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10 - Anthem - Ayn Rand · Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter ten. We are sitting at a table. We were
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  Speaker 1: writing this upon paper made thousands of years ago. The
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  Speaker 1: light is dim and we cannot see the golden one,
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  Speaker 1: only one lock of gold on the pillow of an
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  Speaker 1: ancient bed. This is our home. We came upon it
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  Speaker 1: to day at sunrise. For many days we have been
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  Speaker 1: crossing a chain of mountains. The forest rose among cliffs,
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  Speaker 1: and whenever we walked out upon a barren stretch of rock,
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  Speaker 1: we saw great peaks before us in the west, and
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  Speaker 1: to the north of us, and to the south. As
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  Speaker 1: far as our eyes could see. The peaks were red
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  Speaker 1: and brown, with the green streaks of forest as vanes
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  Speaker 1: upon them, with blue mists as veils over their heads.
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  Speaker 1: We had never heard of these mountains, nor seen them
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  Speaker 1: marked on any map. The uncharted forest has protected them
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  Speaker 1: from the cities and from the men of the cities.
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  Speaker 1: We climbed paths where the wild goat dared not follow.
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  Speaker 1: Stones rolled from under our feet, and we heard them
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  Speaker 1: striking the rocks below farther and farther down, and the
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  Speaker 1: mountains rang with each stroke, and long after the strokes
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  Speaker 1: had died. But we went on, for we knew that
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  Speaker 1: no men would ever follow our track nor reach us here.
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  Speaker 1: Then to day, at sunrise we saw a white flame
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  Speaker 1: among the trees, high on a sheer peak before us.
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  Speaker 1: We thought that it was a fire, and we stopped.
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  Speaker 1: But the flame was unmoving, yet blinding as liquid metal.
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  Speaker 1: So we climbed towards it through the rocks, and there
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  Speaker 1: before us, on a broad summit, with the mountains rising
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  Speaker 1: behind it, stood a house such as we had never seen,
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  Speaker 1: and the white fire came from the sun on the
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  Speaker 1: glass of its windows. The house had two stories and
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  Speaker 1: a strange roof, flat as a floor. There was more
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  Speaker 1: window than wall upon its walls, and the windows went
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  Speaker 1: on straight around the corners. Though how this house kept
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  Speaker 1: standing we could not guess. The walls were hard and
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  Speaker 1: smooth of that stone, unlike stone which we had seen
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  Speaker 1: in our tunnel. We both knew it without words. This
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  Speaker 1: house was left from the unmentionable times. The trees had
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  Speaker 1: protected it from time and weather, and from men who
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  Speaker 1: have less pity than time and weather. We turned to
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  Speaker 1: the golden one and we asked, are you afraid? But
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  Speaker 1: they shook their head. So we walked to the door,
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  Speaker 1: and we threw it open, and we stepped together into
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  Speaker 1: the house of the unmentionable times. We shall need the
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  Speaker 1: days and the years ahead to look, to learn, and
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  Speaker 1: to understand the things of this house. To day, we
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  Speaker 1: could only look and try to believe the sight of
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  Speaker 1: our eyes. We pulled the heavy curtains from the windows,
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  Speaker 1: and we saw that the rooms were small, and we
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  Speaker 1: thought that not more than twelve men could have lived here.
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  Speaker 1: We thought it strange that man had been permitted to
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  Speaker 1: build a house for only twelve. Never had we seen
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  Speaker 1: rooms so full of light. The sun rays danced upon
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  Speaker 1: the colors, colors in more colors than we thought possible,
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  Speaker 1: we who had seen no houses save the white ones,
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  Speaker 1: the brown ones, and the gray. There were great pieces
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  Speaker 1: of glass on the walls, but it was not glass,
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  Speaker 1: for when we looked upon it, we saw our own
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  Speaker 1: bodies and all the things behind us, as on the
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  Speaker 1: face of a lake. There were strange things which we
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  Speaker 1: had never seen, and the use of which we do
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  Speaker 1: not know. And there were globes of glass everywhere in
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  Speaker 1: each room, the globes with the metal cobwebs inside, such
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  Speaker 1: as we had seen in our tunnel. We found the
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  Speaker 1: sleeping hall, and we stood in awe upon its threshold,
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  Speaker 1: for it was a small room and there were only
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  Speaker 1: two beds in it. We found no other beds in
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  Speaker 1: the house, and then we knew that only two had
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  Speaker 1: lived here. And this passes understanding. What kind of world
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  Speaker 1: did they have? The men of the unmentionable times? We
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  Speaker 1: found garments, and the golden one gasped at the sight
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  Speaker 1: of them, for they were not white tunics nor white togas.
