaker 1: We thought that it was a fire, and we stopped.
Speaker 1: But the flame was unmoving, yet blinding as liquid metal.
Speaker 1: So we climbed towards it through the rocks, and there
Speaker 1: before us, on a broad summit, with the mountains rising
Speaker 1: behind it, stood a house such as we had never seen,
Speaker 1: and the white fire came from the sun on the
Speaker 1: glass of its windows. The house had two stories and
Speaker 1: a strange roof, flat as a floor. There was more
Speaker 1: window than wall upon its walls, and the windows went
Speaker 1: on straight around the corners. Though how this house kept
Speaker 1: standing we could not guess. The walls were hard and
Speaker 1: smooth of that stone, unlike stone which we had seen
Speaker 1: in our tunnel. We both knew it without words. This
Speaker 1: house was left from the unmentionable times. The trees had
Speaker 1: protected it from time and weather and from men who
Speaker 1: have less pity than time and weather. We turned to
Speaker 1: the golden one, and we asked, are you afraid? But
Speaker 1: they shook their head. So we walked to the door,
Speaker 1: and we threw it open, and we stepped together into
Speaker 1: the house of the unmentionable times. We shall need the
Speaker 1: days in the years ahead to look, to learn, and
Speaker 1: to understand the things of this house. To day, we
Speaker 1: could only look and try to believe the sight of
Speaker 1: our eyes. We pulled the heavy curtains from the windows,
Speaker 1: and we saw that the rooms were small, and we
Speaker 1: thought that not more than twelve men could have lived here.
Speaker 1: We thought it strange that man had been permitted to
Speaker 1: build a house for only twelve. Never had we seen
Speaker 1: rooms so full of light. The sun rays danced upon
Speaker 1: the colors, colors in more colors than we thought possible,
Speaker 1: we who had seen no houses save the white ones,
Speaker 1: the brown ones, and the gray. There were great pieces
Speaker 1: of glass on the walls, but it was not glass,
Speaker 1: for when we looked upon it, we saw our own
Speaker 1: bodies and all the things behind us, as on the
Speaker 1: face of a lake. There were strange things which we
Speaker 1: had never seen, and the use of which we do
Speaker 1: not know. And there were globes of glass everywhere in
Speaker 1: each room. The globes with the metal cobwebs inside, such
Speaker 1: as we had seen in our tunnel. We found the
Speaker 1: sleeping Hall, and we stood in awe upon its threshold,
Speaker 1: for it was a small room, and there were only
Speaker 1: two beds in it. We found no other beds in
Speaker 1: the house, and then we knew that only two had
Speaker 1: lived here. And this passes understanding. What kind of world
Speaker 1: did they have? The men of the unmentionable times? We
Speaker 1: found garments, and the golden One gasped at the sight
Speaker 1: of them, for they were not white tunics nor white
Speaker 1: togas they were of all color, no two of them alike.
Speaker 1: Some crumbled to dust as we touched them, but the
Speaker 1: others were of heavier cloths and felt soft and new
Speaker 1: in our fingers. We found a room with walls made
Speaker 1: of shelves, which held rows of manuscripts from the floor
Speaker 1: to the ceiling. Never had we seen such a number
Speaker 1: of them, nor of such strange shape. They were not
Speaker 1: soft and rolled, they had hard shells of cloth and leather,
Speaker 1: and the letters on their pages were small, and so
Speaker 1: even that we wondered at the men who had such handwriting.
Speaker 1: We glanced through the pages, and we saw that they
Speaker 1: were written in our language, but we found many words
Speaker 1: which we could not understand. Tomorrow we shall begin to
Speaker 1: read these scripts. When we had seen all the rooms
Speaker 1: of the house, we looked at the Golden One, and
Speaker 1: we knew the thought in our minds. We shall never
Speaker 1: leave this house, we said, nor let it be taken
Speaker 1: from us. This is our home and the end of
Speaker 1: our journey. This is your house, golden one, and ours,
Speaker 1: and it belongs to no other men whatever, as far
Speaker 1: as the earth may stretch, We shall not share it
Speaker 1: with others. And we share not our joy with them,
Speaker 1: nor our love, nor our hunger. So be it to
Speaker 1: the end of our days, Your will be done, they said.
