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The World Set Free Chapter 3 - The Ending of War Part 1 · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter three of the World Set Free by H. G. Wells.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Adam Rcitache, June two
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  Speaker 1: thousand nine, Alexandria, Virginia, The World Set Free by H. G. Wells,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter the third, The Ending of War. Section one. On
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  Speaker 1: the mountain side, above the town of Brisago and commanding
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  Speaker 1: two long stretches of Lake Maggiore, looking eastward to Bellinzona
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  Speaker 1: and southward to Luino, there is a shelf of grass
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  Speaker 1: meadows which is very beautiful in springtime, with a great
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  Speaker 1: multitude of wild flowers. More particularly is this so in
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  Speaker 1: early June, when the slender Asphodel Saint Bruno's lily, with
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  Speaker 1: its spike of white blossom, is in flower. To the
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  Speaker 1: westward of this delightful shelf there is a deep and
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  Speaker 1: densely wooded trench, a great gulf of blue, some mile
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  Speaker 1: or so in width, out of which arise great precipices,
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  Speaker 1: very high and wild. Above the Asphotal fields, the mountains
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  Speaker 1: climb in rocky slopes to solitudes of stone and sunlight
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  Speaker 1: that carve round and join the wall of cliffs in
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  Speaker 1: one common skyline. This desolate and austere background contrasts very
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  Speaker 1: vividly with the glowing serenity of the great lake below,
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  Speaker 1: with the spacious view of fertile hills and roads and
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  Speaker 1: villages and islands to the south and east, and with
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  Speaker 1: the hotly golden rice flats of the Valmaggia to the north.
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  Speaker 1: And because it was a remote an insignificant place, far
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  Speaker 1: away out of the crowding tragedies of that year of disaster,
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  Speaker 1: away from burning cities and starving multitudes, bracing and tranquilizing
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  Speaker 1: and hidden, it was here that there gathered the conference
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  Speaker 1: of rulers that was to arrest, if possible, before it
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  Speaker 1: was too late, the debacle of civilization. Here, brought together
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  Speaker 1: by the indefatigable energy of that impassioned humanitarian LeBlanc, the
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  Speaker 1: French ambassador at Washington, the chief of powers of the
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  Speaker 1: world were to meet in a last desperate conference to
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  Speaker 1: save humanity. LeBlanc was one of those ingenious men whose
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  Speaker 1: lot would have been insignificant in any period of security,
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  Speaker 1: but who have been caught up to an immortal role
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  Speaker 1: in history by the sudden simplification of human affairs through
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  Speaker 1: some tragical crisis to the measure of their simplicity. Such
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  Speaker 1: a man was Abraham Lincoln, and such was Garibaldi, and LeBlanc,
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  Speaker 1: with his transparent childish innocence, his entire self forgetfulness, came
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  Speaker 1: into this confusion of distrust and intricate disaster with an
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  Speaker 1: invincible appeal for the manifest sanities of the situation. His
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  Speaker 1: voice when he spoke was full of remonstrance. He was
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  Speaker 1: a little bald spectacle man, inspired by that intellectual idealism
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  Speaker 1: which has been one of the peculiar gifts of France
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  Speaker 1: to humanity. He was possessed of one clear persuasion that
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  Speaker 1: war must end, that the only way to end war
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  Speaker 1: was to have but one government for mankind. He brushed
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  Speaker 1: aside all other considerations at the very outbreak of the war,
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  Speaker 1: so soon when his two capitals of the belligerents had
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  Speaker 1: been wrecked, he went to the President in the White
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  Speaker 1: House with his proposal. He made it as if it
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  Speaker 1: was a matter of course. He was fortunate to be
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  Speaker 1: in Washington and in touch with that gigantic childishness which
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  Speaker 1: was the characteristic of the American imagination, for the Americans
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  Speaker 1: also were among the simple peoples by whom the world
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  Speaker 1: was saved. He won over the American President and the
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  Speaker 1: American government to his general ideas. At any rate, they
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  Speaker 1: supported him sufficiently to give him a standing with the
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  Speaker 1: more skeptical European governments. And with this backing he set
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  Speaker 1: to work. It seemed the most fantastic of enterprises to
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  Speaker 1: bring together all the rulers of the world and unify them.
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  Speaker 1: He wrote innumerable letters, He sent messages, He went on
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  Speaker 1: desperate journeys, He enlisted, did whatever support he could find.
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  Speaker 1: No one was too humble for an ally, or too
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  Speaker 1: obstinate for his advances. Through the terrible autumn of the
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  Speaker 1: Last Wars, this persistent, little visionary in spectacles must have
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  Speaker 1: seemed rather like a hopeful canary twittering during a thunderstorm,
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  Speaker 1: and no accumulation of disasters daunted his conviction that they
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  Speaker 1: could be ended, for the whole world was flaring then
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  Speaker 1: into a monstrous phase of destruction. Power after power about
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  Speaker 1: the armed globe sought to anticipate attack by aggression, They
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  Speaker 1: went to war in a delirium of panic, in order
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  Speaker 1: to use their bombs. First, China and Japan had assailed
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  Speaker 1: Russia and destroyed Moscow. The United States had attacked Japan.
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  Speaker 1: India was in anarchistic revolt, with Delhi a pit of
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  Speaker 1: fire spouting death and flame. The redoubtable King of the
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  Speaker 1: Balkans was mobilizing. It must have seemed plain at last
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  Speaker 1: to every one in those days that the world was
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  Speaker 1: slipping headlong to anarchy. By the spring of nineteen fifty nine,
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  Speaker 1: from nearly two hundred centers, and every week added to
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  Speaker 1: their number, roared the unquenchable crimson conflagrations of the atomic bombs.
