Singular. | Masc. | Fem. || Plural. | Masc. | Fem.
———————|———-|———||—————|———-|————
I am | ava | ava || We are | avau | avaa
Thou art | avo | avoo || You are | avou | avu
He or she is | avy | ave || They are | avoi | avee
———————|———-|———||—————|———-|————
The terminations are the three pronouns, feminine and masculine, singular and plural, each represented by one of twelve vowel11 characters, and declined like nouns. When a nominative immediately follows the verb, the pronominal suffix13 is generally dropped, unless required by euphony14. Thus, "a man strikes" is dak klaftas, but in the past tense, dakny klaftas, the verb without the suffix being unpronounceable. The past tense is formed by the insertion of n (avna: "I have been"), the future by m: avma. The imperative15, avsa; which in the first person is used to convey determination or resolve; avsa, spoken in a peremptory16 tone, meaning "I will be," while avso, according to the intonation17, means "be" or "thou shalt be;" i.e., shalt whether or no. R forms the conditional18, avra, and ren the conditional past, avrena, "I should have been." The need for a passive voice is avoided by the simple method of putting the pronoun in the accusative; thus, daca signifies "I strike," dacal (me strike) "I am struck." The infinitive19 is avi; avyta, "being;" avnyta, "having been;" avmyta, "about to be." These are declined like nouns, of which latter there are six forms, the masculine in a, o, and y, the feminine in a, oo, and e; the plurals20 being formed exactly as in the pronominal suffixes21 of the verb. The root-word, without inflexion, alone is used where the name is employed in no connection with a verb, where in every terrestrial language the nominative would be employed. Thus, my guide had named the squirrel-monkeys ambau (sing. amba); but the word is declined as follows:—
Singular. Plural.
Nominative ambas ambaus
Accusative ambal ambaul
Dative, to or in amban ambaun
Ablative, by or from ambam ambaum
The five other forms are declined in the same manner, the vowel of the last syllable22 only differing. Adjectives are declined like nouns, but have no comparative or superlative degree; the former being expressed by prefixing the intensitive syllable ca, the latter, when used (which is but seldom) by the prefix23 ela, signifying the in an emphatic24 sense, as his Grace of Wellington is in England called The Duke par4 excellence25. Prepositions and adverbs end in t or d.
Each form of the noun has, as a rule, its special relation to the verb of the same root: thus from dac, "strike," are derived26 daca, "weapon" or "hammer;", daco, a "stroke" or "striking" [as given] both masculine; daca, "anvil27;" dacoo, "blow" or "beating" [as received]; and dake, "a thing beaten," feminine. The sixth form, daky, masculine, has in this case no proper signification, and not being wanted, is not used. Individual letters or syllables28 are largely employed in combination to give new and even contradictory29 meanings to a root. Thus n, like the Latin in, signifies "penetration," "motion towards," or simply "remaining in a place," or, again, "permanence." M, like the Latin ab or ex, indicates "motion from." R expresses "uncertainty30" or "incompleteness," and is employed to convert a statement into a question, or a relative pronoun into one of inquiry31. G, like the Greek a or anti, generally signifies "opposition32" or "negation33;" ca is, as aforesaid, intensitive, and is employed, for example, to convert afi, "to breathe," into cafi, "to speak." Cr is by itself an interjection of abhorrence34 or disgust; in composition it indicates detestation or destruction: thus, craky signifies "hatred35;" cravi, "the destruction of life" or "to kill." L for the most part indicates passivity, but with different effect according to its place in the word. Thus mepi signifies "to rule;" mepil, "to be ruled;" melpi, "to control one's self;" lempi, "to obey." The signification of roots themselves is modified by a modification36 of the principal vowel or consonant, i.e., by exchanging the original for one closely related. Thus avi, "exist;" avi, "be," in the positive sense of being this or that; afi, "live;" afi, "breathe." Z is a diminutive37; zin, "with," often abbreviated38 to zn, "combination," "union." Thus znaftau means "those who were brought into life together," or "brethren."
I may add, before I quit this subject, that the Martial39 system of arithmetic differs from ours principally in the use of a duodecimal instead of a decimal basis. Figures are written on a surface divided into minute squares, and the value of a figure, whether it signify so many units, dozens, twelve dozens, and so forth40, depends upon the square in which it is placed. The central square of a line represents the unit's place, and is marked by a line drawn41 above it. Thus a figure answering to our I, if placed in the fourth square to the left, represents 1728. In the third place to the right, counting the unit square in both cases, it signifies 1/144, and so forth.
In less than a fortnight I had obtained a general idea of the language, and was able to read easily the graven representations of spoken sound which I have described; and by the end of a month (to use a word which had no meaning here) I could speak intelligibly42 if not freely. Only in a language so simple could my own anxiety to overcome as soon as possible a fatal obstacle to all investigation43 of this new world, and the diligent44 and patient assistance given by my host or his son for a great part of every day, have enabled me to make such rapid progress. I had noted45 even, during the short evening gatherings46 when the whole family was assembled, the extreme taciturnity of both sexes; and by the time I could make myself understood, I was not surprised to learn that the Martials have scarcely the idea of what we mean by conversation, not talking for the sake of talking, or speaking unless they have something to discuss, explain, or communicate. I found, again, that a new and much more difficult task, though fortunately one not so indispensable, was still in store for me. The Martials have two forms of writing: the one I have described, which is simply a mechanical rendering47 of spoken words into artificially simplified visible signs; the other, written by hand, with a fine pencil of some chemical material on a prepared surface, textile or metallic48. The characters of the latter are, like ours wholly arbitrary; but the contractions49 and abbreviations are so numerous that the mastery of the mere50 alphabet, the forty or fifty single letters employed, is but a single step in the first stage of the hard task of learning to read. In no country on Earth, except China, is this task half so severe as in Mars. On the other hand, when it is once mastered, a far superior instrument has been gained; the Martial writing being a most terse51 but perfectly52 legible shorthand. Every Martial can write at least as quickly as he can speak, and can read the written character more rapidly than the quickest eye can peruse53 the best Terrestrial print. Copies, whether of the phonographic or stylographic writing, are multiplied with extreme facility and perfection. The original, once inscribed54 in either manner upon the above-mentioned tafroo or gold-leaf, is placed upon a sheet of a species of linen55, smoother than paper, called difra. A current of electricity sent through the former reproduces the writing exactly upon the latter, which has been previously56 steeped in some chemical composition; the effect apparently57 depending on the passage of the electricity through the untouched metal, and its absolute interception58 by the ink, if I may so call it, of the writing, which bites deeply into the leaf. This process can be repeated almost ad libitum; and it is equally easy to take at any time a fresh copy upon tafroo, which serves again for the reproduction of any number of difra copies. The book, for the convenience of this mode of reproduction, consists of a single sheet, generally from four to eight inches in breadth and of any length required. The writing intended to be thus copied is always minute, and is read for the most part through magnifying spectacles. A roller is attached to each end of the sheet, and when not in use the latter is wound round that attached to the conclusion. When required for reading, both rollers are fixed59 in a stand, and slowly moved by clockwork, which spreads before the eyes of the reader a length of about four inches at once. The motion is slackened or quickened at the reader's pleasure, and can be stopped altogether, by touching60 a spring. Another means of reproducing, not merely writings or drawings, but natural objects, consists in a simple adaptation of the camera obscura. [The only essential difference from our photographs being that the Martial art reproduces colour as well as outline, I omit this description.]
