It was midday, on the 8th of December 2030, and the rulers of all the civilised States of the world were gathered together in St. Paul’s Cathedral to receive, from the hands of a descendant of Natas in the fourth generation, the restoration of the right of independent national rule which, on the same spot a hundred and twenty-five years before, had been taken from the sovereigns of Europe and vested in the Supreme4 Council of the Anglo-Saxon Federation5.
The period of tutelage had passed. Under the wise and firm rule of the Council and the domination of the Anglo-Saxon race, the Golden Age had seemed to return to the world. For a hundred and twenty-five years there had been peace on earth, broken only by the outbreak and speedy suppression of a few tribal6 wars among the more savage7 races of Africa and Malaysia. Now the descendants of those who had been victors[9] and vanquished8 in the world-war of 1904, had met to give back and assume the freedom and the responsibility of national independence.
The vast cathedral was thronged9, as it had been on the momentous10 day when Natas had pronounced his judgment11 on the last of the Tyrants12 of Russia, and ended the old order of things in Europe. But it was filled by a very different assembly to that which had stood within its walls on the morrow of Armageddon.
Then the stress and horror of a mighty13 conflict had set its stamp on every face. Hate had looked out of eyes in which the tears were scarcely dry, and hungered fiercely for the blood of the oppressor. The clash of arms, the stern command, and the pitiless words of doom14 had sounded then in ears which but a few hours before had listened to the roar of artillery15 and the thunder of battle. That had been the dawn of the morrow of strife16; this was the zenith of the noon of peace.
Now, in all the vast assembly, no hand held a weapon, no face was there which showed a sign of sorrow, fear, or anger, and in no heart, save only two among the thousands, was there a thought of hate or bitterness.
For three days past the Festival of Deliverance had been celebrated17 all over the civilised world, and now, in the centre of the city which had come to be the capital, not only of the vast domains18 of Anglo-Saxondom, but of the whole world, a solemn act of renunciation was to be performed, upon the issues of which the fate of all humanity would hang; for the members of the Supreme Council had come through the skies from their seat of empire in Aeria to abdicate20 the world-throne in obedience21 to the command of the dead Master, from whom their ancestors had derived22 it.
At a table, drawn23 across the front of the chancel, sat the President and the twelve men who with him had up to this hour shared the empire of the human race. Below the steps, on the floor of the cathedral, sat, in a wide semicircle, the rulers of the kingdoms and republics of the earth, assembled to hear the last word of their over-lords, and to receive from them[10] the power and responsibility of maintaining or forfeiting24, as the event should prove, the blessings25 which had multiplied under the sovereignty of the Aerians.
The President of the Council was the direct descendant not only of Alan Tremayne, its first President, but also of Richard Arnold and Natasha; for their eldest26 son, born in the first year of the Peace, had married the only daughter of Tremayne, and their first-born son had been his father’s father.
Although the average physique of civilised man had immensely improved under the new order of things, the Aerians, descendants of the pick of the nations of Europe, were as far superior to the rest of the assembly as the latter would have been to the men and women of the nineteenth century; but even amongst the members of the Council, the splendid stature27 and regal dignity of Alan Arnold, the President, stamped him as a born ruler of men, whose title rested upon something higher than election or inheritance.
At the last stroke of twelve, the President rose in his place, and, in the midst of an almost breathless silence, read the message of Natas to the great congregation. This done, he laid the parchment down on the table and, beginning from the outbreak of the world-war, rapidly and lucidly28 sketched29 out the vast and beneficent changes in the government of society that its issues had made possible.
He traced the marvellous development of the new civilisation30, which, in four generations, had raised men from a state of half-barbarous strife and brutality31 to one of universal peace and prosperity; from inhuman32 and unsparing competition to friendly co-operation in public, and generous rivalry33 in private concerns; from horrible contrasts of wealth and misery34 to a social state in which the removal of all unnatural35 disabilities in the race of life had made them impossible.
He showed how, in the evil times which, as all men hoped, had been left behind for ever, the strong and the unscrupulous ruthlessly oppressed the weak and swindled the honest and the straightforward36. Now dishonesty was dishonourable in fact as well as in name; the game of life was played fairly, and its[11] prizes fell to all who could win them, by native genius or earnest endeavour.
There were no inequalities, save those which Nature herself had imposed upon all men from the beginning of time. There were no tyrants and no slaves. That which a man’s labour of hand or brain had won was his, and no man might take toll37 of it. All useful work was held in honour, and there was no other road to fame or fortune save that of profitable service to humanity.
“This,” said the President in conclusion, “is the splendid heritage that we of the Supreme Council, which is now to cease to exist as such, have received from our forefathers38, who won it for us and for you on the field of the world’s Armageddon. We have preserved their traditions intact, and obeyed their commands to the letter; and now the hour has come for us, in obedience to the last of those commands, to resign our authority and to hand over that heritage to you, the rulers of the civilised world, to hold in trust for the peoples over whom you have been appointed to reign3.
