WEBVTT

1
00:00:01.120 --> 00:00:06.120
<v Speaker 1>Chapter twelve of Anthem. This is a LibriVox recording. All

2
00:00:06.160 --> 00:00:09.800
<v Speaker 1>LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information

3
00:00:09.919 --> 00:00:13.560
<v Speaker 1>or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by

4
00:00:13.599 --> 00:00:20.079
<v Speaker 1>Caden von Clegg. Anthem by Einrandt, Chapter twelve. It was

5
00:00:20.120 --> 00:00:22.239
<v Speaker 1>when I read the first of the books I found

6
00:00:22.280 --> 00:00:25.679
<v Speaker 1>in my house that I saw the word I. And

7
00:00:25.719 --> 00:00:28.160
<v Speaker 1>when I understood this word, the book fell from my

8
00:00:28.280 --> 00:00:32.759
<v Speaker 1>hands and I wept, I who had never known tears.

9
00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:36.759
<v Speaker 1>I wept in deliverance and in pity for all mankind.

10
00:00:37.479 --> 00:00:40.960
<v Speaker 1>I understood the blessed thing which I had called my curse.

11
00:00:41.560 --> 00:00:43.880
<v Speaker 1>I understood why the best in me had been my

12
00:00:44.039 --> 00:00:47.840
<v Speaker 1>sins and my transgressions, and why I had never felt

13
00:00:47.840 --> 00:00:51.799
<v Speaker 1>guilt in my sins. I understood that centuries of chains

14
00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:54.520
<v Speaker 1>and lashes will not kill the spirit of man, nor

15
00:00:54.560 --> 00:00:58.079
<v Speaker 1>the sense of truth within him. I read many books

16
00:00:58.479 --> 00:01:01.799
<v Speaker 1>for many days. Then I called the Golden One and

17
00:01:01.880 --> 00:01:03.799
<v Speaker 1>I told her what I had read and what I

18
00:01:03.840 --> 00:01:06.640
<v Speaker 1>had learned. She looked at me, and the first words

19
00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:10.519
<v Speaker 1>she spoke were I love you. Then I said, my

20
00:01:10.599 --> 00:01:13.319
<v Speaker 1>dearest one, it is not proper for men to be

21
00:01:13.400 --> 00:01:16.359
<v Speaker 1>without names. There was a time when each man had

22
00:01:16.359 --> 00:01:18.799
<v Speaker 1>a name of his own to distinguish him from all

23
00:01:18.840 --> 00:01:22.280
<v Speaker 1>other men. So let us choose our names. I have

24
00:01:22.359 --> 00:01:25.439
<v Speaker 1>read of a man who lived many thousands of years ago,

25
00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:28.239
<v Speaker 1>and of all the names in these books, his is

26
00:01:28.280 --> 00:01:30.959
<v Speaker 1>the one I wish to bear. He took the light

27
00:01:31.079 --> 00:01:33.519
<v Speaker 1>of the gods, and he brought it to men, and

28
00:01:33.640 --> 00:01:36.519
<v Speaker 1>he taught men to be gods. And he suffered for

29
00:01:36.560 --> 00:01:39.840
<v Speaker 1>his deeds, as all bearers of light must suffer. His

30
00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:43.840
<v Speaker 1>name was Prometheus. It shall be your name, said the

31
00:01:43.879 --> 00:01:47.319
<v Speaker 1>Golden One. And I have read of a goddess, I said,

32
00:01:47.840 --> 00:01:50.200
<v Speaker 1>who was the mother of the earth and of all

33
00:01:50.239 --> 00:01:54.719
<v Speaker 1>the gods. Her name was Gia. Let this be your name,

34
00:01:54.879 --> 00:01:57.519
<v Speaker 1>my Golden One, for you are to be the mother

35
00:01:57.640 --> 00:02:00.840
<v Speaker 1>of a new kind of gods. Shall be my name,

36
00:02:00.959 --> 00:02:04.680
<v Speaker 1>said the Golden One. Now I look ahead. My future

37
00:02:04.760 --> 00:02:07.879
<v Speaker 1>is clear before me. The Saint of the Pyre had