While I was practising myself in the Martial language my host turned our experimental conversations chiefly, if not exclusively, upon Terrestrial subjects; endeavouring to learn all that I could convey to him of the physical peculiarities61 of the Earth, of geology, geography, vegetation, animal life in all its forms, human existence, laws, manners, social and domestic order. Afterwards, when, at the end of some fifty days, he found that we could converse62, if not with ease yet without fear of serious misapprehension, he took an early opportunity of explaining to me the causes and circumstances of my unfriendly reception among his people.
"Your size and form," he said, "startled and surprised them. I gather from what you have told me that on Earth there are many nations very imperfectly known to one another, with different dress, language, and manners. This planet is now inhabited by a single race, all speaking the same tongue, using much the same customs, and differing from one another in form and size much less widely than (I understand) do men upon your Earth. There you might have been taken for a visitor from some strange and unexplored country. Here it was clear that you were not one of our race, and yet it was inconceivable what else you could be. We have no giants; the tallest skeleton preserved in our museums is scarcely a hand's breadth taller than myself, and does not, of course, approach to your stature63. Then, as you have pointed64 out, your limbs are longer and your chest smaller in proportion to the rest of the body; probably because, as you seem to say, your atmosphere is denser66 than ours, and we require ampler lungs to inhale67 the quantity of air necessary at each breath for the oxidation of the blood. Then you were not dumb, and yet affected68 not to understand our language and to speak a different one. No such creature could have existed in this planet without having been seen, described, and canvassed69. You did not, therefore, belong to us. The story you told by signs was quickly apprehended70, and as quickly rejected as an audacious impossibility. It was an insult to the intelligence of your hearers, and a sufficient ground for suspecting a being of such size and physical strength of some evil or dangerous design. The mob who first attacked you were probably only perplexed71 and irritated; those who subsequently interfered72 may have been animated73 also by scientific curiosity. You would have been well worth anatomisation and chemical analysis. Your mail-shirt protected you from the shock of the dragon, which was meant to paralyse and place you at the mercy of your assailants; the metal distributing the current, and the silken lining74 resisting its passage. Still, at the moment when I interposed, you would certainly have been destroyed but for your manoeuvre75 of laying hold of two of your immediate12 escort. Our destructive weapons are far superior to any you possess or have described. That levelled at you by my neighbour would have sent to ten times your distance a small ball, which, bursting, would have asphyxiated76 every living thing for several yards around. But our laws regarding the use of such weapons are very stringent77, and your enemy dared not imperil the lives of those you held. Those laws would not, he evidently thought, apply to yourself, who, as he would have affirmed, could not be regarded as a man and an object of legal protection."
He explained the motives80 and conduct of his countrymen with such perfect coolness, such absence of surprise or indignation, that I felt slightly nettled81, and answered sarcastically82, "If the slaughter83 of strangers whose account of themselves appears improbable be so completely a matter of course among you, I am at a loss to understand your own interference, and the treatment I have received from yourself and your family, so utterly84 opposite in spirit as well as in form to that I met from everybody else."
"I do not," he answered, "always act from the motives in vogue85 among my fellow-creatures of this planet; but why and how I differ from them it might not be well to explain. It is for the moment of more consequence to tell you why you have been kept in some sense a prisoner here. My neighbours, independently of general laws, are for certain reasons afraid to do me serious wrong. While in my company or in my dwelling86 they could hardly attempt your life without endangering mine or those of my family. If you were seen alone outside my premises87, another attempt, whether by the asphyxiator88 or by a destructive animal, would probably be made, and might this time prove successful. Till, therefore, the question of your humanity and right to the protection of our law is decided89 by those to whom it has been submitted, I will beg you not to venture alone beyond the bounds that afford you security; and to believe that in this request, as in detaining you perforce heretofore, I am acting90 simply for your own welfare, and not," he added, smiling, "with a view to secure the first opportunity of putting your relation to our race to the tests of the dissecting92 table and the laboratory."
"But my story explained everything that seemed inexplicable93; why was it not believed? It was assumed that I could not belong to Mars; yet I was a living creature in the flesh, and must therefore have come from some other planet, as I could hardly be supposed to be an inhabitant of space."
"We don't reason on impossibilities," replied my friend. "We have a maxim94 that it is more probable that any number of witnesses should lie, that the senses of any number of persons should be deluded95, than that a miracle should be true; and by a miracle we mean an interruption or violation96 of the known laws of nature."
"One eminent97 terrestrial sceptic," I rejoined, "has said the same thing, and masters of the science of probabilities have supported his assertion. But a miracle should be a violation not merely of the known but of all the laws of nature, and until you know all those laws, how can you tell what is a miracle? The lifting of iron by a magnet—I suppose you have iron and loadstones here as we have on Earth—was, to the first man who witnessed it, just as complete a violation of the law of gravity as now appears my voyage through space, accomplished98 by a force bearing some relation to that which acts through the magnet."
"Our philosophers," he answered, "are probably satisfied that they know nearly all that is to be known of natural laws and forces; and to delusion99 or illusion human sense is undeniably liable."
"If," I said, "you cannot trust your senses, you may as well disbelieve in your own existence and in everything around you, for you know nothing save through those senses which are liable to illusion. But we know practically that there are limits to illusion. At any rate, your maxim leads directly and practically to the inference that, since I do not belong to Mars and cannot have come from any other world, I am not here, and in fact do not exist. Surely it was somewhat illogical to shoot an illusion and intend to dissect91 a spectre! Is not a fact the complete and unanswerable refutation of its impossibility?"
"A good many facts to which I could testify," he replied, "are in this world confessed impossibilities, and if my neighbours witnessed them they would pronounce them to be either impostures or illusions."
"Then," said I, somewhat indignantly, "they must prefer inferences from facts to facts themselves, and the deductions101 of logic100 to the evidence of their senses. Yet, if that evidence be wanting in certainty, then, since no chain can be stronger than its weakest point, inferences are doubly uncertain; first, because they are drawn from facts reported by sense, and, secondly102, because a flaw in the logic is always possible."
"Do not repeat that out of doors," he answered, smiling. "It is not permitted here to doubt the infallibility of science; and any one who ventures to affirm persistently103 a story which science pronounces impossible (like your voyage through space), if he do not fall at once a victim to popular piety104, would be consigned105 to the worse than living death of life-long confinement106 in a lunatic hospital."
"In that case I fear very much that I have little chance of being put under the protection of your laws, since, whatever may be the impression of those who have seen me, every one else must inevitably107 pronounce me non-existent; and a nonentity108 can hardly be the subject of legal wrong or have a right to legal redress109."
"Nor," he replied, "can there be any need or any right to annihilate110 that which does not exist. This alternative may occupy our Courts of Justice, for aught I know, longer than you or I can hope to live. What I have asked is that, till these have decided between two contradictory absurdities111, you shall be provisionally and without prejudice considered as a human reality and an object of legal protection."