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  Speaker 1: The flimsy fabric of the world's credit had vanished. Industry
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  Speaker 1: was completely disorganized. In every city, every thickly populated area
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  Speaker 1: was starving or trembling on the verge of starvation. Most
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  Speaker 1: of the capital cities of the world were burning, Millions
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  Speaker 1: of people had already perished, and over great areas government
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  Speaker 1: was at an end. Humanity had been compared by one
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  Speaker 1: contemporary writer to a sleeper who handles matches in his
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  Speaker 1: sleep and wakes to find himself in flames. For men,
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  Speaker 1: it was an open question whether there was to be
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  Speaker 1: found throughout all the race the will and intelligence to
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  Speaker 1: face these new conditions and make even an attempt to
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  Speaker 1: arrest the downfall of the social order. For a time,
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  Speaker 1: the war spirit defeated every effort to rally the forces
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  Speaker 1: of preservation and construction. LeBlanc seemed to be protesting against
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  Speaker 1: earthquakes and is likely to find a spirit of reason
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  Speaker 1: in the crater of Etna. Even though the shattered official
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: governments now clamored for peace, bands of irreconcilables and invincible patriots, usurpers, adventurers,
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  Speaker 1: and political desperadoes were everywhere in possession of the simple
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  Speaker 1: apparatus for the disengagement of atomic energy and the initiation
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  Speaker 1: of new centers of destruction. The stuff exercised an irresistible
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  Speaker 1: fascination upon a certain type of mind. Why should anyone
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  Speaker 1: give in when he can still destroy his enemies, surrender
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  Speaker 1: while there is still a chance of blowing them to dust.
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  Speaker 1: The power of destruction, which had once been the ultimate
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  Speaker 1: privilege of government, was now the only power left in
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  Speaker 1: the world, and it was everywhere. There were few thoughtful
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  Speaker 1: men during that phase of blazing waste who did not
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  Speaker 1: pass through such moods of despair, as Barney describes and
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  Speaker 1: declare with him, this is the end. And all the
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  Speaker 1: while LeBlanc was going to and fro with glittering glasses
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  Speaker 1: and an inexhaustible persuasiveness, urging the manifest reasonableness of his
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  Speaker 1: view upon ears that ceased presently to be inattentive. Never
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  Speaker 1: at any time did he betray a doubt that all
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  Speaker 1: this chaotic conflict would end. No nurse during a nursery
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  Speaker 1: up was ever so certain of the inevitable ultimate peace.
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  Speaker 1: From being treated as an amiable dreamer, he came, by
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  Speaker 1: insensible degrees to be regarded as an extravagant possibility. Then
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  Speaker 1: he began to seem even practicable. The people who listened
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  Speaker 1: to him in nineteen fifty eight with a smiling impatience
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  Speaker 1: were eager, before nineteen fifty nine was four months old,
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  Speaker 1: to know just exactly what he thought might be done.
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  Speaker 1: He answered with the patience of a philosopher and the
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  Speaker 1: lucidity of a Frenchman. He began to receive responses of
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  Speaker 1: a more and more helpful type. He came across the
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  Speaker 1: Atlantic to Italy, and there he gathered in the promises
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  Speaker 1: for this congress. He chose those high meadows above Bursago
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  Speaker 1: for the reasons we have stated. We must get away,
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  Speaker 1: he said, from old associations. He set to work requisitioning
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  Speaker 1: material for his conference with an assurance that was justified
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  Speaker 1: by the replies with a slight incredulity. The conference, which
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  Speaker 1: was to begin a new order in the world, gathered
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  Speaker 1: itself together. Le Blanc summoned it without arrogance. He controlled
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  Speaker 1: it by virtue of an infinite humility. Men appeared upon
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  Speaker 1: those upland slopes with the apparatus for wireless telegraphy. Others
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  Speaker 1: followed with tents and provisions. A little cable was flung
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  Speaker 1: down to a convenient point upon the Locarno road below.
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  Speaker 1: Le Blanc arrived, sedulously, directing every detail that would affect
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  Speaker 1: the tone of the assembly. He might have been a
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  Speaker 1: courier in advance rather than the originator of the gathering.
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  Speaker 1: And then there arrived, some by the cable, most by aeroplane,
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  Speaker 1: a few in other fashions, the men who had been
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  Speaker 1: called together to confer upon the state of the world.
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  Speaker 1: It was to be a conference without a name. Nine monarchs,
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  Speaker 1: the presidents of four republics, a number of ministers and ambassadors,
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  Speaker 1: powerful journalists and such like. Prominent and influential men took
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  Speaker 1: part in it. There were even scientific men, and that
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  Speaker 1: world famous old man Polston came with the others to
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  Speaker 1: contribute his amateur state craft to the desperate problem of
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  Speaker 1: the age. Only LeBlanc would have dared so to summon
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  Speaker 1: figureheads and powers and intelligence, or have had the courage
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  Speaker 1: to hope for their agreement. Section two and one. At
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  Speaker 1: least of those who were called to this conference of
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  Speaker 1: governments came to it on foot. This was King Egbert,
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  Speaker 1: the young king of the most venerable kingdom in Europe.