38
00:02:07.879 --> 00:02:10.080
<v Speaker 1>seen the future when he chose me as his heir,

39
00:02:10.159 --> 00:02:12.319
<v Speaker 1>as the heir of all the saints and all the

40
00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:14.919
<v Speaker 1>martyrs who came before him, and who died for the

41
00:02:14.960 --> 00:02:18.080
<v Speaker 1>same cause, for the same word, no matter what name

42
00:02:18.120 --> 00:02:21.120
<v Speaker 1>they gave to their cause and their truth. I shall

43
00:02:21.120 --> 00:02:24.080
<v Speaker 1>live here in my own house. I shall take my

44
00:02:24.199 --> 00:02:26.960
<v Speaker 1>food from the earth by the toil of my own hands.

45
00:02:27.439 --> 00:02:30.560
<v Speaker 1>I shall learn many secrets from my books. Through the

46
00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:33.479
<v Speaker 1>years ahead, I shall rebuild the achievements of the past

47
00:02:34.080 --> 00:02:37.520
<v Speaker 1>and open the way to carry them further, the achievements

48
00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:40.719
<v Speaker 1>which are open to me, but closed forever to my brothers,

49
00:02:41.039 --> 00:02:43.960
<v Speaker 1>for their minds are shackled to the weakest and dullest

50
00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:46.719
<v Speaker 1>ones among them. I have learned that my power of

51
00:02:46.759 --> 00:02:49.800
<v Speaker 1>the sky was known to men long ago. They called

52
00:02:49.840 --> 00:02:54.360
<v Speaker 1>it electricity. It was the power that moved their greatest inventions.

53
00:02:54.560 --> 00:02:56.840
<v Speaker 1>It lit this house with light, which came from those

54
00:02:56.879 --> 00:02:59.759
<v Speaker 1>globes of glass on the walls. I have found the

55
00:02:59.800 --> 00:03:03.000
<v Speaker 1>end engine which produced this light. I shall learn how

56
00:03:03.039 --> 00:03:05.360
<v Speaker 1>to repair it and how to make it work again.

57
00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:08.360
<v Speaker 1>I shall learn how to use the wires which carry

58
00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:12.000
<v Speaker 1>this power. Then I shall build a barrier of wires

59
00:03:12.039 --> 00:03:14.919
<v Speaker 1>around my home and across the path which lead to

60
00:03:14.960 --> 00:03:18.800
<v Speaker 1>my home, A barrier light as a cobweb, more impassable

61
00:03:18.840 --> 00:03:21.759
<v Speaker 1>than a wall of granite. A barrier my brothers will

62
00:03:21.759 --> 00:03:24.400
<v Speaker 1>never be able to cross, for they have nothing to

63
00:03:24.439 --> 00:03:26.960
<v Speaker 1>fight me with save the brute force of their numbers.

64
00:03:27.400 --> 00:03:31.280
<v Speaker 1>I have my mind, then here on this mountain top,

65
00:03:31.520 --> 00:03:34.280
<v Speaker 1>with the world below me and nothing above me but

66
00:03:34.319 --> 00:03:38.039
<v Speaker 1>the Sun, I shall live my own truth. Gaia is

67
00:03:38.120 --> 00:03:41.000
<v Speaker 1>pregnant with my child. Our Sun will be raised as

68
00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:44.080
<v Speaker 1>a man. He will be taught to say I and

69
00:03:44.120 --> 00:03:46.319
<v Speaker 1>to bear the pride of it. He will be taught

70
00:03:46.360 --> 00:03:49.159
<v Speaker 1>to walk straight and on his own feet. He will

71
00:03:49.199 --> 00:03:52.360
<v Speaker 1>be taught reverence for his own spirit. When I shall

72
00:03:52.400 --> 00:03:54.680
<v Speaker 1>have read all the books and learned my new way,

73
00:03:55.159 --> 00:03:57.639
<v Speaker 1>when my home will be ready and my earth tilled,

74
00:03:58.199 --> 00:04:00.800
<v Speaker 1>I shall steal one day for the last time, into