"And who," I asked, "has authority ad interim112 to decide this point?"
"It was submitted," he answered, "in the first place, to the Astynta (captain, president) who governs this district; but, as I expected, he declined to pronounce upon it, and referred it to the Mepta (governor) of the province. Half-an-hour's argument so bewildered the latter that he sent the question immediately to the Zampta (Regent) of this dominion113, and he, after hearing by telegraph the opening of the case, at once pronounced that, as affecting the entire planet, it must be decided by the Campta or Suzerain. Now this gentleman is impatient of the dogmatism of the philosophers, who have tried recently to impose upon him one or two new theoretical rules which would limit the amount of what he calls free will that he practically enjoys; and as the philosophers are all against you, and as, moreover, he has a strong though secret hankering after curious phenomena—it would not do to say, after impossibilities—I do not think he will allow you to be destroyed, at least till he has seen you."
"Is it possible," I said, "that even your monarch114 cherishes a belief in the incredible or logically impossible, and yet escapes the lunatic asylum115 with which you threaten me?"
"I should not escape grave consequences were I to attribute to him a heresy116 so detestable," said my host. "Even the Campta would not be rash enough to let it be said that he doubts the infallibility of science, or of public opinion as its exponent117. But as it is the worst of offences to suggest the existence of that which is pronounced impossible or unscientific, the supreme118 authority can always, in virtue119 of the enormity of the guilt120, insist on undertaking121 himself the executive investigation of all such cases; and generally contrives122 to have the impossibility, if a tangible123 one, brought into the presence either as evidence or as accomplice124."
"Well," I rejoined, after a few minutes' reflection, "I don't know that I have much right to complain of ideas which, after all, are but the logical development of those which, are finding constantly more and more favour among our most enlightened nations. I can quite believe, from what I have seen of our leading scientists, that in another century it may be dangerous in my own country for my descendants to profess125 that belief in a Creator and a future life which I am superstitious126 enough to prefer to all the revelations of all the material sciences."
"As you value your life and freedom," he replied, "don't speak of such a belief here, save to the members of my own family, and to those with whom I may tell you you are safe. Such ideas were held here, almost as generally as you say they now are on Earth, some twelve thousand years ago, and twenty thousand years ago their profession was compulsory127. But for the last hundred centuries it has been settled that they are utterly fatal to the progress of the race, to enlightenment, to morality, and to the practical devotion of our energies to the business of life; and they are not merely disavowed and denounced, but hated with an earnestness proportioned to the scientific enthusiasm of classes and individuals."
"But," said I, "if so long, so severely130, and so universally discountenanced, how can their expression by one man here or there be considered perilous131?"
"Our philosophers say," he replied, "that the attractiveness of these ideas to certain minds is such that no reasoning, no demonstration132 of their absurdity133, will prevent their exercising a mischievous134 influence upon weak, and especially upon feminine natures; and perhaps the suspicion that they are still held in secret may contribute to keep alive the bitterness with which they are repudiated135 and repressed. But if they are so held, if there be any who believe that the order of the universe was at first established, and that its active forces are still sustained and governed, by a conscious Intelligence—if there be those who think that they have proof positive of the continued existence of human beings after death—their secret has been well kept. For very many centuries have elapsed since the last victim of such delusions137, as they were solemnly pronounced by public vote in the reign138 of the four-hundredth predecessor139 of the present Campta, was sent as incurable141 to the dangerous ward2 of our strictest hospital for the insane."
A tone of irony142, and at the same time an air of guarded reserve, seemed to pervade143 all my host's remarks on this subject, and I perceived that for some reason it was so unpleasant to him that courtesy obliged me to drop it. I put, therefore, to turn the conversation, some questions as to the political organisation144 of which his words had afforded me a glimpse; and in reply he undertook to give me a summary of the political history of his planet during the last few hundred generations.
"If," he said, "in giving you this sketch145 of the process by which our present social order has been established, I should mention a class or party who have stood at certain times distinctly apart from or in opposition to the majority, I must, in the first place, beg you to ask no questions about them, and in the next not to repeat incautiously the little I may tell you, or to show, by asking questions of others, what you have heard from me."
I gave my promise frankly146, of course, and he then gave me the following sketch of Martial history:—
We date events from the union of all races and nations in a single State, a union which was formally established 13,218 years ago. At that time the large majority of the inhabitants of this planet possessed147 no other property than their houses, clothes, and tools, their furniture, and a few other trifles. The land was owned by fewer than 400,000 proprietors148. Those who possessed movable wealth may have numbered thrice as many. Political and social power was in the hands of the owners of property, and of those, generally connected with them by birth or marriage, who were at any rate not dependent on manual labour for their bread. But among these there were divisions and factions149 on various questions more or less trivial, none of them approaching in importance or interest to the fundamental and irreconcilable150 conflict sure one day to arise between those who had accumulated wealth and those who had not. To gain their ends in one or another of these frivolous151 quarrels, each party in turn admitted to political influence section after section of what you call the proletariat; till in the year 3278 universal suffrage152 was granted, every man and woman over the age of twelve years [6] being entitled to a single and equal vote.
About the same time the change in opinion of which I have spoken had taken general effect, and the vast majority of the men, at any rate, had ceased to believe in a future life wherein the inequalities and iniquities153 of this might be redressed154. It followed that they were fiercely impatient of hardships and suffering, especially such as they thought might be redressed by political and social changes. The leaders of the multitude, for the most part men belonging to the propertied classes who had either wasted their wealth or never possessed any, demanded the abolition155 of private ownership, first of land, then of movable wealth; a demand which fiercely excited the passions of those who possessed neither, and as bitterly provoked the anger and alarm of those who did. The struggle raged for some generations and ended by an appeal to the sword; in which, since the force of the State was by law in the hands of the majority, the intelligent, thrifty156, careful owners of property with their adherents157 were signally defeated. Universal communism was established in 3412, none being permitted to own, or even to claim, the exclusive use of any portion of the planet's surface, or of any other property except the share of food and clothing allotted158 to him. One only privilege was allowed to certain sectaries who still clung to the habits of the past, to the permanence and privacy of family life. They were permitted to have houses or portions of houses to themselves, and to live there on the share of the public produce allotted to the several members of each household. It had been assumed as matter of course by the majority that when every one was forced to work there would be more than enough for all; that public spirit, and if necessary coercion159, would prove as effectual stimulants160 to exertion161 and industry as interest and necessity had done under the system of private ownership.