Speaker 1: Then we went out to gather wood for the great
Speaker 1: hearth of our home. We brought water from the stream
Speaker 1: which runs among the trees under our windows. We killed
Speaker 1: a mountain goat, and we brought its flesh to be
Speaker 1: cooked in a strange copper pot we found in a
Speaker 1: place of wonders, which must have been the cooking room
Speaker 1: of the house. We did this work alone, for no
Speaker 1: words of ours could take the Golden One away from
Speaker 1: the big glass, which is not glass. They stood before it,
Speaker 1: and they looked and looked upon their own body. When
Speaker 1: the sun sank beyond the mountains, the golden One fell
Speaker 1: asleep on the floor, amidst jewels and bottles of crystal
Speaker 1: and flowers of silk. We lifted the golden One in
Speaker 1: our arms, and we carried them to a bed, their
Speaker 1: head falling softly upon our shoulder. Then we lit a candle,
Speaker 1: and we brought paper from the room of the manuscripts,
Speaker 1: and we sat by the window, for we knew that
Speaker 1: we could not sleep tonight. And now we look upon
Speaker 1: the earth in the sky. The spread of naked rock
Speaker 1: and peaks and moonlight is like a world ready to
Speaker 1: be borne. It seems to us it asks a sign
Speaker 1: from us, a spark, a first commandment. We cannot know
Speaker 1: what word we are to give, nor what great deed
Speaker 1: this earth expects to witness. We know it waits. It
Speaker 1: seems to say it has great gifts to lay before us.
Speaker 1: We are to speak. We are to give its gold,
Speaker 1: its highest meaning, to all this glowing space of rock
Speaker 1: and sky. We look ahead. We beg our heart for
Speaker 1: guidance and answering this call. No voice has spoken, yet
Speaker 1: we have heard. We look upon our hands. We see
Speaker 1: the dusts of centuries, the dusts which hid great secrets
Speaker 1: and perhaps great evils. And yet it stirs no fear
Speaker 1: within our heart, but only silent reverence and pity may
Speaker 1: knowledge come to us. What is this secret our heart
Speaker 1: has understood, and yet will not reveal to us, although
Speaker 1: it seems to beat as if it were endeavoring to
Speaker 1: tell it. End Chapter ten, Chapter eleven. I am I think,
Speaker 1: I will, my hands, my spirit, my sky, my forest,
Speaker 1: this earth of mine. What must I say? Besides these
Speaker 1: are the words? This is the answer. I stand here
Speaker 1: on the summit of the mountain. I lift my head
Speaker 1: and I spread my arms. This my body and spirit.
Speaker 1: This is the end of the quest. I wish to
Speaker 1: know the meaning of things. I am the meaning. I
Speaker 1: wish to find a warrant for being. I need no
Speaker 1: warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being.
Speaker 1: I am the warrant and the sanction. It is my
Speaker 1: eyes which see. In the sight of my eyes grants
Speaker 1: beauty to the earth. It is my ears which hear,
Speaker 1: and the hearing of my ears gives its song to
Speaker 1: the world. It is my mind which thinks, and the
Speaker 1: judgment of my mind is the only searchlight that confine
Speaker 1: the truth. It is my will which chooses, and the
Speaker 1: choice of my will is the only edict I must respect.
Speaker 1: Many words have been granted me, and some are wise,
Speaker 1: and some are false, but only three are holy. I
Speaker 1: will it whatever road I take. The guiding star is
Speaker 1: within me. The guiding star and the lodestone which point
Speaker 1: the way, they point in, but one direction they point
Speaker 1: to me. I know not if this earth on which
Speaker 1: I stand is the core of the universe, or if
Speaker 1: it is a speck of dust lost in eternity. I
Speaker 1: know not, and I care not, for I know what
Speaker 1: happiness is possible to me on earth, and my happiness
Speaker 1: needs no higher aim to vindicate it. My happiness is
Speaker 1: not the means to any end. It is the end.
Speaker 1: It is its own goal, It is its own purpose.
Speaker 1: Neither am I the means to any end others may
Speaker 1: wish to accomplish. I am not a tool for their use.
Speaker 1: I am not a servant of their needs. I am
Speaker 1: not a bandage for their wounds. I am not a
Speaker 1: sacrifice on their altars. I am a man. This miracle
Speaker 1: of me is mine to own and keep, and mine
Speaker 1: to guard, and mine to use, and mine to kneel before.
Speaker 1: I do not surrender my treasures, nor do I share them.