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  Speaker 1: He was a rebel, and had always been of deliberate
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  Speaker 1: choice of rebel against the magnificence of his position. He
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  Speaker 1: affected long pedestrian tours and a disposition to sleep in
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  Speaker 1: the open air. He came now over the pass of
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  Speaker 1: Saint Maria Maggiore and by boat up the lake to Bursago.
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  Speaker 1: Thence he walked up the mountain, a pleasant path set
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  Speaker 1: with oaks and sweet chestnut for provision. On the walk,
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  Speaker 1: for he did not want to hurry, He carried with
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  Speaker 1: him a pocket full of bread and cheese, a certain
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  Speaker 1: small retinue that was necessary to his comfort and dignity.
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  Speaker 1: Upon occasions of State. He sent on by the cable car,
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  Speaker 1: and with him walked his private secretary, Fearman of Man,
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  Speaker 1: who had thrown up the professorship of World politics in
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  Speaker 1: the London School of so Sociology, Economics and Political Science
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  Speaker 1: to take up these duties. Fearman was a man of
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  Speaker 1: strong rather than rapid thought. He had anticipated great influence
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  Speaker 1: in this new position, and after some years he was
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  Speaker 1: still only beginning to apprehend how largely his function was
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  Speaker 1: to listen. Originally he had been something of a thinker
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  Speaker 1: upon international politics, an authority upon tariffs and strategy, and
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  Speaker 1: a valued contributor to various of the higher organs of
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  Speaker 1: public opinion. But the atomic bombs had taken him by surprise,
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  Speaker 1: and he had still to recover completely from his pre
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  Speaker 1: atomic opinions and the silencing effect of those sustained explosives.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: The King's freedom from the trammels of etiquette was very
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  Speaker 1: complete in theory, and he abounded in theory. His manners
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  Speaker 1: were purely democratic. It was by a sheer habit and
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  Speaker 1: inadvertency that he permitted Fearman, who had discovered a rucksack
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  Speaker 1: in a small shop in the town below, to carry
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  Speaker 1: both bottles of beer. The King had never, as a
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  Speaker 1: matter of fact, carried anything for himself in his life,
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  Speaker 1: and he had never noted that he did not do.
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  Speaker 1: So we will have nobody with us, he said, at all,
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  Speaker 1: we will be perfectly simple. So Fearman carried the beer
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  Speaker 1: as they walked up. It was the King who made
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  Speaker 1: the pace rather than Fearman. They talked of the conference
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  Speaker 1: before them, and Fearman, with a certain want of assurance
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  Speaker 1: that would have surprised him in himself in the days
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  Speaker 1: of his professorship, sought to define the policy of his
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  Speaker 1: companion in its broader form. Sir said Fearman, I admit
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  Speaker 1: a certain plausibility in the project of Le blancs, but
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  Speaker 1: I feel that although it may be advisable to set
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  Speaker 1: up some sort of general control for international affairs, a
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  Speaker 1: sort of Hague court with extended powers, that is no
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  Speaker 1: reason whatever for losing sight of the principles of national
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  Speaker 1: and imperial autonomy. Fearman said the King. I am going
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  Speaker 1: to set my brother kings a good example. Fiarman intimated
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  Speaker 1: a curiosity that veiled the dread by chucking all that nonsense,
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  Speaker 1: said the King. He quickened his pace as Fearman, who
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  Speaker 1: is already a little out of breath, betrayed a disposition
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  Speaker 1: to reply. I am going to chuck all that nonsense,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: said the King, as Fearman prepared to speak. I am
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  Speaker 1: going to fly my royalty and empire on the table
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  Speaker 1: and declare it once. I don't mean to haggle. It's
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  Speaker 1: haggling about rights has been the devil in human affairs
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  Speaker 1: for always. I am going to stop this nonsense, Fearman
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  Speaker 1: halted abruptly. But sir, he cried. The King stopped six
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  Speaker 1: yards ahead of him and looked back at his adviser's
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  Speaker 1: perspiring visage. Do you really think, Furman, that I am
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  Speaker 1: here as as an infernal politician, to put my crown
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  Speaker 1: and my flag and my claims and so forth in
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  Speaker 1: the way of peace. That little frenchman is right, you know,
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  Speaker 1: he is right as well as I do. Those things
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  Speaker 1: are over. We, we kings and rulers and representatives, have
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: been at the very heart of the mischief. Of course
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: we imply separation, and of course separation means the threat
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  Speaker 1: of war, and of course the threat of war means
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: the accumulation of more and more atomic bombs. The old
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: game's up but I say we mustn't stand here. You know,
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  Speaker 1: the world waits. Don't you think the old game's up? Fairman?
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: Fearman adjusted a strap, passed a hand over his wet forehead,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: and followed earnestly. I admit, sir, He said to a
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: receding back, that there has to be some sort of hegemony,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: some sort of Amphiseitanic console. There's got to be one
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  Speaker 1: simple government for all the world, said the King over
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: his shoulder. But as for a reckless, unqualified abandonment, Sir
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: bang cried the king. Fearman made no answer to this interruption,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: but a faint shadow of annoyance passed across his heated features. Yesterday,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: said the King. By way of explanation, the Japanese very
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: nearly got San Francisco. I hadn't heard, sir. The Americans
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: ran the Japanese airplane down into the sea, and there
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: the bomb got busted under the sea. Sir, Yes, submarine volcano.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: The steam is in sight of the Californian coast. It
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: was as near as that. And with things like this happening,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: you want me to go up this hill and haggle.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: Consider the effect of that on my imperial cousin and
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: all the others. He will haggle, Sir, not a bit
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: of it, said the King, But Sir le Blanc won't
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: let him. Fearman halted abruptly and gave a vicious pull
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: at the offending strap. Sir, he will listen to his advisers,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: he said, in a tone that in some subtle ways
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: seemed to implicate his master. With the trouble of the knapsack.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: The king can considered him. We will go just a
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  Speaker 1: little higher, he said. I want to find this unoccupied
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  Speaker 1: village they spoke of, and then we will drink that beer.