Those who relied on the refutation of this theory forgot that with poor and suffering men who look to no future, and acknowledge no law but such as is created by their own capricious will and pleasure, envy is even a more powerful passion than greed. The Many preferred that wealth and luxury should be destroyed, rather than that they should be the exclusive possession of the Few. The first and most visible effect of Communism was the utter disappearance162 of all perishable163 luxuries, of all food, clothing, furniture, better than that enjoyed by the poorest. Whatever could not be produced in quantities sufficient to give each an appreciable164 share was not produced at all. Next, the quarrels arising out of the apportionment of labour were bitter, constant, and savage165. Only a grinding despotism could compose them, and those who wielded166 such despotism for a short time excited during the period of their rule such fierce and universal hatred, that they were invariably overturned and almost invariably murdered before their very brief legal term of office had closed. It was not only that those engaged in the same kind of labour quarrelled over the task assigned to each, whether allotted in proportion to his strength, or to the difficulty of his labour, or by lot equally to all. Those to whom the less agreeable employments were assigned rebelled or murmured, and at last it was necessary to substitute rotation167 for division of labour, since no one would admit that he was best fitted for the lower or less agreeable. Of course we thus wasted silver tools in doing the work of iron, and reduced enormously the general production of wealth. Next, it was found that since one man's industry or idleness could produce no appreciable effect upon the general wealth, still less upon the particular share assigned to him, every man was as idle as the envy and jealousy168 of his neighbours would allow. Finally, as the produce annually169 diminished and the number of mouths to be fed became a serious consideration, the parents of many children were regarded as public enemies. The entire independence of women, as equal citizens, with no recognised relation to individual men, was the inevitable171 outcome, logically and practically, of the Communistic principle; but this only made matters worse. Attempts were of course made to restrain multiplication172 by law, but this brought about inquisitions so utterly intolerable that human nature revolted against them. The sectaries I have mentioned—around whom, without adopting or even understanding their principles, gradually gathered all the better elements of society, every man of intellect and spirit who had not been murdered, with a still larger proportion of women—seceded173 separately or in considerable numbers at once; established themselves in those parts of the planet whose less fertile soil or less genial175 climate had caused them to be abandoned, and there organised societies on the old principles of private ownership and the permanence of household ties. By and by, as they visibly prospered176, they attracted the envy and greed of the Communists. They worked under whatever disadvantage could be inflicted177 by climate and soil, but they had a much more than countervailing advantage in mutual178 attachment179, in freedom from the bitter passions necessarily excited by the jealousy and incessant180 mutual interference inseparable from the Communistic system, and in their escape from the caprice and instability of popular government—these societies, whether from wisdom or mere reaction, submitting to the rule of one or a few chief magistrates181 selected by the natural leaders of each community. Moreover, they had not merely the adhesion of all the more able, ambitious, and intellectual who seceded from a republic in which neither talent nor industry could give comfort or advantage, but also the full benefit of inventive genius, stimulated182 by the hope of wealth in addition to whatever public spirit the habits of Communism had not extinguished. They systematically183 encouraged the cultivation184 of science, which the Communists had very early put down as a withdrawal185 of energy from the labour due to the community at large. They had a monopoly of machinery186, of improvement, of invention both in agriculture, in manufactures, and in self-defence. They devised weapons far more destructive than those possessed by the old régime, and still more superior to such as, after centuries of anarchy187 and decline, the Communists were able to procure188. Finally, when assailed189 by the latter, vast superiority of numbers was annulled190 by immeasurable superiority in weapons and in discipline. The secessionists were animated, too, by a bitter resentment191 against their assailants, as the authors of the general ruin and of much individual suffering; and when the victory was gained, they not infrequently improved it to the utter destruction of all who had taken part in the attack. Whichever side were most to blame in the feud192, no quarter was given by either. It was an internecine193 war of numbers, ignorance, and anarchy against science and order. On both sides there still remained much of the spirit generated in times when life was less precious than the valour by which alone it could be held, and preserved through milder ages by the belief that death was not annihilation—enough to give to both parties courage to sacrifice their lives for the victory of their cause and the destruction of their enemies. But after a few crushing defeats, the Communists were compelled to sue for peace, and to cede174 a large part of their richest territory. Driven back into their own chaotic194 misery195, deterred196 by merciless punishment from further invasion of their neighbours' dominions197, they had leisure to contrast their wretched condition with that of those who prospered under the restored system of private ownership, family interest, strong, orderly, permanent government, material and intellectual civilisation198. Machinery did for the new State, into which the seceding199 societies were consolidated200 by the necessity of self-defence, much more than it had done before Communism declared war on it. The same envy which, if war had been any longer possible, would have urged the Communists again and again to plunder201 the wealth that contrasted so forcibly their own increasing poverty, now humbled202 them to admire and covet203 the means which had produced it. At last, after bitter intestine204 struggles, they voluntarily submitted to the rule of their rivals, and entreated205 the latter to accept them as subjects and pupils. Thus in the 39th century order and property were once more established throughout the planet.
"But, as I have said, what you call religion had altogether disappeared—had ceased, at least as an avowed129 principle, to affect the ideas and conduct of society or of individuals. The re-establishment of peace and order concentrated men's energies on the production of material wealth and the achievement of physical comfort and ease. Looking forward to nothing after death, they could only make the best of the short life permitted to them and do their utmost to lengthen206 it. In the assurance of speedy separation, affection became a source of much more anxiety and sorrow than happiness. All ties being precarious207 and their endurance short, their force became less and less; till the utmost enjoyment208 of the longest possible life for himself became the sole, or almost the sole, animating209 motive79, the one paramount210 interest, of each individual. The equality which logic had established between the sexes dissolved the family tie. It was impossible for law to dictate211 the conditions on which two free and equal individuals should live together, merely because they differed in sex. All the State could do it did; it insisted on a provision for the children. But when parental212 affection was extinguished, such provision could only be secured by handing over the infant and its portion to the guardianship213 of the State. As children were troublesome and noisy, the practice of giving them up to public officers to be brought up in vast nurseries regulated on the strictest scientific principles became the general rule, and was soon regarded as a duty; what was at first almost openly avowed selfishness soon justifying214 and glorifying215 itself on the ground that the children were better off under the care of those whose undivided attention was given to them, and in establishments where everything was regulated with sole regard to their welfare, than they could be at home. No law compels us to send our children to these establishments. In rare cases a favourite will persuade her lord to retain her pet son and make him heir, but both the Courts and public opinion discountenance this practice. Some families, like my own, systematically retain their children and educate them at home; but it is generally thought that in doing so we do them a wrong, and our neighbours look askance upon so signal a deviation216 from custom; the more so, perhaps, that they half suspect us of dissenting217 from their views on other subjects, on which our opinions do not so directly or so obviously affect our conduct, and on which therefore we are not so easily convicted of free choice" [heresy]. Here I inquired whether the birth and parentage of the children sent to the public establishments were registered, so as to permit their being reclaimed218 or inheriting property.
