MY life is lived, and the wings of the Angel of Death overshadow me as I write; but before the last summons comes, I must obey the spirit within me that bids me tell of the things that I have seen, in order that the story of them shall not die, nor be disguised by false reports, as the years multiply and the mists gather over the graves of those who, with me, have seen and wrought3 them.
For this reason the words that I write shall be read publicly in the ears of you and your children and your children’s children, until they shall see a sign in heaven to tell them that the end is at hand. No man among you shall take away from that which I have written, nor yet add anything to it; and every fifth year, at the Festival of Deliverance, which is held on the Anniversary of Victory,[1] this writing of mine[2] shall be read, that those who shall hear it with understanding may lay its warnings to heart, and that the lessons of the Great Deliverance may never be forgotten among you.
It was in the days before the beginning of peace that I, Natas the Jew, cast down and broken by the hand of the Tyrant4, conceived and created that which was known as the Terror. The kings of the earth and their servants trembled before my invisible presence, for my arm was long and my hand was heavy; yet no man knew where or when I should strike—only that the blow would be death to him on whom it should fall, and that nowhere on earth should he find a safe refuge from it.
In those days the earth was ruled by force and cunning, and the nations were armed camps set one against the other. Millions of men, who had no quarrel with their neighbours, stood waiting for the word of their rulers to blast the fair fields of earth with the fires of war, and to make desolate5 the homes of those who had done them no wrong.
In the third year of the twentieth century, Richard Arnold, the Englishman, conquered the empire of the air, and made the first ship that flew as a bird does, of its own strength and motion. He joined the Brotherhood6 of Freedom, then known among men as the Terrorists, of whom I, Natas, was the Master, and then he built the aerial fleet which, in the day of Armageddon, gave us the victory over the tyrants7 of the earth.
At the same time, Alan Tremayne, a noble of the English people, into whose soul I had caused my spirit to enter in order that he might serve me and bring the day of deliverance nearer, caused all the nations of the Anglo-Saxon race to join hands, from the West unto the East, in a league of common blood and kindred; and they, in the appointed hour, stood between the sons and daughters of men and those who would have enslaved them afresh.
The chief of these was Alexander Romanoff, last of the[3] Tsars, or Tyrants, of Russia, whose armies, leagued with those of France, Italy, Spain, and certain lesser8 Powers, and assisted by a great fleet of war-balloons that could fly, though slowly, wherever they were directed, swept like a destroying pestilence9 from the western frontiers of Russia to the eastern shores of Britain; and when they had gained the mastery of Europe, invaded England and laid siege to London.
But here their path of conquest was brought to an end, for Alan Tremayne and his brothers of the Terror called upon the men of Anglo-Saxondom to save their Motherland from her enemies, and they rose in their wrath10, millions strong, and fell upon them by land and sea, and would have destroyed them utterly11, as I had bidden them do, but that Natasha, who was my daughter and was known in those days as the Angel of the Revolution, pleaded for the remnant of them, and they were spared.
But the Russians we slew12 without mercy to the last man of those who had stood in arms against us, saving only the Tyrant and his princes and the leaders of his armies. These we took prisoners and sent, with their wives and their children, to die in their own prison-land in Siberia, as they had sent thousands of innocent men and women to die before them.
This was my judgment13 upon them for the wrong that they had done to me and mine, for in the hour of victory I spared not those who had not known how to spare. Now they are dead, and their graves are nameless. Their name is a byword among men, for they were strong and they used their strength to do evil.
So we made an end of tyranny among the nations, and when the world-war was at length brought to an end, we disbanded all the armies that were upon land and sank the warships14 that were left upon the sea, that men might no more fight with each other. War, that had been called honourable15 since the world began, we made a crime of blood-guiltiness, for which the life of him who sought to commit it should pay; and as a crime, you, the children of those who have delivered the nations from it, shall for ever hold it to be.
[4]
We leave you the command of the air, and that is the command of the world; but should it come to pass—as in the progress of knowledge it may well do—that others in the world outside Aeria shall learn to navigate16 the air as you do, you shall go forth17 to battle with them and destroy them utterly, for we have made it known through all the earth that he who seeks to build a second navy of the air shall be accounted an enemy of peace, whose purpose it is to bring war upon the earth again.
Forget not that the blood-lust is but tamed, not quenched18, in the souls of men, and that long years must pass before it is purged19 from the world for ever. We have given peace on earth, and to you, our children, we bequeath the sacred trust of keeping it. We have won our world-empire by force, and by force you must maintain it.
In the day of battle we shed the blood of millions without ruth to win it, and so far the end has justified20 the means we used. Since the sun set upon Armageddon, and the right to make war was taken from the rulers of the nations, we have governed a realm of peace and prosperity which every year has seen better and happier than that which went before.
No man has dared to draw the sword upon his brother, or by force or fraud to take that which was not his by right. The soil of earth has been given back to the use of her sons, and their wealth has already multiplied a hundredfold on every hand. Kings have ruled with wisdom and justice, and senates have ceased their wranglings to soberly seek out and promote the welfare of their own countries, and to win the respect and friendship of others.