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  Speaker 1: It can't be far. We will drink the beer and
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: throw away the bottles. And then, Fiarman, I shall ask
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: you to look at things in a more generous light,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: because you know you must. He turned about, and for
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: some time the only sound they made was the noise
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: of their boots upon the loose stones of the way,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: and the irregular breathing of Fiarman. At length, as it
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: seemed to Fiarman, or quite soon as it seemed to
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: the king, the gradient of the path diminished, the way
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: widened out, and they found themselves in a very beautiful place. Indeed,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: it was one of those upland clusters of sheds and
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: houses that are still to be found in the mountains
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: of North Italy, buildings that were used only in the
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: high summer, in which it was accustomed to leave locked
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: up and deserted through all the winter and spring, and
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: up to the middle of June. The buildings were of
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: a soft toned gray stone, buried in rich green grass,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: shadowed by chestnut trees, and lit by an extraordinary blaze
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: of yellow broom. Never had the king seen broom so glorious.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: He shouted at the light of it, for it seemed
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: to give out more sunlight even than it received. He
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: sat down impulsively on a likeness stone, tugged out his
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: bread and cheese, and bade Fiarman thrust the beer into
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: the shaded weeds to cool the things. People miss, Fearman,
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: he said, who go up into the air in ships.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: Fearman looked round him with an ungenial eye. You see
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: it at its best, sir, he said, before the peasants
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: come here again and make it filthy. It would be
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: beautiful anyhow, said the King, superficially. Sir, said Fearman. But
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: it stands for a social order that is vast vanishing away. Indeed,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: judging by the grasp between the stones and in the huts,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: I am inclined to doubt if it is in use
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: even now. I suppose, said the king, that they would
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: come up immediately the hay on this flower meadow is cut.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: It would be those slow, creamy colored beasts I expect
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: one sees on the roads below, and swarthy girls with
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: red handkerchiefs over their black hair. It is wonderful to
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: think how long that beautiful old life lasted in the
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Roman times, and long ages before ever the rumor of
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: the Romans had come into these parts. Men drove their
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: cattle up into the places as the summer came on.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: How haunted is this place? There have been quarrels here, hopes.
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  Speaker 1: Children have played here and lived to be old cronies
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: and old gaffers, and died, And so it has gone
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: on for thousands of lives. Lovers, innumerable lovers have caressed
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: amidst this golden broom. He meditated, over a busy mouthful
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: of bread and cheese. We ought to have brought a
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: tankard for that beer, he said. Fiarman produced a folding
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: aluminum cup and the King was pleased to drink. I wish, Sir,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: said Furman, suddenly I could induce you, at least to
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: delay your decision. It's no good talking, Fiarman, said the king.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: My mind's as clear as daylight. Sire protested Fiarman, with
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: his voice full of bread and cheese and genuine emotion.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Have you no respect for your kingship? The King paused
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: before he answered with unwonted gravity, it's just because I
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: have Fearman that I won't be a puppet in this
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: game of international politics. He regarded his companion for a
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: moment and then remarked, Kingship, what do you know of
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: kingship fairman? Yes, cried the King to his astonished counselor.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: For the first time in my life, I am going
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: to be a king. I am going to lead and
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: lead by my own authority. For a dozen generations, my
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: family has been a set of dummies in the hands
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: of their advisers, advisers. Now I am going to be
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: a real king, and I am going to to abolish,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: dispose of finish the crown to which I have been
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: a slave. But what a world of paralyzing shams, This
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: roaring stuff has ended. The rigid old world is in
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: the melting pot again. And I, who seem to be
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: no more than the stuffing inside a regal robe, I
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: am a king among kings. I have to play my
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: part at the head of things and put an end
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: to blood and fire and idiot disorder. But sir, protested fearman,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: this man LeBlanc is right. The whole world has got
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: to be a republic, one and indivisible. You know that,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: And my duty is to make that easy. A king
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: should lead his people. You want me to stick on
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: their backs like some old man of the sea. Today
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: must be a sacrament of kings. Our trust for mankind
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: is done with and ended. We must part our robes
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: among them. We must part our kingship among them, and
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: say to them all, now the king and everyone must
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: rule the world. Have you no sense of that magnificence
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: of this occasion? You want me, furmin, You want me
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: to go up there and haggle like a damned little
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: solicitor for some price, some compensation, some qualification. Fearman shrugged
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: his shoulders and assumed an expression of despair. Meanwhile, he conveyed,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: one must eat for a time. Neither spoke, and the
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: King ate and turned over in his mind the phrases
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: of speech he intended to make to the conference. By
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: virtue of the antiquity of his crown, he was to preside,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: and he intended to make his presidency memorable. Reassured of
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: his eloquence, he considered the despondent and sulky Fearman for
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: a space. Fearman, he said, you have ideal kingship. It
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: has been my dream, Sir, said Fearman, sorrowfully to serve
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: at the levers. Fearman said the King. You are pleased
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: to be unjust, said Fiarman, deeply hurt. I am pleased
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: to be getting out of it, said the King, Oh Fiarman,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: He went on, have you no thought for me? Will
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: you never realize that I am not only flesh and blood,