"No," he replied. "Inheritance by mere descent is a notion no longer favoured. I believe that young mothers sometimes, before parting with their children, impress upon them some indelible mark by which it may be possible hereafter to recognise them; but such recognitions seldom occur. Maternal219 affection is discountenanced as a purely220 animal instinct, a survival from a lower grade of organisation, and does not generally outlast221 a ten years' separation; while paternal222 love is utterly scouted223 as an absurdity to which even the higher animals are not subject. Boys are kept in the public establishments until the age of twelve, those from ten to twelve being separated from the younger ones and passing through the higher education in separate colleges. The girls are educated apart till they complete their tenth year, and are almost invariably married in the course of the next. At first, under the influence of the theory of sexual equality, both received their intellectual instruction in the same classes and passed through the same examinations. Separation was soon found necessary; but still girls passed through the same intellectual training as their brothers. Experience, however, showed that this would not answer. Those girls who distinguished224 themselves in the examinations were, with scarcely an exception, found unattractive as wives and unfit to be mothers. A very much larger number, a number increasing in every generation, suffered unmistakably from the severity of the mental discipline to which they were subjected. The advocates of female equality made a very hard fight for equal culture; but the physical consequences were perfectly clear and perfectly intolerable. When a point was reached at which one half the girls of each generation were rendered invalids225 for life, and the other half protected only by a dense65 stupidity or volatile226 idleness which no school punishments could overcome, the Equalists were driven from one untenable point to another, and forced at last to demand a reduction of the masculine standard of education to the level of feminine capacities. Upon this ground they took their last stand, and were hopelessly beaten. The reaction was so complete that for the last two hundred and forty generations, the standard of female education has been lowered to that which by general confession227 ordinary female brains can stand without injury to the physique. The practical consequences of sexual equality have re-established in a more absolute form than ever the principle that the first purpose of female life is marriage and maternity228; and that, for their own sakes as for the sake of each successive generation, women should be so trained as to be attractive wives and mothers of healthy children, all other considerations being subordinated to these. A certain small number of ladies avail themselves of the legal equality they still enjoy, and live in the world much as men. But we regard them as third-rate men in petticoats, hardly as women at all. Marriage with one of them is the last resource to which a man too idle or too foolish to earn his own living will betake himself. Whatever their education, our women have always found that such independence as they could earn by hard work was less satisfactory than the dependence170, coupled with assured comfort and ease, which they enjoy as the consorts229, playthings, or slaves of the other sex; and they are only too glad to barter230 their legal equality for the certainty of protection, indolence, and permanent support."
"Then your marriages," I said, "are permanent?"
"Not by law," he replied. "Nothing like what our remote ancestors called marriage is recognised at all. The maidens231 who come of age each year sell themselves by a sort of auction232, those who purchase them arranging with the girls themselves the terms on which the latter will enter their family. Custom has fixed the general conditions which every girl expects, and which only the least attractive are forced to forego. They are promised a permanent maintenance from their master's estate, and promise in return a fixed term of marriage. After two or three years they are free to rescind233 the contract; after ten or twelve they may leave their husbands with a stipulated234 pension. They receive an allowance for dress and so forth proportionate to their personal attractions or to the fancy of the suitor; and of course the richest men can offer the best terms, and generally secure the most agreeable wives, in whatever number they please or think they can without inconvenience support."
"Then," I said, "the women can divorce themselves at pleasure, but the men cannot dismiss them! This hardly looks like equality."
"The practical result," he answered, "is that men don't care for a release which would part them from complaisant235 slaves, and that women dare not seek a divorce which can only hand them over to another master on rather worse terms. When the longer term has expired, the latter almost always prefer the servitude to which they are accustomed to an independent life of solitude236 and friendlessness."
"And what becomes," I asked, "of the younger men who must enter the world without property, without parents or protectors?"
"We are, after youth has passed, an indolent race. We hardly care, as a rule, to cultivate our fields or direct our factories; but prefer devoting the latter half at least of our lives to a somewhat easy-going cultivation of that division of science which takes hold of our fancy. These divisions are such as your conversation leads me to think you would probably consider absurdly minute. A single class of insects, a single family of plants, the habits of one race of fishes, suffice for the exclusive study of half a lifetime. Minds of a more active or more practical bent237 will spend an equal time over the construction of a new machine more absolutely automatic than any that has preceded it. Physical labour is thrown as much as possible on the young; and even they are now so helped by machinery and by trained animals, that the eight hours' work which forms their day's labour hardly tires their muscles. Our tastes render us very anxious to devolve upon others as soon as possible the preservation238 and development of the property we have acquired. A man of moderate means, long before he has reached his thirtieth [7] year, generally seeks one assistant; men of larger fortune may want two, five, or ten. These are chosen, as a rule, by preference from those who have passed the most stringent and successful collegiate examination. Martial parents are not prolific239, and the mortality in our public nurseries is very large. I impute240 it to moral influences, since the chief cause of death is low vitality241, marked nervous depression and want of animal spirits, such as the total absence of personal tenderness and sympathy must produce in children. It is popularly ascribed to the over-cultivation of the race, as plants and animals highly civilised—that is, greatly modified and bred to an artificial excellence by human agency—are certainly delicate, unprolific, and especially difficult to rear. There is little disease in the nurseries, but there is little health and a deficiency of nervous energy. One fact is significant, however interpreted, and bears directly on your last question. Since the wide extension of polygamy, female births are to male about as seven to six; but the deaths in public nurseries between the first and tenth years are twenty-nine in twelve dozen admissions in the stronger sex, and only about ten in the weaker. Read these facts as we may, they ensure employment to the young men when their education is completed—the two last years of severe study adding somewhat to the mortality among them.
"A large number find employment in superintending the property of others. To give them a practical interest in its preservation and improvement, they are generally, after a shorter or longer probation242, adopted by their employers as heirs to their estate; our experience of Communism having taught us that immediate and obvious self-interest is the only motive that certainly and seriously affects human action. The distance at which they are kept, and the absolute seclusion243 of our family life, enables us easily to secure ourselves against any over-anxiety on their part to anticipate their inheritance. The minority who do not thus find a regular place in society are employed in factories, as artisans, or on the lands belonging to the State. To ensure their zeal244, the last receive a fixed proportion of the produce, or are permitted to rent land at fixed rates, and at the end of ten years receive a part thereof in full property. By these means we are free from all the dangers and difficulties of that state of society which preceded the Communistic cataclysm245. We have poor men, and men who can live only by daily labour; but these have dissipated their wealth, or are looking forward at no very distant period to a sufficient competence246. The entire population of our planet does not exceed two hundred millions, and is not much increased from generation to generation. The area of cultivable land is about ten millions of square miles, and half a square mile in these equatorial continents, which alone are at all generally inhabited, will, if well cultivated and cared for, furnish the largest household with every luxury that man's heart can desire. Eight hours' labour in the day for ten years of life will secure to the least fortunate a reasonable competence; and an ambitious man, with quick intelligence and reasonable industry, may always hope to become rich, if he thinks wealth worth the labour of invention or of exceptionally troublesome work."
"Mars ought, then," I said, "to be a material paradise. You have attained247 nearly all that our most advanced political economists248 regard as the perfection of economical order—a population nearly stationary249, and a soil much more than adequate to their support; a general distribution of property, total absence of permanent poverty, and freedom from that gnawing250 anxiety regarding the future of ourselves or our children which is the great evil of life upon Earth and the opprobrium251 of our social arrangements. You have carried out, moreover, the doctrines252 of our most advanced philosophers; you have absolute equality before the law, competitive examination among the young for the best start in life, with equal chances wherever equality is possible; and again, perfect freedom and full legal equality as regards the relations of the sexes. Are your countrymen satisfied with the results?"
