For a time the Master of the Earth was not even master of his own mind. Even his will seemed a will not his own, his own acts surprised him and were but a part of the confusion of strange experiences that poured across his being. These things were definite, the negroes were coming, Helen Wotton had warned the people of their coming, and he was Master of the Earth. Each of these facts seemed struggling for complete possession of his thoughts. They protruded1 from a background of swarming2 halls, elevated passages, rooms jammed with ward3 leaders in council, kinematograph and telephone rooms, and windows looking out on a seething4 sea of marching men. The men in yellow, and men whom he fancied were called Ward Leaders, were either propelling him forward or following him obediently; it was hard to tell. Perhaps they were doing a little of both. Perhaps some power unseen and unsuspected propelled them all. He was aware that he was going to make a proclamation to the People of the Earth, aware of certain grandiose5 phrases floating in his mind as the thing he meant to say. Many little things happened, and then he found himself with the man in yellow entering a little room where this proclamation of his was to be made.
This room was grotesquely7 latter-day in its appointments. In the centre was a bright oval lit by shaded electric lights from above. The rest was in shadow, and the double finely fitting doors through which he came from the swarming Hall of the Atlas8 made the place very still. The dead thud of these as they closed behind him, the sudden cessation of the tumult9 in which he had been living for hours, the quivering circle of light, the whispers and quick noiseless movements of vaguely10 visible attendants in the shadows, had a strange effect upon Graham. The huge ears of a phonographic mechanism11 gaped12 in a battery for his words, the black eyes of great photographic cameras awaited his beginning, beyond metal rods and coils glittered dimly, and something whirled about with a droning hum. He walked into the centre of the light, and his shadow drew together black and sharp to a little blot13 at his feet.
The vague shape of the thing he meant to say was already in his mind. But this silence, this isolation14, the withdrawal15 from that contagious16 crowd, this audience of gaping17, glaring machines, had not been in his anticipation18. All his supports seemed withdrawn19 together; he seemed to have dropped into this suddenly, suddenly to have discovered himself. In a moment he was changed. He found that he now feared to be inadequate20, he feared to be theatrical21, he feared the quality of his voice, the quality of his wit; astonished, he turned to the man in yellow with a propitiatory22 gesture. "For a moment," he said, "I must wait. I did not think it would be like this. I must think of the thing I have to say."
While he was still hesitating there came an agitated23 messenger with news that the foremost aeroplanes were passing over Madrid.
"What news of the flying stages?" he asked.
"The people of the south-west wards24 are ready."
"Ready!"
He turned impatiently to the blank circles of the lenses again.
"I suppose it must be a sort of speech. Would to God I knew certainly the thing that should be said! Aeroplanes at Madrid! They must have started before the main fleet.
"Oh! what can it matter whether I speak well or ill?" he said, and felt the light grow brighter.
He had framed some vague sentence of democratic sentiment when suddenly doubts overwhelmed him. His belief in his heroic quality and calling he found had altogether lost its assured conviction. The picture of a little strutting25 futility26 in a windy waste of incomprehensible destinies replaced it. Abruptly27 it was perfectly28 clear to him that this revolt against Ostrog was premature29, foredoomed to failure, the impulse of passionate30 inadequacy31 against inevitable32 things. He thought of that swift flight of aeroplanes like the swoop33 of Fate towards him. He was astonished that he could have seen things in any other light. In that final emergency he debated, thrust debate resolutely34 aside, determined35 at all costs to go through with the thing he had undertaken. And he could find no word to begin. Even as he stood, awkward, hesitating, with an indiscreet apology for his inability trembling on his lips, came the noise of many people crying out, the running to and fro of feet. "Wait," cried someone, and a door opened. Graham turned, and the watching lights waned36.
Through the open doorway37 he saw a slight girlish figure approaching. His heart leapt. It was Helen Wotton. The man in yellow came out of the nearer shadows into the circle of light.
"This is the girl who told us what Ostrog had done," he said.
She came in very quietly, and stood still, as if she did not want to interrupt Graham's eloquence38.... But his doubts and questionings fled before her presence. He remembered the things that he had meant to say. He faced the cameras again and the light about him grew brighter. He turned back to her.
"You have helped me," he said lamely39--"helped me very much.... This is very difficult."
He paused. He addressed himself to the unseen multitudes who stared upon him through those grotesque6 black eyes. At first he spoke40 slowly.
"Men and women of the new age," he said; "you have arisen to do battle for the race!... There is no easy victory before us."
He stopped to gather words. He wished passionately41 for the gift of moving speech.
