Speaker 1: Chapter three of Anthem. This is a LibriVox recording. All
Speaker 1: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
Speaker 1: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by
Speaker 1: Caden von Klegg Anthem by Einrandt, Chapter three. We equality
Speaker 1: seven dash two five two one have discovered a new
Speaker 1: power of nature. And we have discovered it alone, and
Speaker 1: we are alone to know it. It is said, now,
Speaker 1: let us be lashed for it, if we must. The
Speaker 1: Council of Scholars has said that we all know the
Speaker 1: things which exist, and therefore the things which are not
Speaker 1: known by all do not exist. But we think that
Speaker 1: the Council of Scholars is blind. The secrets of this
Speaker 1: earth are not for all men to see, but only
Speaker 1: for those who will seek them. We know, for we
Speaker 1: have found a secret unknown to all our brothers. We
Speaker 1: know not what this power is, nor whence it comes,
Speaker 1: but we know its nature. We have watched it and
Speaker 1: worked with it. We saw it first two years ago.
Speaker 1: One night, we were cutting open the body of a
Speaker 1: dead frog when we saw its leg jerking. It was dead,
Speaker 1: yet it moved. Some power unknown to men was making
Speaker 1: it move. We could not understand it. Then, after many tests,
Speaker 1: we found the answer. The frog had been hanging on
Speaker 1: a wire of copper, and it had been the metal
Speaker 1: of our knife which had sent a strange power to
Speaker 1: the copper through the brine of the frog's body. We
Speaker 1: put a piece of copper and a piece of zinc
Speaker 1: into a jar of brine. We touched a wire to them,
Speaker 1: and there under our fingers was a miracle which had
Speaker 1: never occurred before, a new miracle and a new power.
Speaker 1: This discovery haunted us. We followed it in preference to
Speaker 1: all our studies. We worked with it, We tested it
Speaker 1: in more ways than we can describe, and each step
Speaker 1: was another miracle unveiling before us. We came to know
Speaker 1: that we had found the greatest power on earth, for
Speaker 1: it defies all the laws known to men. It makes
Speaker 1: the needle move and turn on the compass, which we
Speaker 1: stole from the home of the scholars. But we had
Speaker 1: been taught, when still a child, that the lodestone points
Speaker 1: to the north, and that this is a law which
Speaker 1: nothing can change. Yet our new power defies all laws.
Speaker 1: We found that it causes lightning, and never have men
Speaker 1: known what causes lightning in thunder storms. We raised a
Speaker 1: tall rod of iron by the side of our hull,
Speaker 1: and we watched it from below. We have seen the
Speaker 1: lightning strike it again and again. And now we know
Speaker 1: that metal draws the power of the sky, and that
Speaker 1: metal can be made to give it. Forth. We have
Speaker 1: built strange things with this discovery of ours. We used
Speaker 1: for it the copper wires which we found here under
Speaker 1: the ground. We have walked the length of our tunnel
Speaker 1: with a candle lighting the way. We could go no
Speaker 1: farther than half a mile, for earth and rock had
Speaker 1: fallen at both ends. But we gathered all the things
Speaker 1: we found, and we brought them to our workplace. We
Speaker 1: found strange boxes with bars of metal inside, with many
Speaker 1: cords and strands and coils of metal. We found wires
Speaker 1: that led to strange little globes of glass on the walls.
Speaker 1: They contain threads of metal thinner than a spider's web.
Speaker 1: These things help us in our work. We do not
Speaker 1: understand them, but we think that the men of the
Speaker 1: unmentionable times had known our power of the sky, and
Speaker 1: these things had some relation to it. We do not know,
Speaker 1: but we shall learn. We cannot stop now, even though
Speaker 1: it frightens us. That we are alone in our knowledge.
Speaker 1: No single one can possess greater wisdom than the many
Speaker 1: scholars who are elected by all men for their wisdom.
Speaker 1: Yet we can, we do. We have fought against saying it,
Speaker 1: But now it is said. We do not care. We
Speaker 1: forget all men, all laws, and all things, save our
Speaker 1: metals and our wires, so much as still to be learned.
Speaker 1: So long a road lies before us, And what care
Speaker 1: we if we must travel it alone? End of Chapter three.
Speaker 1: Recording by Kaden von Klegg The Lunar Island dot blogspot
Speaker 1: dot com