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: but imagination with its rights. I am a king in
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: revolt against that fetter they put upon my head. I
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: am a king awake. My reverend grandparents never, in all
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: their August lives, had a waking moment. They loved the
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: job that you your advisers gave them. They never had
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: a doubt of it. It was like giving a doll
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: to a woman who ought to have a child. They
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: delighted in processions and opening things, and being read addresses too,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: and visiting triplets and nonagenarians and all that sort of thing. Incredibly,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: they used to keep albums of cuttings from all the
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: illustrated papers showing them at it. And if the press
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: cutting partials grew thin, they were worried. It was all
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: that ever worried them. But there is something atavistic in me.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: I hark back to unconstitutional monarchs. They christened me too retrogressively.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: I think I wanted to get things done. I was bored.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: I might have fallen into vice. Most intelligent and energetic
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: princes do, but the palace precautions were unusually thorough. I
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: was brought up in the purest court the world has
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: ever seen, alertly pure. So I read books, Furman, and
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: went about asking questions. The thing was bound to happen
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: to one of us sooner or later, perhaps two. Very likely.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: I'm not vicious. I don't think I am, he reflected, No,
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: he's said, Fearman cleared his throat. I don't think you are, sir,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: He said, you prefer He stopped short. He had been
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: going to say talking. He substituted ideas. That world of
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: royalty the king went on in a little while. No
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: one will understand it anymore. It will become a riddle.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: Among other things, it was a world of perpetual best clothes.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: Everything was in its best clothes for us, and usually
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: wearing bunting, with a cinema watching to see. We took
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: it properly. If you're a king Furman and you go
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: and look at a regiment, it instantly stops whenever it
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: is doing, changes into full uniform and presents arms. When
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: my august parents went in a train, the coal in
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: the tender used to be whitened. It did, fearman. And
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: if if coal had been white instead of black, I
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: have no doubt the authorities would have blackened it. That
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: was the spirit of our treatment. People were always walking
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: about with their faces to us. One never saw anything
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: in profile. One got an impression of a world that
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: was insanely focused on ourselves. And when I began to
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: poke my little questions into the Lord Chancellor and the
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: Archbishop and all the rest of them about what I
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: should see if people turned round, the general effect I
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: produced was that I wasn't by any means displaying the
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: royal tact they had expected of me. He meditated for
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: a time. And yet you know there is something in
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: the kingship, fearman. It stiffened up my august little grandfather.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: It gave my grandmother a kind of awkward dignity. Even
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: when she was cross, and she was very off and cross.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: They both had a profound sense of responsibility. My poor
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: father's health was wretched during his brief career. Nobody outside
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: the circle knows just how he screwed himself up to
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: things my people expected. He used to say of this
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: tiresome duty, or that most of the things they made
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: him do were silly. It was part of a bad tradition.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: But there was nothing silly in the way he said
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: about them. The spirit of kingship is a fine thing, fearman.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: I feel it in my bones. I did not know
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: what I might not be if I were not a king.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: I could die for my people, fairman, and you couldn't. No,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: don't say you could die for me, because I know better.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: Don't think I forget my kingship, fearman. Don't imagine that
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: I am a king, a kingly king by right divine.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: The fact that I am also a chattering young man makes.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: It's not the slightest difference to that. But the proper
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: textbook for kings, Fearman, is none of the court memoirs
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: and welt politic books you would have had me read.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: It is the old Fraser's Golden Bough? Have you read that, furman,
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: Fearman had? Those were the authentic kings. In the end,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: they were cut up and a bit given to everybody.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: They sprinkled the nations with kingship. Fearman turned himself round
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: and faced his royal master. What do you intend to do, sir?
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: He asked, If you will not listen to me, what
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: do you propose to do this afternoon? The King flicked
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: crumbs from his coat. Manifestly war has to stop forever, furman. Manifestly,
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: this can only be done by putting all the world
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: under one government. Our crowns and flags are in the way.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Manifestly they must go. Yes, sir, interrupted Fearman. But what government?
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: I don't see what government you get by a universal abdication?
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: Well said the King, with his hands about his knees.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: We shall be the government the conference, exclaimed Fearman. Who else,
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: asked the king simply. It's perfectly simple, he added to
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: Fiarman's tremendous silence, but cried, fearman, you must have sanctions.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: Will there be no form of election? For example? Why
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: should there be asked the king with intelligent curiosity the
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: consent of the govern fearman. We are just going to
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: lay down our differences and take over government without any
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: election at all, without any sanction. The government will show
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: their consent by silence. If any effective opposition arises, we
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: shall ask it to come in and help. The truth
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: sanction of kingship is the grip upon the scepter. We
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: aren't going to worry people to vote for us. I'm
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: certain the mass of men does not want to be
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: bothered with such things. We'll contrive away for anyone interested
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: to join in. That's quite enough in the way of democracy.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: Perhaps later, when things don't matter, we shall govern all right, fairman.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: Government only becomes difficult when the lawyers get hold of it.
