Latest / The H. G. Wells Library / The Sleeper Awakes Chapter 23 - Graham Speaks His Word

Transcript

The Sleeper Awakes Chapter 23 - Graham Speaks His Word · The H. G. Wells Library

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty three of The Sleeper Awakes. This is a
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Recording by Arrowit. The Sleeper Awakes by H. G. Wells,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty three, Graham speaks his word. For a time,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: the Master of the Earth was not even master of
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: his own mind. Even his will seemed a will, not
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: his own. His own acts surprised him and were but
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: a part of the confusion of strange experiences that poured
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: across's being. These things were definite. The Negroes were coming,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Helen Wotton had warned the people of their coming, and
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: he was Master of the Earth. Each of these facts
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: seemed struggling for complete possession of his thoughts. They protruded
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: from a background of swarming halls, elevated passages, rooms jammed
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: with ward leaders in council, kinematograph and telephone rooms, and
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: windows looking out on a seething sea of marching men.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: The men in yellow and men whom he fancied were
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: called ward leaders, were either propelling him forward or following
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: him obediently. It was hard to tell perhaps they were
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: doing a little of both. Perhaps some power, unseen and
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: unsuspected propelled them all. He was aware that he was
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: going to make a proclamation to the people of the earth,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: aware of certain grandiose phrases floating in his mind. As
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the thing he meant to say. Many little things happened,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: and then he found himself with the man in yellow,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: entering a little room where this proclamation of his was
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: to be made. This room was grotesquely latter day in
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: its appointments. In the center was a bright oval, lit
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: by shaded electric lights from above. The rest was in shadow,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: and the double, finely fitting doors through which he came
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: from the swarming hall of the atlas made the place
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: very still. The dead thud of these as they closed
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: behind him, the sudden cessation of the tumult in which
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: he had been living for hours. The quivering circle of light,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: the whispers and quick, noiseless movements of vaguely visible attendants
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: in the shadows had a strange effect upon Graham. The
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: huge ears of a phonographic mechanism gaped in a battery
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: for his words. The black eyes of great photographic cameras
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: awaited his beginning. Beyond metal rods and coils glittered dimly,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: and something whirled about with a droning hum. He walked
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: into the center of the light, and his shadow drew together,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: black and sharp, to a little blot at his feet.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: The vague shape of the thing he meant to say
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: was already in his mind. But this silence, this isolation,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: the withdrawal from that contagious crowd, this audience of gaping,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: glaring machines, had not been in his anticipation. All his
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: supports seemed withdrawn together. He seemed to have dropped into
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: this suddenly, suddenly to have discovered himself. In a moment,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: he was changed. He found that he now feared to
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: be inadequate. He feared to be theatrical. He feared the
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: quality of his voice, the quality of his wit. Astonished,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: he turned to the man in yellow with a propitatory gesture.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: For a moment, he said, I must wait. I did
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: not think it would be like this. I must think
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: of the thing I have to say. While he was
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: still hesitating, there came an agitated messenger with news that
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: the foremost aeroplanes were passing over Madrid. What news of
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: the flying stages? He asked the people of the southwest
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: wards are ready ready? He turned impatiently to the blank
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: circles of the lenses. Again. I suppose it must be
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: a sort of speech would to God. I knew certainly
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: the thing that should be said. Aeroplanes at Madrid. They
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: must have started before the main fleet. Oh what can
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: it matter whether I speak well or ill? He said,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: and felt the light grow brighter. He had framed some
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: vague sentence of democratic sentiment, when suddenly doubts overwhelmed him.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: His belief in his heroic quality and calling, he found,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: had altogether lost its assured conviction. The picture of a
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: little strutting futility in a windy waste of incomprehensible destinies
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: replaced it abruptly. It was perfectly clear to him that
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: this revolt against ostrog was premature, foredoomed to failure. The
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: impulse of passionate inadequacy against inevitable things. He thought of
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: that swift flight of aeroplanes, like the swoop of fate
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: towards him. He was astonished that he could have seen
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: things in any other light. In that final emergency, he debated,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: thrust debate resolutely aside, determined at all costs to go
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: through the thing he had undertaken, and he could find
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: no word to begin. Even as he stood awkward, hesitating
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: with an indiscreet apology for his inability, trembling on his lips,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: came the noise of many people crying out, the running