75
00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:03.800
<v Speaker 1>the cursed city of my birth. I shall call to me,

76
00:04:03.960 --> 00:04:07.479
<v Speaker 1>my friend who has no name save International four dash

77
00:04:07.520 --> 00:04:11.080
<v Speaker 1>eight eight one eight, and all those like him, Fraternity

78
00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:14.240
<v Speaker 1>two dash five five zero three, who cries without reason,

79
00:04:14.719 --> 00:04:18.000
<v Speaker 1>and solidarity nine as six three four seven, who calls

80
00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:20.439
<v Speaker 1>for help in the night, and a few others. I

81
00:04:20.480 --> 00:04:22.639
<v Speaker 1>shall call to me all the men and the women

82
00:04:22.639 --> 00:04:25.439
<v Speaker 1>whose spirit has not been killed within them, and who

83
00:04:25.519 --> 00:04:28.399
<v Speaker 1>suffer under the yoke of their brothers. They will follow me,

84
00:04:28.879 --> 00:04:31.279
<v Speaker 1>and I shall lead them to my fortress. And here

85
00:04:31.519 --> 00:04:35.519
<v Speaker 1>in this uncharted wilderness, I and they, my chosen friends,

86
00:04:35.920 --> 00:04:38.879
<v Speaker 1>my fellow builders, shall write the first chapter in the

87
00:04:38.920 --> 00:04:42.199
<v Speaker 1>new history of man. These are the things before me.

88
00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:45.040
<v Speaker 1>And as I stand here at the door of Glory,

89
00:04:45.240 --> 00:04:48.079
<v Speaker 1>I look behind me for the last time. I look

90
00:04:48.160 --> 00:04:50.319
<v Speaker 1>upon the history of men, which I have learned from

91
00:04:50.319 --> 00:04:53.480
<v Speaker 1>the books, and I wonder. It was a long story,

92
00:04:53.839 --> 00:04:55.920
<v Speaker 1>and the spirit which moved it was the spirit of

93
00:04:55.959 --> 00:05:00.319
<v Speaker 1>man's freedom. But what is freedom? Freedom from what? There

94
00:05:00.399 --> 00:05:02.600
<v Speaker 1>is nothing to take a man's freedom away from him,

95
00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:05.439
<v Speaker 1>save other men. To be free, a man must be

96
00:05:05.519 --> 00:05:09.319
<v Speaker 1>free of his brothers. That is freedom, that and nothing else.

97
00:05:10.480 --> 00:05:13.120
<v Speaker 1>At first man was enslaved by the gods, but he

98
00:05:13.199 --> 00:05:16.600
<v Speaker 1>broke their chains. Then he was enslaved by the kings,

99
00:05:17.079 --> 00:05:20.319
<v Speaker 1>but he broke their chains. He was enslaved by his birth,

100
00:05:20.439 --> 00:05:23.879
<v Speaker 1>by his kin, by his race, but he broke their chains.

101
00:05:24.519 --> 00:05:27.720
<v Speaker 1>He declared to all his brothers that a man has

102
00:05:27.879 --> 00:05:31.800
<v Speaker 1>rights which neither God, nor king, nor other men can

103
00:05:31.839 --> 00:05:35.079
<v Speaker 1>take away from him, no matter what their number, For

104
00:05:35.160 --> 00:05:37.519
<v Speaker 1>his is the right of man. And there is no

105
00:05:37.720 --> 00:05:40.560
<v Speaker 1>right on earth above this right. And he stood on

106
00:05:40.639 --> 00:05:43.160
<v Speaker 1>the threshold of the freedom for which the blood of

107
00:05:43.160 --> 00:05:46.680
<v Speaker 1>the centuries behind him had been spilled. But then he

108
00:05:46.759 --> 00:05:50.040
<v Speaker 1>gave up all he had won, and fell lower than

109
00:05:50.079 --> 00:05:54.079
<v Speaker 1>his savage Beginning what brought it to pass. What disaster

110
00:05:54.199 --> 00:05:57.600
<v Speaker 1>took their reason away from men? What whit lashed them