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: And since these troubles began, the lawyers are shy. Indeed,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: come to think of it, I wonder where all the
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: lawyers are. Where are they? A lot, of course were bagged,
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: some of the worst ones when they blew up my legislature.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: You never knew the late Lord Chancellor necessities bury rights
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: and create them. Lawyers live on dead rights disinterred. We've
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: done with that way of living. We don't have more
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: law than a code can cover. And beyond that, government
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: will be free before the sun sets today, fearman, trust me,
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: we shall have made our abdications, all of us, and
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: declare the world Republic supreme and indivisible. I wonder what
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: my august grandmother would have made of it, all my rights,
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: and then we shall go on governing. What else is
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: there to do? All over the world. We shall declare
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: that there is no longer mine or thine but ours. China,
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: the United States, two thirds of Europe will certainly fall
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: in and obey. They will have to do, so what
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: else can they do? Their official rulers are here with us.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: They won't be able to get together any sort of
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: idea of not obeying us. Then we shall declare that
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: every sort of property is held in trust for the republic.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: But sir, cried fearman, suddenly enlightened, has this been arranged already?
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: My dear fearman, do you think we have come here,
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: all of us to talk at large. The talking has
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: been done for half a century, talking and writing. We
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: are here to set the new thing, the simple, obvious,
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: necessary thing going. He stood up Fearman, forgetting the habits
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: of a score of years remained seated well, he said,
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: at last, and I have known nothing. The king smiled cheerfully.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: He liked these walks with Fearman. Section three. That conference
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: upon the Brissago Meadows was one of the most heterogeneous
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: collections of prominent people that has ever met. Together. Principalities
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: and powers, stripped and shadowed until all their pride and
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: mystery were gone, met in a marvelous new humility. Here
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: were kings and emperors whose capitals were lakes of flaming destruction,
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: statesmen whose countries had become chaos, scared politicians and financial potentates.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: Here were leaders of thought and learned investigators dragged reluctantly
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: to the control of affairs. Altogether, there were ninety three
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: of them LeBlanc's conception of the head men of the world.
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: They had all come to the realization of the simple
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: truths that the indefatigable LeBlanc had hammered into them, and,
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: drawing his resources from the King of Italy. He had
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: provisioned his conference with the generous simplicity, quite in accordance
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: with the rest of his character, and so at last
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: was able to make his astonishing and entirely rational appeal.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: He had appointed King Egbert the president. He believed in
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: this young man so firmly that he completely dominated him.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: And he spoke himself as a secretary might speak from
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: the president's left hand, and evidently did not realize himself
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: that he was telling them all exactly what they had
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: to do. He imagined he was merely recapitulating the obvious
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: features of the situation for their convenience. He was dressed
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: in ill fitting white silk clothes, and he consulted a
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: dingy little packet of notes as he spoke. They put
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: him out. He explained that he had never spoken from
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: notes before, but that this occasion was exceptional. And then
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: King Egbert spoke as he was expected to speak, and
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: LeBlanc's spectacles moistened at that flow of generous sentiment. Most
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: amiably and lightly expressed, we haven't to stand on ceremony,
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: said the King. We have to govern the world. We
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: have always pretended to govern the world, and here is
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: our opportunity, of course, whispered LeBlanc, nodding his head rapidly.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: Of course the world has been smashed up, and we
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: have to put it on its wheels again, said King Egbert.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: And it is the simple common sense of this crisis,
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: for all to help and none to seek advantage. Is
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: that our tone or not. The gathering was too old
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: and seasoned and miscellaneous for any great displays of enthusiasm.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: But that was its tone, and with an astonishment that
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: somehow became exhilarating, it began to resign, repudiate, and declare
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: its intentions. Fiarman, taking notes behind his master, heard everything
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: that had been foretold among the yellow broom come true.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: With a queer feeling that he was dreaming, he assisted
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: at the proclamation of the world state, and saw the
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: message taken out to the wireless operators to be throbbed
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: all round the habitable globe. And next said King Egbert,
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: with a cheerful excitement in his voice, we have to
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: get every atom of carolinum and all the plant for
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: making it into our control. Fearman was not alone in
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: his incredulity. Not a man there who was not a
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: very amiable, reasonable, benevolent creature at bottom. Some had been
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: borne to power, and some had happened upon it. Some
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: had struggled to get it, not clearly knowing what it
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: was and what it implied. But none was irreconcilably set
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: upon its retention at the price of cosmic disaster. Their
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: minds had been prepared by circumstances and sedulously cultivated by LeBlanc.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: And now they took the broad, obvious road along which
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: King Egbert was leading them, with a mingled conviction of
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: strangeness and necessity. Things went very smoothly. The King of
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: Italy explained the arrangements that had been made for the
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: protection of the camp from any fantastic attack. A couple
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: of thousand of aeroplanes, each carrying a sharpshooter, guarded them,
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: and there was an excellent system of relays, and at
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: night all the sky would be searched by scores of lights.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: And the admirable LeBlanc gave luminous reasons for their camping
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: just where they were and going on with their administrative
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: duties forthwith. He knew of this place because he had
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: happened upon it when holiday making with Madame LeBlanc twenty
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: years and more ago. There is very simple fare at present,
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: he explained, on account of the disturbed state of the
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: countries about us. But we have excellent fresh milk, good
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: red wine, beef, bread, salad and lemons. In a few days,
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: I hope to place things in the hands of a
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: more efficient caterer. The members of the New World Government
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: dined at three long tables on trestles, and down the
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: middle of these tables LeBlanc, in spite of the barrenness
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: of his menu, had contrived to have a great multitude
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: of beautiful roses. There was a similar accommodation for the
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: secretaries and attendants at a lower level down the mountain.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: The assembled behind as it had debated in the open air,
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: and over the dark crags to the west, the glowing
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: June sunset shown upon the banquet. There was no precedency
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: now among the ninety three, and King Egbert found himself
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: between a pleasant little Japanese stranger in spectacles and his
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: cousin of Central Europe, and opposite a great Bengali leader
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: and the President of the United States of America. Beyond
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: the Japanese was Holston, the old chemist and LeBlanc was
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: a little wayed down the other side. The King was
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: cheerfully talkative, and abounded in ideas. He fell presently into
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: an amiable controversy with the American, who seemed to feel
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: a lack of impressiveness in the occasion. It was, ever
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: the transatlantic tendency, due no doubt to the necessity of
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: handling public questions in a bulky and striking manner, to
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: overemphasize and over accentuate, and the President was touched by
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: his national failing. He suggested now that there should be
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: a new era, starting from that day as the first
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: day of the first year. The King demurred. From this
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: day forth, sir, man enters upon his heritage, said the American.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: Man said, the King is always entering upon his heritage.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: You Americans have a peculiar weakness for anniversaries, If you
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: will forgive me saying so, yes, I accuse you of
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: a lust for dramatic effect. Everything is happening always, but
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: you want to say this or this is the real
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: instant in time, and subordinate all the others to it.