Yet many of these are the same men who, but a few years ago, rent each other like wild beasts in savage21 strife for the meanest ends; who betrayed their brothers and slaughtered22 their neighbours, that the rich might be richer, and the strong stronger, in the pitiless battle for wealth and power. They have become peaceful and honest with each other, because we have compelled them to be so, and because they know that the[5] penalty of wrong-doing in high places is destruction swift and certain as the stroke of the hand of Fate itself.
They know that no man stands so high that our hand cannot cast him down to the dust, and that no spot of earth is so secret and so distant that the transgressor23 of our laws can find in it a refuge from our vengeance24. We stand between the few strong and cunning who would oppress, and the many weak and simple who could not resist them; and when we are gone, you will hear the voice of duty calling you to take our places.
When you stand where we do now, remember who you are and the tremendous trust that is laid upon you. You are the children of the chosen out of many nations, masters of the world, and, under Heaven, the arbiters25 of human destiny. You shall rule the world as we have ruled it for a hundred years from now. If in that time men shall not have learnt the ways of wisdom and justice, you may be sure that they will never learn them, and deserve only to be left to their own foolishness. Since the world began, the path of life has never lain so fair and straight before the sons of men as it does now, and never was it so easy to do the right and so hard to do the wrong.
So, for a hundred years to come, you shall keep them in the path in which we have set them, and those that would wilfully26 turn aside from it you shall destroy without mercy, lest they lead others into misery27 and bring the evil days upon earth again.
At the twenty-fifth celebration of the Festival of Deliverance, you shall give back the sceptre of the world-empire into the hands of the children of those from whom we took it,—because they wielded28 it for oppression, and not for mercy. At that time you shall make it known throughout the earth that men are once more free to do good or evil, according to their choice, and that as they choose well or ill so shall they live or die.
And woe29 to them in those days if, knowing the good, they shall turn aside to do evil! Beyond the clouds that gather[6] over the sunset of my earthly life, I see a sign in heaven as of a flaming sword, whose hilt is in the hand of the Master of Destiny, and whose blade is outstretched over the habitations of men.
As they shall choose to do good or evil, so shall that sword pass away from them or fall upon them, and consume them utterly in the midst of their pride. And if they, knowing the good, shall elect to do evil, it shall be with them as of old the Prophet said of the men of Babylon the Great: Their cities shall be a desolation, a dry land and a wilderness30; a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither shall any son of man pass thereby31.
For from among the stars of heaven, whose lore32 I have learned and whose voices I have heard, there shall come the messenger of Fate, and his shape shall be that of a flaming fire, and his breath as the breath of a pestilence that men shall feel and die in the hour that it breathes upon them.
Out of the depths beyond the light of the sun he shall come, and your children of the fifth generation shall behold33 his approach. The sister-worlds shall see him pass with fear and trembling, wondering which of them he shall smite34, but if he be not restrained or turned aside by the Hand which guides the stars in their courses, it shall go hard with this world and the men of it in the hour of his passing.
Then shall the highways of the earth be waste, and the wayfaring35 of men cease. Earth shall languish36 and mourn for her children that are no more, and Death shall reign37 amidst the silence, sole sovereign of many lands!
But you, so long as you continue to walk in the way of wisdom, shall live in peace until the end, whether it shall come then or in the ages that shall follow. And if it shall come then, you shall await it with fortitude38, knowing that this life is but a single link in the chain of existence which stretches through infinity39; and that, if you shall be found worthy40, you shall be taught how a chosen few among your sons and daughters shall survive the ruin of the world, to be the parents of the new race, and replenish41 the earth and possess it.
[7]
Out of the Valley of the Shadow of Death I stretch forth my hands in blessing42 to you, the children of the coming time, and pray that the peace which the men of the generation now passing away have won through strife and toil43 in the fiery44 days of the Terror, may be yours and endure unbroken unto the end.
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1
strife
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| n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争 | |
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dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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tyrant
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| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
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desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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brotherhood
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| n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊 | |
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tyrants
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| 专制统治者( tyrant的名词复数 )； 暴君似的人； （古希腊的）僭主； 严酷的事物 | |
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lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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pestilence
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| n.瘟疫 | |
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wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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slew
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| v.（使）旋转；n.大量，许多 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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warships
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| 军舰，战舰( warship的名词复数 )； 舰只 | |
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honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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navigate
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| v.航行，飞行；导航，领航 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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quenched
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| 解（渴）( quench的过去式和过去分词 )； 终止（某事物）； （用水）扑灭（火焰等）； 将（热物体）放入水中急速冷却 | |
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purged
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| 清除（政敌等）( purge的过去式和过去分词 )； 涤除（罪恶等）； 净化（心灵、风气等）； 消除（错事等）的不良影响 | |
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justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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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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slaughtered
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| v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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transgressor
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| n.违背者 | |
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vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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arbiters
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| 仲裁人，裁决者( arbiter的名词复数 ) | |
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wilfully
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| adv.任性固执地；蓄意地 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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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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woe
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| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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lore
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| n.传说；学问，经验，知识 | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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smite
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| v.重击；彻底击败；n.打；尝试；一点儿 | |
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wayfaring
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| adj.旅行的n.徒步旅行 | |
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languish
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| vi.变得衰弱无力，失去活力，（植物等）凋萎 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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fortitude
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| n.坚忍不拔；刚毅 | |
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infinity
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| n.无限，无穷，大量 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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41
replenish
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| vt.补充；(把…)装满；(再)填满 | |
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42
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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43
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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44
fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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