Speaker 1: The fortune of my spirit is not to be blown
Speaker 1: into coins of brass and flung to the winds as
Speaker 1: alms for the poor of the spirit. I guard my treasures,
Speaker 1: my thought, my will, my freedom, and the greatest of
Speaker 1: these is freedom. I owe nothing to my brothers, nor
Speaker 1: do I gather debts from them. I ask none to
Speaker 1: live for me, nor do I live for any others.
Speaker 1: I covet no man's soul, nor is my soul theirs
Speaker 1: to covet. I am neither foe nor friend to my brothers,
Speaker 1: but such as each of them shall deserve of me.
Speaker 1: And to earn my love, my brothers must do more
Speaker 1: than to have been born. I do not grant my
Speaker 1: love without reason, nor to any chance or by who
Speaker 1: may wish to claim it. I honor men with my love,
Speaker 1: but honor is a thing to be earned. I shall
Speaker 1: choose friends among men, but neither slave nor masters. And
Speaker 1: I shall choose only such as please me. And then
Speaker 1: I shall love and respect, but neither command nor obey.
Speaker 1: And we shall join our hands when we wish, or
Speaker 1: walk alone when we so desire. For in the temple
Speaker 1: of his spirit. Each man is alone. Let each man
Speaker 1: keep his temple untouched and undefiled. Then let him join
Speaker 1: hands with others if he wishes, but only beyond his
Speaker 1: holy threshold. For the word we must never be spoken
Speaker 1: save by one's choice and as a second thought. This
Speaker 1: word must never be placed first within man's soul, else
Speaker 1: it becomes a monster, the root of all the evils
Speaker 1: on earth, the root of man's torture by men, and
Speaker 1: an unspeakable lie. The word we is as lime poured
Speaker 1: over men, which sets and hardens to stone and crushes
Speaker 1: all beneath it. And that which is white and that
Speaker 1: which is black are lost equally in the gray of it.
Speaker 1: And it is the word by which the depraved steal
Speaker 1: the virtue of the good, by which the weak steal
Speaker 1: the might of the strong, and by which the fools
Speaker 1: still the wisdom of the sages. What is my joy
Speaker 1: if all hands, even the unclean, can reach into it?
Speaker 1: What is my wisdom if even the fools can dictate
Speaker 1: to me? What is my freedom? If all creatures, even
Speaker 1: the botched and impotent, are my masters? What is my life?
Speaker 1: If I am but to bow, to agree and to obey.
Speaker 1: But I am done with this creed of corruption. I
Speaker 1: am done with the monster of we, the word of serfdom,
Speaker 1: of plunder, of misery, and falsehood and shame. And now
Speaker 1: I see the face of God, and I raise this
Speaker 1: God over the earth, and this God whom men have
Speaker 1: sawt since men came into being, This God who will
Speaker 1: grant them joy and peace and pride, This God, this
Speaker 1: one word, I end Chapter eleven, Chapter twelve. It was
Speaker 1: when I read the first of the books I found
Speaker 1: in my house that I saw the word I. And
Speaker 1: when I understood this word, the book fell from my hands,
Speaker 1: and I wept, I who had never known tears. I
Speaker 1: wept in deliverance and in pity for all mankind. I
Speaker 1: understood the blessed thing which I had called my curse.
Speaker 1: I understood why the best in me had been my
Speaker 1: sins and my transgressions, and why I had never felt
Speaker 1: guilt in my sins. I understood that centuries of chains
Speaker 1: and lash will not kill the spirit of man, nor
Speaker 1: the sense of truth within him. I read many books
Speaker 1: for many days. Then I called the Golden One, and
Speaker 1: I told her what I had read and what I
Speaker 1: had learned. She looked at me, and the first words
Speaker 1: she spoke were I love you. Then I said, my
Speaker 1: dearest one, it is not proper for men to be
Speaker 1: without names. There was a time when each man had
Speaker 1: a name of his own to distinguish him from all
Speaker 1: other men. So let us choose our names. I have
Speaker 1: read of a man who lived many thousands of years ago,
Speaker 1: and of all the names in these books, his is
Speaker 1: the one I wished to bear. He took the light
Speaker 1: of the gods and brought it to men, and he
Speaker 1: taught men to be gods. And he suffered for his deed,
Speaker 1: as all bearers of light must suffer. His name was Prometheus.