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: The American said something about an epoch making day, but surely,
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: said the King, you don't want us to condemn all
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: humanity to a worldwide annual fourth of July forever and evermore.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: On account of this harmless, necessary day of declarations, no
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: conceivable day could ever deserve that. Ah, you do not
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: know as I do, the devastations of the memorable. My
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: poor grandparents were rubric hated. The worst of these huge
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: celebrations is that they break up the dignified succession of
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: one's contemporary emotions. They interrupt, they set back. Suddenly outcome
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: the flags and fireworks, and the old enthusiasms are furbished up.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: And its sheer destruction of the proper thing that ought
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: to be going on sufficient onto the day is the
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: celebration thereof let the dead past bury it dead. You see,
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: in regard to the calendar, I am for democracy, and
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: you are for aristocracy. All things I hold are august,
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: and I have a right to be lived through on
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: their merits. No days should be sacrificed on the grave
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: of departed events. What do you think of it, Wilhelm
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: for the nobles, Yes, all days should be noble. Exactly
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: my position, said the king, and felt pleased at what
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: he had been saying. And then, since the American pressed
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: his idea, The King contrived to shift the talk from
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: the question of celebrating the epoch they were making to
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: the question of the probabilities that lay ahead. Here everyone
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: became diffident they could see the world unified and at peace.
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: But what detail was to follow from that unification they
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: see indisposed to discuss. This diffidence struck the King as remarkable.
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: He plunged upon the possibilities of science. All the huge
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: expenditure that had hitherto gone into unproductive naval and military
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: preparations must now, he declared, place research upon new footing.
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: Where one man worked, we will have a thousand. He
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: appealed to Holston. We have only begun to peep into
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: these possibilities, he said, You, at any rate have sounded
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: the vaults of the treasure house. They are unfathomable, smiled Holston.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: Man Man said the American, with a manifest resolve to
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: justify and reinstate himself. After the flickering contradictions of the King, man,
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: I say, is only beginning to enter upon his heritage.
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: Tell us some of the things you believe we shall
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: presently learn. Give us an idea of the things we
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: may presently do, said the King, to Holston. Holston opened
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: out the visas science. The King cried, presently is the
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: new king of the world. Our view, said the President,
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: is that sovereignty resides with the people. No, said the King.
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: The sovereign is a being more subtle than that, and
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: less arithmetical, neither my family nor your emancipated people. It
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: is something that floats about us, and above us and
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: through us. It is that common, impersonal will and sense
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: of necessity of which science is the best understood and
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: most typical aspect. It is the mind of the race.
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: It is that which brought us here, which has bowed
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: us all to its demands. He paused and glanced down
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: the table at Le Blanc, and then reopened at his
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: former antagonist. There is a disposition, said the King, to
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: regard this gathering as if it were actually doing what
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: it appears to be doing, as if we ninety odd
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: men of our own free will and wisdom, were unifying
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: the world. There is a temptation to consider ourselves exceptionally
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: fine fellows and masterful men, and all the rest of it.
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: We are not, I doubt, if we should average out
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: as anything abler than any other casually selected body of
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: ninety odd men. We are no creators. We are consequences.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: We are salvagers, or as salvages. The thing today is
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: not ourselves, but the wind of conviction that is blown
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: us hither. The American had to confess he could hardly
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: agree with the King's estimate of their average holster. Perhaps
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: and one or two others might lift us a little.
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: The King conceded, but the rest of us. His eyes
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: flitted once more towards LeBlanc. Look at LeBlanc, he said,
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: he's just a simple soul. There are hundreds and thousands
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: like him. I admit a certain dexterity, a certain lucidity,
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: but there is not a country town in France where
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: there is not a LeBlanc or so to be found
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: about two o'clock in its principal cafe. It's just that
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: he isn't complicated or supermannish, or any of those things
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: that has made all he has done possible. But in
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: happier times, don't you think will hel he would have
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: remained just what his father was, a successful epissar, very clean,
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: very accurate, very honest, And on holidays he would have
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: gone out with Madame LeBlanc and her knitting in a
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: punt with a jar of something gentle, and have sat
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: under a large, reasonable green lined umbrella and fished very
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: nearly and successfully for Gudgeon. The President and the Japanese
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: Prince in spectacles protested together if I do him an injustice,
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: said the King. It is only because I want to
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: elucidate my argument. I want to make it clear how
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: small are men in days and how great is man
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: in comparison. Section four. So it was King Egbert talked
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: at Brisago after they had proclaimed the unity of the world.