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  Speaker 1: They were of all color, no two of them alike.
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  Speaker 1: Some crumbled to dust as we touched them, but the
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  Speaker 1: others were of heavier cloths, and they felt soft and
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  Speaker 1: new in our fingers. We found a room with walls
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  Speaker 1: made of shelves, which held rows of manuscripts from the
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  Speaker 1: floor to the ceiling. Never had we seen such a
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  Speaker 1: number of them, nor of such strange shape. They were
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  Speaker 1: not soft and rolled, They had hard shells of cloth
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  Speaker 1: and leather. And the letters on their pages were small,
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  Speaker 1: and so even that we wondered at the men who
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  Speaker 1: had such handwriting. We glanced through the pages, and we
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  Speaker 1: saw that they were written in our language. But we
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  Speaker 1: found many words which we could not understand. Tomorrow we
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  Speaker 1: shall begin to read these scripts. When we had seen
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  Speaker 1: all the rooms of the house. We looked at the
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  Speaker 1: Golden One, and we knew the thought in our minds.
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  Speaker 1: We shall never leave this house, we said, nor let
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  Speaker 1: it be taken from us. This is our home and
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  Speaker 1: the end of our journey. This is your house, Golden One,
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  Speaker 1: and ours, and it belongs to no other men whatever.
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  Speaker 1: As far as the earth may stretch, we shall not
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  Speaker 1: share it with others. And we share not our joy
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  Speaker 1: with them, nor our love, nor our hunger. So be
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  Speaker 1: it to the end of our days, Your will be done,
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  Speaker 1: they said. Then we went out to gather wood for
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  Speaker 1: the great hearth of our home. We brought water from
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  Speaker 1: the stream which runs among the trees under our windows.
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  Speaker 1: We killed a mountain goat, and we brought its flesh
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  Speaker 1: to be cooked in a strange copper pot we found
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  Speaker 1: in a place of wonders, which must have been the
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  Speaker 1: cooking room of the house. We did this work alone,
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  Speaker 1: for no words of ours could take the Golden One
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  Speaker 1: away from the big glass, which is not glass. They
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  Speaker 1: stood before it, and they looked and looked upon their
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  Speaker 1: own body. When the sun sank beyond the mountains, the
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  Speaker 1: Golden One fell asleep on the floor amidst jewels and
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  Speaker 1: bottles of crystal and flowers of silk. We lifted the
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  Speaker 1: golden one in our arms, and we carried them to
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  Speaker 1: a bed, their head falling softly upon our shoulder. Then
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  Speaker 1: we lit a candle, and we brought paper from the
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  Speaker 1: room of the manuscripts, and we sat by the window,
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  Speaker 1: for we knew that we could not sleep tonight. And
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  Speaker 1: now we look upon the earth in the sky. The
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  Speaker 1: spread of naked rock and peaks and moonlight is like
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  Speaker 1: a world ready to be borne. It seems to us
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  Speaker 1: it asks a sign from us, a spark, a first commandment.
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  Speaker 1: We cannot know what word we are to give, nor
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  Speaker 1: what great deed this earth expects to witness. We know
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  Speaker 1: it waits. It seems to say it has great gifts
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  Speaker 1: to lay before us. We are to speak, We are
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  Speaker 1: to give its goal, its highest meaning, to all this
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  Speaker 1: glowing space of rock and sky. We look ahead. We
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  Speaker 1: beg our heart for guidance and answering this call. No
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  Speaker 1: voice has spoken, yet we have heard. We look upon
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  Speaker 1: our hands. We see the dusts of centuries, the dusts
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  Speaker 1: which hid great secrets and perhaps great evils. And yet
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  Speaker 1: it stirs no fear within our heart, but only silent
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  Speaker 1: reverence and pity, may knowledge come to us? What is
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  Speaker 1: this secret our heart has understood, and yet will not
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  Speaker 1: reveal to us, although it seems to beat as if
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  Speaker 1: it were endeavoring to tell it. End Chapter ten,