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: to and fro of feet. Wait, cried someone, and a
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: door opened. Graham turned, and the watching lights waned through
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: the open doorway. He saw a slight, girlish figure approaching
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: his heart leapt. It was Helen Wotton. The man in
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: yellow came out of the nearer shadows into the circle
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: of light. This is the girl who told us what
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Ostrog had done, he said. She came in very quietly
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: and stood still, as if she did not want to
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: interrupt Graham's eloquence. But his doubts and questionings fled before
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: her presence. He remembered the things that he had meant
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: to say. He faced the cameras, and the light about
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: him grew brighter. He turned back to her. You have
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: helped me, he said, lamely, helped me very much. This
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: is very difficult, he paused. He addressed himself to the
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: unseen multitudes who stared upon him through those grotesque black eyes.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: At first, he spoke slowly, Men and women of the
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: New Age, He said, you have arisen to do battle
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: for the race. There is no easy victory before us.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: He stopped to gather words. He wished passionately for the
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: gift of moving speech. This night is beginning, he said,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: This battle that is coming, this battle that rushes upon
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: us tonight, is only a beginning all your lives. It
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: may be you must fight. Take no thought though I
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: am beaten, though I am utterly overthrown. I think I
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: may be overthrown. He found the thing in his mind
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: too vague for words. He paused momentarily and broke into
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: vague exhortations, And then a rush of speech came upon him.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Much that he said was but the humanitarian commonplace of
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: a vanished age, but the conviction of his voice touched
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: it to vitality. He stated the case of the old
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: days to the people of the New Age, to the
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: girl at his side, I come out of the past
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: to you, he said, with the memory of an age
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: that hoped. My age was an age of dreams, of beginnings,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: an age of noble hopes. Throughout the world. We had
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: made an end of slavery throughout the world. We had
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: spread the desire and anticipation that wars might cease, that
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: all man and women might live nobly in freedom and peace.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: So we hoped in the days that are passed. And
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: what of those hopes? How is it with man after
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: two hundred years? Great cities, vast powers, a collective greatness
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: beyond our dreams. For that we did not work, and
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: that has come. But how is it with the little
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: eyes that make up this greater life? How is it
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: with the commone lives as it has ever been, sorrow
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: and labor, lives cramped and unfulfilled, lives tempted by power,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: tempted by wealth, and gone to waste and folly. The
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: old faith have faded and changed. The new faith? Is
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: there a new faith? Charity and mercy he floundered, beauty
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: and the love of beautiful things, effort and devotion. Give
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: yourselves as I would give myself, as Christ gave himself
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: upon the cross. It does not matter if you understand.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: It does not matter if you seem to fail. You
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: know in the core of your hearts you know there
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: is no promise, there is no security, nothing to go upon,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: but faith. There is no faith, but faith, faith, which
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: is courage thing that he had long wished to believe.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: He found that he believed. He spoke gustily, in broken,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: incomplete sentences, but with all his heart and strength of
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: this new faith within him. He spoke of the greatness
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: of self abnegation, of his belief in an immortal life
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: of humanity in which we live and move and have
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: our being. His voice rose and fell, and the recording
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: appliance as hummed as he spoke, dim attendants watched him
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: out of the shadow. His sense of that silent spectator
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: beside him sustained his sincerity. For a few glorious moments.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: He was carried away. He felt no doubt of his
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: heroic quality, no doubt of his heroic words. He had
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: it all straight and plain, His eloquence limped no longer,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: and at last he made an end to speaking here
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: and now, he cried, I make my will. All that
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: is mine in the world I give to the people
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: of the world. All that is mine in the world,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: I give to the people of the world, to all
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: of you. I give it to you, and to myself.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: I give to you, And as God wills tonight, I
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: will live for you or I will die, he ended.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: He found the light of his present exaltation reflected in
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: the face of the girl. Their eyes met. Her eyes
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: were swimming with tears of enthusiasm. I knew, she whispered, Oh,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Father of the world, sire, I knew you would say
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: these things. I have said what I could, he answered, lamely,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: and grasped and clung to her outstretched hands. End of
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty three.