"Yes," answered my host, "in so far, at least, that they have no wish to change them, no idea that any great social or political reforms could improve our condition. Our lesson in Communism has rendered all agitation253 on such matters, all tendency to democratic institutions, all appeals to popular passions, utterly odious254 and alarming to us. But that we are happy I will venture neither to affirm nor to deny. Physically255, no doubt, we have great advantages over you, if I rightly understand your description of life on Earth. We have got rid of old age, and, to a great extent, of disease. Many of our scientists persist in the hope to get rid of death; but, since all that has been accomplished in this direction was accomplished some two thousand years back, and yet we continue to die, general opinion hardly concurs256 in this hope."
"How do you mean," I inquired, "that you have got rid of old age and of disease?"
"We have," he replied, "learned pretty fully257 the chemistry of life. We have found remedies for that hardening of the bones and weakening of the muscles which used to be the physical characteristics of declining years. Our hair no longer whitens; our teeth, if they decay, are now removed and naturally replaced by new ones; our eyes retain to the last the clearness of their sight. A famous physician of five thousand years back said in controversy258 on this subject, that 'the clock was not made to go for ever;' by which he meant that human bodies, like the materials of machines, wore out by lapse136 of time. In his day this was true, since it was impossible fully to repair the waste and physical wear and tear of the human frame. This is no longer so. The clock does not wear out, but it goes more and more slowly and irregularly, and stops at last for some reason that the most skilful259 inspection260 cannot discover. The body of him who dies, as we say, 'by efflux of time' at the age of fifty is as perfect as it was at five-and twenty. [8] Yet few men live to be fifty-five, [9] and most have ceased to take much interest in practical life, or even in science, by forty-five." [10]
"That seems strange," I said. "If no foreign body gets into the machinery, and the machinery itself does not wear out, it is difficult to understand why the clock should cease to go."
"Would not some of your race," he asked, "explain the mystery by suggesting that the human frame is not a clock, but contains, and owes its life to, an essence beyond the reach of the scalpel, the microscope, and the laboratory?"
"They hold that it is so. But then it is not the soul but the body that is worn out in seventy or eighty of the Earth's revolutions."
"Ay," he said; "but if man were such a duplex being, it might be that the wearing out of the body was necessary, and had been adapted to release the soul when it had completed its appropriate term of service in the flesh."
I could not answer this question, and he did not pursue the theme. Presently I inquired, "If you allow no appeal to popular feeling or passion, to what was I so nearly the victim? And what is the terrorism that makes it dangerous to avow128 a credulity or incredulity opposed to received opinion?"
"Scientific controversies," he replied, "enlist261 our strongest and angriest feelings. It is held that only wickedness or lunacy can resist the evidence that has convinced a vast majority. By arithmetical calculation the chances that twelve men are wrong and twelve thousand [11] right, on a matter of inductive or deductive proof, are found to amount to what must be taken for practical certainty; and when the twelve still hold out, they are regarded as madmen or knaves262, and treated accordingly by their fellows. If it be thought desirable to invoke263 a legal settlement of the issue, a council of all the overseers of our scientific colleges is called, and its decision is by law irrevocable and infallible, especially if ratified264 by the popular voice. And if a majority vote be worth anything at all, I think this modern theory at least as sound as the democratic theory of politics which prevailed here before the Communistic revolution, and which seems by your account to be gaining ground on Earth."
"And what," I inquired, "is your political constitution? What are the powers of your rulers; and how, in the absence of public discussion and popular suffrage, are they practically limited?"
"In theory they are unlimited," he answered; "in practice they are limited by custom, by caution, and, above all, by the lack of motives for misrule. The authority of each prince over those under him, from the Sovereign to the local president or captain, is absolute. But the Executive leaves ordinary matters of civil or criminal law to the Courts of Justice. Cases are tried by trained judges; the old democratic usage of employing untrained juries having been long ago discarded, as a worse superstition265 than simple decision by lot. The lot is right twelve times in two dozen; the jury not oftener than half-a-dozen times. The judges don't heat or bias266 their minds by discussion. They hear all that can be elicited267 from parties, accuser, accused, and witnesses, and all that skilled advocates can say. Then the secretary of the Court draws up a summary of the case, each judge takes it home to consider, each writes out his judgment268, which is read by the secretary, none but the author knowing whose it is. If the majority be five to two, judgment is given; if less, the case is tried again before a higher tribunal of twice as many judges. If no decision can be reached, the accused is acquitted269 for the time, or, in a civil dispute, a compromise is imposed. The rulers cannot, without incurring270 such general anger as would be fatal to their power, disregard our fundamental laws. Gross tyranny to individuals is too dangerous to be carried far. It is a capital crime for any but the officers of the Sovereign and of the twelve Regents to possess the fearfully destructive weapons that brought our last wars to an end. But any man, driven to desperation, can construct and use similar weapons so easily that no ruler will drive a man to such revengeful despair. Again, the tyranny of subordinate officials would be checked by their chief, who would be angry at being troubled and endangered by misconduct in which he had no direct interest. And finally, personal malice271 is not a strong passion among us; and our manners render it unlikely that a ruler should come into such collision with any of his subjects as would engender272 such a feeling. Of those immediately about him, he can and does at once get rid as soon as he begins to dislike, and before he has cause to hate them. It is our maxim that greed of wealth or lust273 of power are the chief motives of tyranny. Our rulers cannot well hope to extend a power already autocratic, and we take care to leave them nothing to covet in the way of wealth. We can afford to give them all that they can desire of luxury and splendour. To enrich to the uttermost a few dozen governors costs us nothing comparable to the cost of democracy, with its inseparable party conflicts, maladministration, neglect, and confusion."
"A clever writer on Earth lately remarked that it would be easy to satiate princes with all personal enjoyments274, but impossible to satiate all their hangers-on, or even all the members of their family."
"You must remember," he replied, "that we have here, save in such exceptional cases as my own, nothing like what you call a family. The ladies of a prince's house have everything they can wish for within their bounds and cannot go outside of these. As for dependents, no man here, at least of such as are likely to be rulers, cares for his nearest and dearest friends enough to incur140 personal peril78, public displeasure, or private resentment on their account. The officials around a ruler's person are few in number, so that we can afford to make their places too comfortable and too valuable to be lightly risked. Neglect, again, is pretty sure to be punished by superior authority. Activity in the promotion275 of public objects is the only interest left to princes, while tyranny is, for the reasons I have given, too dangerous to be carried far."