111
00:05:57.639 --> 00:06:01.040
<v Speaker 1>to their knees in shame and submission the worship of

112
00:06:01.079 --> 00:06:05.639
<v Speaker 1>the Word We. When men accepted that worship, the structure

113
00:06:05.680 --> 00:06:09.519
<v Speaker 1>of centuries collapsed about them, the structure whose every beam

114
00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:12.519
<v Speaker 1>had come from the thought of some one man, each

115
00:06:12.560 --> 00:06:15.120
<v Speaker 1>in his day, down the ages, from the depth of

116
00:06:15.240 --> 00:06:18.920
<v Speaker 1>some one spirit, such spirit as existed. But for its

117
00:06:18.959 --> 00:06:23.639
<v Speaker 1>own sake, those men who survived, those eager to obey,

118
00:06:24.040 --> 00:06:26.399
<v Speaker 1>eager to live for one another. Since they had nothing

119
00:06:26.399 --> 00:06:29.519
<v Speaker 1>else to vindicate them, those men could neither carry on

120
00:06:29.720 --> 00:06:33.120
<v Speaker 1>nor preserve what they had received. Thus did all thought,

121
00:06:33.319 --> 00:06:37.000
<v Speaker 1>all science, all wisdom perish on earth. Thus did men,

122
00:06:37.399 --> 00:06:40.639
<v Speaker 1>men with nothing to offer save their great numbers, lose

123
00:06:40.680 --> 00:06:44.319
<v Speaker 1>the steel towers, the flying ships, the power wires, all

124
00:06:44.360 --> 00:06:46.920
<v Speaker 1>the things they had not created and could never keep.

125
00:06:47.519 --> 00:06:50.399
<v Speaker 1>Perhaps later some men had been born with the mind

126
00:06:50.480 --> 00:06:52.959
<v Speaker 1>and the courage to recover these things which were lost.

127
00:06:53.399 --> 00:06:57.000
<v Speaker 1>Perhaps these men came before the councils of scholars. They

128
00:06:57.000 --> 00:06:59.360
<v Speaker 1>were answered as I have been answered, and for the

129
00:06:59.399 --> 00:07:02.800
<v Speaker 1>same reason. But I still wonder how it was possible

130
00:07:02.879 --> 00:07:06.720
<v Speaker 1>in those graceless years of transition long ago, that men

131
00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:09.319
<v Speaker 1>did not see whither they were going, and went on

132
00:07:09.560 --> 00:07:13.680
<v Speaker 1>in blindness and cowardice to their fate. I wonder, for

133
00:07:13.759 --> 00:07:16.079
<v Speaker 1>it is hard for me to conceive how men who

134
00:07:16.160 --> 00:07:18.839
<v Speaker 1>knew the word I could give it up and not

135
00:07:19.079 --> 00:07:22.160
<v Speaker 1>know what they lost. But such has been the story.

136
00:07:22.360 --> 00:07:24.399
<v Speaker 1>For I have lived in the city of the damned,

137
00:07:24.839 --> 00:07:27.040
<v Speaker 1>and I know what horror men permitted to be brought

138
00:07:27.120 --> 00:07:30.720
<v Speaker 1>upon them. Perhaps in those days there were a few

139
00:07:30.759 --> 00:07:34.680
<v Speaker 1>among men, a few of clear sight and clean soul,

140
00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:38.560
<v Speaker 1>who refused to surrender that word. What agony must have

141
00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:41.920
<v Speaker 1>been theirs before that which they saw coming and could

142
00:07:41.920 --> 00:07:45.959
<v Speaker 1>not stop. Perhaps they cried out in protest and warning,

143
00:07:46.560 --> 00:07:49.279
<v Speaker 1>But men paid no heed to their warning, And they

144
00:07:49.600 --> 00:07:52.959
<v Speaker 1>these few fought a hopeless battle, and they perished, with

145
00:07:53.040 --> 00:07:56.399
<v Speaker 1>their banners smeared by their own blood. And they chose

146
00:07:56.439 --> 00:07:59.800
<v Speaker 1>to perish, for they knew to them. I send my