"This night is a beginning," he said. "This battle that is coming, this battle that rushes upon us to-night, is only a beginning. All your lives, it may be, you must fight. Take no thought though I am beaten, though I am utterly42 overthrown43. I think I may be overthrown."
He found the thing in his mind too vague for words. He paused momentarily, and broke into vague exhortations44, and then a rush of speech came upon him. Much that he said was but the humanitarian45 commonplace of a vanished age, but the conviction of his voice touched it to vitality46. He stated the case of the old days to the people of the new age, to the girl at his side.
"I come out of the past to you," he said, "with the memory of an age that hoped. My age was an age of dreams--of beginnings, an age of noble hopes; throughout the world we had made an end of slavery; throughout the world we had spread the desire and anticipation that wars might cease, that all men and women might live nobly, in freedom and peace.... So we hoped in the days that are past. And what of those hopes? How is it with man after two hundred years?
"Great cities, vast powers, a collective greatness beyond our dreams. For that we did not work, and that has come. But how is it with the little lives that make up this greater life? How is it with the common lives? As it has ever been--sorrow and labour, lives cramped47 and unfulfilled, lives tempted48 by power, tempted by wealth, and gone to waste and folly49. The old faiths have faded and changed, the new faith--. Is there a new faith?
"Charity and mercy," he floundered; "beauty and the love of beautiful things--effort and devotion! Give yourselves as I would give myself--as Christ gave Himself upon the Cross. It does not matter if you understand. It does not matter if you seem to fail. You _know_--in the core of your hearts you _know_. There is no promise, there is no security--nothing to go upon but Faith. There is no faith but faith--faith which is courage...."
Things that he had long wished to believe, he found that he believed. He spoke gustily50, in broken incomplete sentences, but with all his heart and strength, of this new faith within him. He spoke of the greatness of self-abnegation, of his belief in an immortal51 life of Humanity in which we live and move and have our being. His voice rose and fell, and the recording52 appliances hummed as he spoke, dim attendants watched him out of the shadow....
His sense of that silent spectator beside him sustained his sincerity53. For a few glorious moments he was carried away; he felt no doubt of his heroic quality, no doubt of his heroic words, he had it all straight and plain. His eloquence limped no longer. And at last he made an end to speaking. "Here and now," he cried, "I make my will. All that is mine in the world I give to the people of the world. All that is mine in the world I give to the people of the world. To all of you. I give it to you, and myself I give to you. And as God wills to-night, I will live for you, or I will die."
He ended. He found the light of his present exaltation reflected in the face of the girl. Their eyes met; her eyes were swimming with tears of enthusiasm.
"I knew," she whispered. "Oh! Father of the World--_Sire_! I knew you would say these things...."
"I have said what I could," he answered lamely and grasped and clung to her outstretched hands.
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protruded
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| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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swarming
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| 密集( swarm的现在分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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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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seething
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| 沸腾的，火热的 | |
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grandiose
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| adj.宏伟的，宏大的，堂皇的，铺张的 | |
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grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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grotesquely
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| adv. 奇异地,荒诞地 | |
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atlas
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| n.地图册，图表集 | |
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tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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gaped
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| v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的过去式和过去分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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blot
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| vt.弄脏（用吸墨纸）吸干；n.污点，污渍 | |
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isolation
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| n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离 | |
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withdrawal
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| n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销 | |
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contagious
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| adj.传染性的，有感染力的 | |
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gaping
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| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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theatrical
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| adj.剧场的，演戏的；做戏似的，做作的 | |
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propitiatory
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| adj.劝解的；抚慰的；谋求好感的；哄人息怒的 | |
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agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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wards
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| 区( ward的名词复数 )； 病房； 受监护的未成年者； 被人照顾或控制的状态 | |
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strutting
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| 加固，支撑物 | |
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futility
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| n.无用 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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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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premature
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| adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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inadequacy
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| n.无法胜任，信心不足 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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swoop
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| n.俯冲，攫取；v.抓取，突然袭击 | |
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resolutely
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| adj.坚决地，果断地 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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waned
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| v.衰落( wane的过去式和过去分词 )；（月）亏；变小；变暗淡 | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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lamely
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| 一瘸一拐地，不完全地 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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overthrown
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| adj. 打翻的，推倒的，倾覆的 动词overthrow的过去分词 | |
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44
exhortations
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| n.敦促( exhortation的名词复数 )；极力推荐；（正式的）演讲；（宗教仪式中的）劝诫 | |
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45
humanitarian
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| n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者 | |
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vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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cramped
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| a.狭窄的 | |
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48
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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49
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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50
gustily
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| adv.暴风地，狂风地 | |
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51
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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52
recording
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| n.录音，记录 | |
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53
sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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