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1
intentionally
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| ad.故意地，有意地 | |
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ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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expedient
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| adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计 | |
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par
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| n.标准，票面价值，平均数量；adj.票面的，平常的，标准的 | |
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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taxation
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| n.征税，税收，税金 | |
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consonant
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| n.辅音；adj.[音]符合的 | |
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plural
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| n.复数；复数形式；adj.复数的 | |
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vowel
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| n.元音；元音字母 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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suffix
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| n.后缀；vt.添后缀 | |
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euphony
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| n.悦耳的语音 | |
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imperative
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| n.命令，需要；规则；祈使语气；adj.强制的；紧急的 | |
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peremptory
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| adj.紧急的，专横的，断然的 | |
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intonation
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| n.语调，声调；发声 | |
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conditional
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| adj.条件的，带有条件的 | |
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infinitive
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| n.不定词；adj.不定词的 | |
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plurals
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| n.复数，复数形式( plural的名词复数 ) | |
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suffixes
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syllable
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prefix
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| n.前缀；vt.加…作为前缀；置于前面 | |
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emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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excellence
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derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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anvil
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syllables
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| n.音节( syllable的名词复数 ) | |
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contradictory
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| adj.反驳的，反对的，抗辩的；n.正反对，矛盾对立 | |
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uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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negation
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| n.否定；否认 | |
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abhorrence
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| n.憎恶；可憎恶的事 | |
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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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modification
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| n.修改，改进，缓和，减轻 | |
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diminutive
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| adj.小巧可爱的，小的 | |
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abbreviated
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| adj. 简短的，省略的 动词abbreviate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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martial
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| adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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intelligibly
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| adv.可理解地，明了地，清晰地 | |
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investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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diligent
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| adj.勤勉的，勤奋的 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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gatherings
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| 聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集 | |
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rendering
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| n.表现，描写 | |
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metallic
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| adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的 | |
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contractions
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| n.收缩( contraction的名词复数 )；缩减；缩略词；（分娩时）子宫收缩 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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terse
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| adj.(说话，文笔)精炼的，简明的 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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peruse
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| v.细读，精读 | |
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inscribed
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| v.写，刻( inscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；内接 | |
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linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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56
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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58
interception
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| n.拦截；截击；截取；截住，截断；窃听 | |
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59
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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60
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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61
peculiarities
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| n. 特质, 特性, 怪癖, 古怪 | |
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62
converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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63
stature
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| n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材 | |
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64
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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65
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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66
denser
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| adj. 不易看透的, 密集的, 浓厚的, 愚钝的 | |
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67
inhale
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| v.吸入(气体等)，吸(烟) | |
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68
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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69
canvassed
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| v.（在政治方面）游说( canvass的过去式和过去分词 )；调查（如选举前选民的）意见；为讨论而提出（意见等）；详细检查 | |
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70
apprehended
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| 逮捕，拘押( apprehend的过去式和过去分词 )； 理解 | |
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71
perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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72
interfered
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| v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉 | |
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73
animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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74
lining
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| n.衬里，衬料 | |
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75
manoeuvre
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| n.策略，调动；v.用策略，调动 | |
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76
asphyxiated
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| v.渴望的，有抱负的，追求名誉或地位的( aspirant的过去式和过去分词 )；有志向或渴望获得…的人 | |
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77
stringent
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| adj.严厉的；令人信服的；银根紧的 | |
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78
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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79
motive
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|
| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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80
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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81
nettled
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|
| v.拿荨麻打，拿荨麻刺（nettle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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82
sarcastically
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| adv.挖苦地，讽刺地 | |
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83
slaughter
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|
| n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀 | |
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84
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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85
Vogue
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| n.时髦，时尚；adj.流行的 | |
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86
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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87
premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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88
asphyxiator
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|
| n.碳酸气灭火器，动物窒息器 | |
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89
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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90
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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91
dissect
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| v.分割；解剖 | |
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92
dissecting
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|
| v.解剖（动物等）( dissect的现在分词 )；仔细分析或研究 | |
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93
inexplicable
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| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
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94
maxim
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| n.格言，箴言 | |
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95
deluded
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| v.欺骗，哄骗( delude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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96
violation
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| n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯 | |
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97
eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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98
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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99
delusion
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| n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑 | |
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100
logic
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| n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性 | |
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101
deductions
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| 扣除( deduction的名词复数 )； 结论； 扣除的量； 推演 | |
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102
secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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103
persistently
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| ad.坚持地；固执地 | |
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104
piety
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| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
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105
consigned
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| v.把…置于（令人不快的境地）( consign的过去式和过去分词 )；把…托付给；把…托人代售；丟弃 | |
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106
confinement
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| n.幽禁，拘留，监禁；分娩；限制，局限 | |
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107
inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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108
nonentity
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| n.无足轻重的人 | |
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109
redress
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| n.赔偿，救济，矫正；v.纠正，匡正，革除 | |
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110
annihilate
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| v.使无效；毁灭；取消 | |
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111
absurdities
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| n.极端无理性( absurdity的名词复数 )；荒谬；谬论；荒谬的行为 | |
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112
interim
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| adj.暂时的，临时的；n.间歇，过渡期间 | |
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113
dominion
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| n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图 | |
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114
monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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115
asylum
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| n.避难所，庇护所，避难 | |
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116
heresy
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| n.异端邪说；异教 | |
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117
exponent
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| n.倡导者，拥护者；代表人物；指数，幂 | |
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118
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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119
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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120
guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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121
undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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122
contrives
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| （不顾困难地）促成某事( contrive的第三人称单数 )； 巧妙地策划，精巧地制造（如机器）； 设法做到 | |
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123
tangible
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|
| adj.有形的，可触摸的，确凿的，实际的 | |
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124
accomplice
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| n.从犯，帮凶，同谋 | |
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125
profess
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| v.声称，冒称，以...为业，正式接受入教，表明信仰 | |
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126
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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127
compulsory
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| n.强制的，必修的；规定的，义务的 | |
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128
avow
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| v.承认，公开宣称 | |
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129
avowed
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| adj.公开声明的，承认的v.公开声明，承认( avow的过去式和过去分词) | |
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130
severely
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|
| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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131
perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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132
demonstration
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| n.表明，示范，论证，示威 | |
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133
absurdity
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| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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134
mischievous
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| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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135
repudiated
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| v.（正式地）否认( repudiate的过去式和过去分词 )；拒绝接受；拒绝与…往来；拒不履行（法律义务） | |
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136
lapse
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|
| n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效 | |
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137
delusions
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| n.欺骗( delusion的名词复数 )；谬见；错觉；妄想 | |
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138
reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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139
predecessor
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| n.前辈，前任 | |
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140
incur
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| vt.招致，蒙受，遭遇 | |
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141
incurable
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| adj.不能医治的，不能矫正的，无救的；n.不治的病人，无救的人 | |
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142
irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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143
pervade
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| v.弥漫，遍及，充满，渗透，漫延 | |
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144
organisation
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| n.组织，安排，团体，有机休 | |
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145
sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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146