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: Every evening after that the Assembly dined together and talked
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: at their ease, and grew accustomed to each other, and
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: sharpened each other's ideas, and every day they worked together,
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: and really, for a time believed they were inventing a
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: new government for the world. They discussed the constitution, but
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: there were matters needing attention too urgently to wait for
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: any constitution. They attended to these. Incidentally, the constitution it
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: was that waited. It was presently found convenient to keep
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: the Constitution waiting indefinitely, as King Egbert had foreseen. And meanwhile,
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: with an increasing self confidence, that Council went on governing
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: on this first evening of all the council's gatherings. After
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: King Egbert had talked for a long time and drunken
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: and praised very abundantly the simple red wine of the
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: country that LeBlanc had procured for them, he fathered about
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: him a group of congenial spirits and fell into a
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: discourse upon simplicity, praising it above all things, and declaring
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: that the ultimate aim of art, religion, philosophy, and science
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: alike was to simplify. He instanced himself as a devotee
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: to simplicity, and LeBlanc he instanced as a crowning instance
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: of the splendor of this quality. Upon that they all agreed.
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: When at last the company about the tables broke up,
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: the king found himself, bringing over with a peculiar affection
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: and admiration for LeBlanc. He made his way to him,
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: and drew him aside, and broached what he declared was
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: a small matter. There was, he said, a certain order
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: in his gift, that, unlike all the other orders and
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: decorations in the world, had never been corrupted. He was
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: reserved for elderly men of supreme distinction, the acuteness of
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: whose gifts was already touched to melowness, and it had
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: included the greatest names of every age, so far as
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: the advisers of his family had been to ascertain them.
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: At present, the king admitted these matters of stars and
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: badges were rather obscured by more urgent affairs. For his
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: own part, he had never set any value upon them
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: at all, but a time might come when they would
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: be at last interesting, And in short, he wished to
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: confer the order of merit upon LeBlanc. His sole motive
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: in doing so, he added, was his strong desire to
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: signalize his personal esteem. He laid his hand upon the
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: Frenchman's shoulder as he said said these things with an
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: almost brotherly affection. LeBlanc received this proposal with the modest
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: confusion that greatly enhanced the King's opinion of his admirable simplicity.
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: He pointed out that, eager as he was to snatch
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: at the proffered distinction, it might at the present stage
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: appear invidious, and he therefore suggested that the conferring of
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: it should be postponed until it could be made the
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: crown and conclusion of his services. The King was unable
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: to shake this resolution, and the two men parted with
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: expressions of mutual esteem. The king then summoned Fearman in
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: order to make a short note of a number of
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: things that he had said during the day. But after
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: about twenty minutes work, the sweet sleepiness of the mountain
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: air overcame him, and he dismissed Herman and went to bed,
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: and fell asleep at once, and slept with extreme satisfaction.
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: He had an active, agreeable day. Section five. The establishment
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: of the new order that was thus so humanly begun, was,
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: if one measures it by the standard of any preceding age,
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: a rapid progress. The fighting spirit of the world was exhausted.
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: Only here or there did fierceness linger. For long decades,
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: the combative side and human affairs had been monstrously exaggerated
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: by the accidents of political separation. This now became luminously plain.
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: An enormous proportion of the force that sustained armaments had
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: been nothing more aggressive than the fear of war and
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: warlike neighbors. Is doubtful if any large section of the
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: men actually enlisted for fighting ever at any time really
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: hungered and thirsted for bloodshed and danger, That kind of
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: appetite was probably never very strong in the species. After
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: the savage stage was passed, the army was a profession
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: in which killing had become a disagreeable possibility rather than
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: an eventful certainty. If one reads the old newspapers and
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: periodicals of that time, which did so much to keep
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: militarism alive, one finds very little about glory and adventure,
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: and a constant harping on the disagreeableness of invasion and subjugation.
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: In one word, militarism was funk. The belligerent resolution of
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: the armed Europe of the twentieth century was the resolution
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: of a fiercely frightened sheep to plunge, and now that
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: its weapons were exploding in its hands, Europe was only
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: too eager to drop them and abandon this fancied refuge
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: of violence. For a time, the whole world had been
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: shocked into frankness. Nearly all the clever people who had
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: hitherto sustained the ancient belligerent separations had now been brought
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: to realize the need for simplicity of attitude and openness
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: of mind. And in this atmosphere of moral renaissance, there
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: was little attempt to get negotiable advantages out of resistance
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: to the new order. Human beings are foolish enough to doubt,
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: but few have stopped to haggle in a fire escape
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: the Council had its way with them. The band of
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: patriots who seized the laboratories and arsenal just outside Osaka
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: and tried to rouse Japan to revolt against inclusion in
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: the Republic of mankind found they had miscalculated the national
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: pride and met the swift vengeance of their own countrymen.
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: That fight in the arsenal was a vivid incident in
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: this closing chapter of the history of war to the last.
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: The patriots were undecided whether, in the event of a defeat,
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: they would explode their supply of atomic bombs or not.
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: They were fighting with swords outside the iridium doors, and
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: the moderates of their number were at bay and on
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: the verge of destruction. Only ten, indeed, remained unwounded when
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: the Republicans burst into the rescue