Speaker 1: It shall be your name, said the Golden One. And
Speaker 1: I have read of a goddess, I said, who was
Speaker 1: the mother of the earth and of all the gods.
Speaker 1: Her name was Gaea. Let this be your name, my
Speaker 1: Golden One, for you are to be the mother of
Speaker 1: a new kind of gods. It shall be my name,
Speaker 1: said the Golden One. Now I look ahead. My future
Speaker 1: is clear before me. The Saint of the Pyre had
Speaker 1: seen the future when he chose me as his heir,
Speaker 1: as the heir of all the saints and all the
Speaker 1: martyrs who came before him, and who died for the
Speaker 1: same cause, for the same word, no matter what name
Speaker 1: they gave to their cause and their truth. I shall
Speaker 1: live here in my own house. I shall take my
Speaker 1: food from the earth by the toil of my own hands.
Speaker 1: I shall learn many secrets from my books. Through the
Speaker 1: years ahead, I shall rebuild the achievements of the past
Speaker 1: and open the way to carry them further, the achievements
Speaker 1: which are open to me, but close forever to my brothers,
Speaker 1: for their minds are shackled to the weakest and dullest
Speaker 1: among them. I have learned that the power of the
Speaker 1: sky was known to men long ago. They called it electricity.
Speaker 1: It was the power that moved their greatest invention. It
Speaker 1: lit this house with light that came from those globes
Speaker 1: of glass on the walls. I have found the engine
Speaker 1: which produced this light. I shall learn how to repair
Speaker 1: it and how to make it work again. I shall
Speaker 1: learn how to use the wires which carry this power.
Speaker 1: Then I shall build a barrier of wires around my
Speaker 1: home and across the paths which lead to my home.
Speaker 1: A barrier light as a cobweb, more impassable than a
Speaker 1: wall of granite a barrier my brothers will never be
Speaker 1: able to cross, for they have nothing to fight me
Speaker 1: with save the brute force of their numbers. I have
Speaker 1: my mind. Then, here on this mountain top, with the
Speaker 1: world below me and nothing above me but the sun,
Speaker 1: I shall live my own truth. Gay is pregnant with
Speaker 1: my child. He will be taught to say I, and
Speaker 1: to bear the pride of it. He will be taught
Speaker 1: to walk straight on his own feet. He will be
Speaker 1: taught reverence for his own spirit. When I shall have
Speaker 1: read all the books and learned my new way, when
Speaker 1: my home will be ready and my earth tilled, I
Speaker 1: shall steal one day for the last time, into the
Speaker 1: cursed city of my birth. I shall call to me,
Speaker 1: my friend who has no name save international four eight
Speaker 1: eight one eight, and all those like him Fraternity two
Speaker 1: five five o three, who cries without reason in solidarity
Speaker 1: nine six three four seven, who calls for help in
Speaker 1: the night, and a few others. I shall call to
Speaker 1: me all the men and women whose spirit has not
Speaker 1: been killed within them, and who suffer under the yoke
Speaker 1: of their brothers. They will follow me, and I shall
Speaker 1: lead them to my fortress. And here in this uncharted wilderness.
Speaker 1: I and they, my chosen friends, my fellow builders, shall
Speaker 1: write the first chapter in the new history of Man.
Speaker 1: These are the last things before me. And as I
Speaker 1: stand here at the door of glory, I look behind
Speaker 1: me for the last time. I look upon the history
Speaker 1: of men, which I have learned from the books, and
Speaker 1: I wonder. It was a long story, and the spirit
Speaker 1: which moved it was the spirit of man's freedom. But
Speaker 1: what is freedom? Freedom from what? There is nothing to
Speaker 1: take a man's freedom away from him, save other men.
Speaker 1: To be free, a man must be free of his brothers.
Speaker 1: That is freedom, that and nothing else. At first man
Speaker 1: was enslaved by the gods, but he broke their chains.