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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147
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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148
proprietors
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| n.所有人，业主( proprietor的名词复数 ) | |
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149
factions
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| 组织中的小派别，派系( faction的名词复数 ) | |
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150
irreconcilable
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| adj.（指人）难和解的，势不两立的 | |
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151
frivolous
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| adj.轻薄的；轻率的 | |
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152
suffrage
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| n.投票，选举权，参政权 | |
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153
iniquities
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| n.邪恶( iniquity的名词复数 )；极不公正 | |
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154
redressed
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| v.改正( redress的过去式和过去分词 )；重加权衡；恢复平衡 | |
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155
abolition
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| n.废除，取消 | |
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156
thrifty
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| adj.节俭的；兴旺的；健壮的 | |
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157
adherents
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| n.支持者，拥护者( adherent的名词复数 )；党羽；徒子徒孙 | |
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158
allotted
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| 分配，拨给，摊派( allot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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159
coercion
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| n.强制，高压统治 | |
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160
stimulants
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| n.兴奋剂( stimulant的名词复数 )；含兴奋剂的饮料；刺激物；激励物 | |
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161
exertion
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| n.尽力，努力 | |
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162
disappearance
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| n.消失，消散，失踪 | |
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163
perishable
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| adj.（尤指食物）易腐的，易坏的 | |
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164
appreciable
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| adj.明显的，可见的，可估量的，可觉察的 | |
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165
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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166
wielded
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| 手持着使用（武器、工具等）( wield的过去式和过去分词 )； 具有； 运用（权力）； 施加（影响） | |
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167
rotation
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| n.旋转；循环，轮流 | |
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168
jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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169
annually
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| adv.一年一次，每年 | |
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170
dependence
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| n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属 | |
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171
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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172
multiplication
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| n.增加，增多，倍增；增殖，繁殖；乘法 | |
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173
seceded
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| v.脱离，退出( secede的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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174
cede
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| v.割让，放弃 | |
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175
genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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176
prospered
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| 成功，兴旺( prosper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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177
inflicted
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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178
mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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179
attachment
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| n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附 | |
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180
incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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181
magistrates
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| 地方法官，治安官( magistrate的名词复数 ) | |
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182
stimulated
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| a.刺激的 | |
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183
systematically
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| adv.有系统地 | |
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184
cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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185
withdrawal
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| n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销 | |
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186
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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187
anarchy
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| n.无政府状态；社会秩序混乱，无秩序 | |
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188
procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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189
assailed
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| v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 )；困扰；质问；毅然应对 | |
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190
annulled
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| v.宣告无效( annul的过去式和过去分词 )；取消；使消失；抹去 | |
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191
resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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192
feud
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| n.长期不和；世仇；v.长期争斗；世代结仇 | |
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193
internecine
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| adj.两败俱伤的 | |
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194
chaotic
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| adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的 | |
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195
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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196
deterred
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| v.阻止，制止( deter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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197
dominions
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| 统治权( dominion的名词复数 )； 领土； 疆土； 版图 | |
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198
civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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199
seceding
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| v.脱离，退出( secede的现在分词 ) | |
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200
consolidated
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| a.联合的 | |
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201
plunder
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| vt.劫掠财物，掠夺；n.劫掠物，赃物；劫掠 | |
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202
humbled
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| adj. 卑下的，谦逊的，粗陋的 vt. 使 ... 卑下，贬低 | |
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203
covet
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| vt.垂涎；贪图(尤指属于他人的东西) | |
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204
intestine
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| adj.内部的；国内的；n.肠 | |
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205
entreated
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| 恳求，乞求( entreat的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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206
lengthen
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| vt.使伸长，延长 | |
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207
precarious
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| adj.不安定的，靠不住的；根据不足的 | |
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208
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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209
animating
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| v.使有生气( animate的现在分词 )；驱动；使栩栩如生地动作；赋予…以生命 | |
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210
paramount
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| a.最重要的，最高权力的 | |
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211
dictate
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| v.口授；(使)听写；指令，指示，命令 | |
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parental
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| adj.父母的；父的；母的 | |
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guardianship
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| n. 监护, 保护, 守护 | |
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214
justifying
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| 证明…有理( justify的现在分词 )； 为…辩护； 对…作出解释； 为…辩解（或辩护） | |
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215
glorifying
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| 赞美( glorify的现在分词 )； 颂扬； 美化； 使光荣 | |
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216
deviation
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| n.背离，偏离；偏差，偏向；离题 | |
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dissenting
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| adj.不同意的 | |
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218
reclaimed
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| adj.再生的；翻造的；收复的；回收的v.开拓( reclaim的过去式和过去分词 )；要求收回；从废料中回收（有用的材料）；挽救 | |
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219
maternal
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| adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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221
outlast
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| v.较…耐久 | |
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paternal
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| adj.父亲的，像父亲的，父系的，父方的 | |
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223
scouted
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| 寻找，侦察( scout的过去式和过去分词 )； 物色（优秀运动员、演员、音乐家等） | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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225
invalids
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| 病人，残疾者( invalid的名词复数 ) | |
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226
volatile
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| adj.反复无常的，挥发性的，稍纵即逝的，脾气火爆的；n.挥发性物质 | |
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227
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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228
maternity
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| n.母性，母道，妇产科病房；adj.孕妇的，母性的 | |
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consorts
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| n.配偶( consort的名词复数 )；（演奏古典音乐的）一组乐师；一组古典乐器；一起v.结伴( consort的第三人称单数 )；交往；相称；调和 | |
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230
barter
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| n.物物交换，以货易货，实物交易 | |
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231
maidens
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| 处女( maiden的名词复数 )； 少女； 未婚女子； （板球运动）未得分的一轮投球 | |
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232
auction
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| n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖 | |
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233
rescind
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| v.废除，取消 | |
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234
stipulated
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| vt.& vi.规定；约定adj.[法]合同规定的 | |
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complaisant
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| adj.顺从的，讨好的 | |
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236
solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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237
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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238
preservation
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| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
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239
prolific
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| adj.丰富的，大量的；多产的，富有创造力的 | |
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240
impute
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| v.归咎于 | |
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241
vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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242
probation
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| n.缓刑(期)，(以观后效的)察看；试用(期) | |
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243
seclusion
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| n.隐遁，隔离 | |
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244
zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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245
cataclysm
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| n.洪水，剧变，大灾难 | |
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246
competence
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| n.能力，胜任，称职 | |
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247
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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248
economists
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| n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 ) | |
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249
stationary
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| adj.固定的，静止不动的 | |
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250
gnawing
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| a.痛苦的，折磨人的 | |
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251
opprobrium
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| n.耻辱，责难 | |
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252
doctrines
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| n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 )；教义；学说；（政府政策的）正式声明 | |
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253
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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254
odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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255
physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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256
concurs
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| 同意（concur的第三人称单数形式） | |
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257
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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258
controversy
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| n.争论，辩论，争吵 | |
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259
skilful
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| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
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260
inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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261
enlist
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| vt.谋取(支持等)，赢得；征募；vi.入伍 | |
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262
knaves
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| n.恶棍，无赖( knave的名词复数 )；（纸牌中的）杰克 | |
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263
invoke
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| v.求助于(神、法律)；恳求，乞求 | |
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264
ratified
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| v.批准，签认（合约等）( ratify的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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265
superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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266
bias
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| n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见 | |
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267
elicited
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| 引出，探出( elicit的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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268
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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269
acquitted
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| 宣判…无罪( acquit的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（自己）作出某种表现 | |
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270
incurring
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| 遭受，招致，引起( incur的现在分词 ) | |
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271
malice
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| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
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272
engender
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| v.产生，引起 | |
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273
lust
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| n.性(淫)欲；渴(欲)望；vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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274
enjoyments
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| 愉快( enjoyment的名词复数 )； 令人愉快的事物； 享有； 享受 | |
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promotion
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| n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传 | |
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