147
00:08:00.040 --> 00:08:03.680
<v Speaker 1>salute across the centuries, and my pity theirs is the

148
00:08:03.680 --> 00:08:06.120
<v Speaker 1>banner in my hand, And I wish I had the

149
00:08:06.160 --> 00:08:08.759
<v Speaker 1>power to tell them that the despair of their hearts

150
00:08:08.839 --> 00:08:11.519
<v Speaker 1>was not to be final, and their night was not

151
00:08:11.639 --> 00:08:15.120
<v Speaker 1>without hope. For the battle they lost can never be lost,

152
00:08:15.759 --> 00:08:18.839
<v Speaker 1>for that which they died to save can never perish.

153
00:08:19.279 --> 00:08:21.920
<v Speaker 1>Through all the darkness, through all the shame of which

154
00:08:21.959 --> 00:08:24.519
<v Speaker 1>men are capable, the spirit of man will remain alive

155
00:08:24.600 --> 00:08:28.240
<v Speaker 1>on this earth. It may sleep, but it will awaken.

156
00:08:28.680 --> 00:08:31.360
<v Speaker 1>It may wear chains, but it will break through, and

157
00:08:31.480 --> 00:08:36.360
<v Speaker 1>man will go on man not men. Here on this mountain,

158
00:08:36.519 --> 00:08:39.960
<v Speaker 1>I and my sons and my chosen friends shall build

159
00:08:40.039 --> 00:08:42.799
<v Speaker 1>our new land and our fort, and it will become

160
00:08:42.919 --> 00:08:45.799
<v Speaker 1>as the heart of the earth, lost and hidden at first,

161
00:08:45.879 --> 00:08:49.559
<v Speaker 1>but beating, beating louder each day, and word of it

162
00:08:49.679 --> 00:08:53.120
<v Speaker 1>will reach every corner of the earth, and the roads

163
00:08:53.120 --> 00:08:55.600
<v Speaker 1>of the world will become as veins which will carry

164
00:08:55.639 --> 00:08:59.200
<v Speaker 1>the best of the world's blood to my threshold. And

165
00:08:59.320 --> 00:09:02.080
<v Speaker 1>all my brother and the counsels of my brothers will

166
00:09:02.120 --> 00:09:04.639
<v Speaker 1>hear of it, but they will be impotent against me.

167
00:09:05.360 --> 00:09:08.000
<v Speaker 1>And the day will come when I shall break all

168
00:09:08.080 --> 00:09:10.320
<v Speaker 1>the chains of the earth and raise the cities of

169
00:09:10.360 --> 00:09:13.519
<v Speaker 1>the enslaved, and my home will become the capital of

170
00:09:13.559 --> 00:09:16.159
<v Speaker 1>the world, where each man will be free to exist

171
00:09:16.200 --> 00:09:19.159
<v Speaker 1>for his own sake. For the coming of that day

172
00:09:19.159 --> 00:09:22.360
<v Speaker 1>shall I fight, I and my sons and my chosen

173
00:09:22.399 --> 00:09:25.360
<v Speaker 1>friends for the freedom of man, for his rights, for

174
00:09:25.440 --> 00:09:28.840
<v Speaker 1>his life, for his honor. And here over the portals

175
00:09:28.879 --> 00:09:31.279
<v Speaker 1>of my fort, I shall cut in the stone the

176
00:09:31.360 --> 00:09:33.720
<v Speaker 1>word which is to be my beacon and my banner.

177
00:09:34.240 --> 00:09:37.600
<v Speaker 1>The word which will not die should we all perish

178
00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:40.759
<v Speaker 1>in battle. The word which can never die on this earth,

179
00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:43.200
<v Speaker 1>for it is the heart of it, and the meaning

180
00:09:43.360 --> 00:09:49.559
<v Speaker 1>and the glory, the sacred word ego. End of Chapter twelve,

181
00:09:50.120 --> 00:09:53.960
<v Speaker 1>recording by Catin von Klegg The Lunar Island dot blogspot

182
00:09:54.080 --> 00:09:58.039
<v Speaker 1>dot com. End of anthem by Ein Rand