Speaker 1: Then he was enslaved by the kings, but he broke
Speaker 1: their chains. He was enslaved by his birth, by his kin,
Speaker 1: by his race, but he broke their chains. He declared
Speaker 1: to all his brothers that a man has rights which
Speaker 1: neither God, nor king, nor other men can take away
Speaker 1: from him, no matter what their number, For his is
Speaker 1: the right of man. And there is no right on
Speaker 1: earth above this right. And he stood on the threshold
Speaker 1: to freedom, for which the blood of the centuries behind
Speaker 1: him had spilled. But then he gave up all he
Speaker 1: had won, and fell lower than his savage beginning. What
Speaker 1: brought it to pass? What disaster took their reason away
Speaker 1: from men? What whip lashed them to their knees in
Speaker 1: shame and submission? The worship of the word We. When
Speaker 1: men accepted that worship, the structure of centuries collapsed about them,
Speaker 1: the structure whose every beam had come from the thought
Speaker 1: of some one man, each in his day, down the ages,
Speaker 1: from the depths of some one's spirit, such as spirit existed,
Speaker 1: but for its own sake. Those men who survived, those
Speaker 1: eager to obey, eager to live for one another. Since
Speaker 1: they had nothing else to vindicate them, those men could
Speaker 1: neither carry on nor preserve what they had received. Thus
Speaker 1: did all thought, all science, all wisdom perish on earth.
Speaker 1: Thus did men, men with nothing to offer save their
Speaker 1: great numbers, lose the steel towers, the flying ships, the
Speaker 1: power wires, all the things that had not created and
Speaker 1: could never keep. Perhaps later some men had been born
Speaker 1: with the mind and the courage to recover these things
Speaker 1: which were lost. Perhaps these men came before the Councilor
Speaker 1: of Scholars. They answered as I had been answered and
Speaker 1: for the same reasons. But I still wonder how it
Speaker 1: was possible, in those graceless years of transition long ago,
Speaker 1: that men did not see whither they were going, and
Speaker 1: went on in blindness and cowardice to their fate. I wonder,
Speaker 1: for it is hard for me to conceive how men
Speaker 1: who knew the word I could give it up and
Speaker 1: not know what they had lost. But such has been
Speaker 1: the story. For I have lived in the city of
Speaker 1: the damned, and I know what horror men permitted to
Speaker 1: be brought upon them. Perhaps in those days there were
Speaker 1: few among men, a few of clear sight and clean soul,
Speaker 1: who refused to surrender that word. What agony must have
Speaker 1: been theirs before that which they saw coming and could
Speaker 1: not stop. Perhaps they cried out in protest and in warning,
Speaker 1: but men paid no heed to their warning, and they
Speaker 1: those few fought a hopeless battle, and they perished, with
Speaker 1: their banners smeared by their own blood. And they chose
Speaker 1: to perish, for they knew to them. I send my
Speaker 1: salute across the centuries, and my pity theirs is the
Speaker 1: banner in my hand, And I wish I had the
Speaker 1: power to tell them that the despair of their hearts
Speaker 1: was not to be final, and their night was not
Speaker 1: without hope. For the battle they lost can never be lost.
Speaker 1: For that which they died to save, can never perish.
Speaker 1: Through all the darkness, through all the shame of which
Speaker 1: men are capable, the spirit of man will remain alive
Speaker 1: on this earth. It may sleep, but it will awaken.
Speaker 1: It may wear chains, but it will break through, and
Speaker 1: man will go on man not men. Here on this mountain,
Speaker 1: I and my sons and my chosen friends shall build
Speaker 1: our new land and our fort, and it will become
Speaker 1: as the heart of the earth, lost and hidden at first,
Speaker 1: but beating, beating louder each day, and word of it
Speaker 1: will reach every corner of the earth, and the roads
Speaker 1: of the world will become as veins which will carry
Speaker 1: the best of the world's blood to my threshold. And
Speaker 1: all my brothers and the councils of my brothers will
Speaker 1: hear of it, but they will be impotent against me.
Speaker 1: And the day will come when I shall break the
Speaker 1: chains of the earth and raise the cities of the enslaved,
Speaker 1: and my home will become the capital of a world
Speaker 1: where each man will be free to exist for his
Speaker 1: own sake, for the coming of that day, I shall fight,
Speaker 1: I and my sons and my chosen friends, for the
Speaker 1: freedom of man, for his rights, for his life, for
Speaker 1: his honor. And here over the portals of my fort
Speaker 1: I shall cut in the stone the word which is
Speaker 1: to be my beacon and my banner. The word which
Speaker 1: will not die, shall we all perish in battle. The
Speaker 1: word which can never die on this earth, for it
Speaker 1: is the heart of it, and the meaning and the glory,
Speaker 1: the sacred word ego end Chapter twelve, and of anthem
Speaker 1: by an Ran