“When I have done speaking I shall no longer be President of the Senate, which for a hundred and twenty-five years has ruled the world from pole to pole and east to west. You and your parliaments are henceforth free to rule as you will. We shall take no further part in the control of human affairs outside our domain19, saving only in one concern.
“In the days when our command was established, the only possible basis of all rule was force, and our supremacy39 was based on the force that we could bring to bear upon those who might have ventured to oppose us or revolted against our rule. We commanded, and we will still command, the air, and I should not be doing my duty, either to my own people or to you, if I did not tell you that the Aerians, not as the world-rulers that they have been, but as the citizens of an independent State, mean to keep that power in their own hands at all costs.
“The empire of earth and sea, saving only the valley of Aeria, is yours to do with as you will. The empire of the air[12] is ours,—the heritage that we have received from the genius of that ancestor of mine who first conquered it.
“That we have not used it in the past to oppress you is the most perfect guarantee that we shall not do so in the future, but let all the nations of the earth clearly understand, that we shall accept any attempt to dispute it with us as a declaration of war upon us, and that those who make that attempt will either have to exterminate40 us or be exterminated41 themselves. This is not a threat, but a solemn warning; and the responsibility of once more bringing the curse of war and all its attendant desolation upon the earth, will lie heavily upon those who neglect it.
“A few more needful words and I have done. The message of the Master, which I have read to you, contains a prophecy, as to the fulfilment of which neither I nor any man here may speak with certainty. It may be that he, with clearer eyes than ours, saw some tremendous catastrophe42 impending43 over the world, a catastrophe which no human means could avert44, and beneath which human strength and genius could only bow with resignation.
“By what spirit he was inspired when he uttered the prophecy, it is not for us to say. But before you put it aside as an old man’s dream, let me ask you to remember, that he who uttered it was a man who was able to plan the destruction of one civilisation, and to prepare the way for another and a better.
“Such a man, standing45 midway between the twin mysteries of life and death, might well see that which is hidden from our grosser sight. But whether the prophecy itself shall prove true or false, it shall be well for you and for your children’s children if you and they shall receive the lesson that it teaches as true.
“If, in the days that are to come, the world shall be overwhelmed with a desolation that none shall escape, will it not be better that the end shall come and find men doing good rather than evil? As you now set the peoples whom you govern in the right or the wrong path, so shall they walk.
[13]
“This is the lesson of all the generations that have gone before us, and it shall also be true of those that are to come after us. As the seed is, so is the harvest; therefore see to it that you, who are now the free rulers of the nations, so discharge the awful trust and responsibility which is thus laid upon you, that your children’s children shall not, perhaps in the hour of Humanity’s last agony, rise up and curse your memory rather than bless it. I have spoken!”
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1
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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2
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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3
reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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4
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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5
federation
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| n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会 | |
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6
tribal
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| adj.部族的，种族的 | |
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7
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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8
vanquished
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| v.征服( vanquish的过去式和过去分词 )；战胜；克服；抑制 | |
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9
thronged
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| v.成群，挤满( throng的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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10
momentous
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| adj.重要的，重大的 | |
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11
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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12
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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13
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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14
doom
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| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
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15
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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16
strife
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| n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争 | |
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17
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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18
domains
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| n.范围( domain的名词复数 )；领域；版图；地产 | |
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19
domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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20
abdicate
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| v.让位，辞职，放弃 | |
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21
obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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22
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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23
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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24
forfeiting
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| （因违反协议、犯规、受罚等）丧失，失去( forfeit的现在分词 ) | |
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25
blessings
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| n.（上帝的）祝福( blessing的名词复数 )；好事；福分；因祸得福 | |
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26
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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27
stature
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| n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材 | |
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28
lucidly
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| adv.清透地，透明地 | |
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29
sketched
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| v.草拟（sketch的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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30
civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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31
brutality
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| n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮 | |
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32
inhuman
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| adj.残忍的，不人道的，无人性的 | |
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33
rivalry
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| n.竞争，竞赛，对抗 | |
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34
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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35
unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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36
straightforward
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| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
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37
toll
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| n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟) | |
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38
forefathers
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| n.祖先，先人；祖先，祖宗( forefather的名词复数 )；列祖列宗；前人 | |
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39
supremacy
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| n.至上；至高权力 | |
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40
exterminate
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| v.扑灭，消灭，根绝 | |
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41
exterminated
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| v.消灭，根绝( exterminate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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42
catastrophe
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| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
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43
impending
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| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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44
avert
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| v.防止，避免；转移(目光、注意力等) | |
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45
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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