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The Country of the Blind and Other Stories - The Man Who Could Work Miracles · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty one of the Country of the Blind and
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  Speaker 1: Other Stories by H. G. Wells. This LibriVox recording is
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  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Read by Peter Yearsley, The Man
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  Speaker 1: who Could Work miracles a pantoum in prose. It is
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  Speaker 1: doubtful whether the gift was innate. For my own part,
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  Speaker 1: I think it came to him suddenly. Indeed, until he
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  Speaker 1: was thirty, he was a skeptic and did not believe
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  Speaker 1: in miraculous powers. And here, since it is the most
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  Speaker 1: convenient place, I must mention that he was a little
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  Speaker 1: man and had eyes of a hot brown, very erect
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  Speaker 1: red hair, a mustache with ends that he twisted up
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  Speaker 1: and freckles. His name was George mc quirter Fotheringay, not
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  Speaker 1: the sort of name by any means to lead to
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  Speaker 1: any expectation of miracles. And he was clerk at gomshots.
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  Speaker 1: He was greatly addicted to assertive argument. It was while
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  Speaker 1: he was asserting the import possibility of miracles that he
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  Speaker 1: had his first intimation of his extraordinary powers. This particular
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  Speaker 1: argument was being held in the bar of the Long Dragon,
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  Speaker 1: and Toddy Beamish was conducting the opposition by a monotonous
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  Speaker 1: but effective though you say that drove mister Fotheringay to
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  Speaker 1: the very limit of his patients. There were present besides
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  Speaker 1: these two, a very dusty cyclist, Landlord Cox, and Miss Maybridge,
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  Speaker 1: the perfectly respectable and rather portly barmaid of the Dragon.
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  Speaker 1: Miss Maybridge was standing with her back to mister Fotheringay
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  Speaker 1: washing glasses. The others were watching him, more or less
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  Speaker 1: amused by the present ineffectiveness of the assertive method goaded
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  Speaker 1: by the torres Vedras tactics of mister Beamish, mister Fotheringay
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  Speaker 1: determined to make an unusual rhetorical effort. Lookye here, mister Beamish,
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  Speaker 1: said mister Fotheringay, let us clearly understand what a miracle is.
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  Speaker 1: Something contrariwise to the course of nature, done by power
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  Speaker 1: of will, something what couldn't happen without being specially willed,
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  Speaker 1: So you say, said mister Beamish, repulsing him. Mister Fotheringay
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  Speaker 1: appealed to the cyclist, who had hitherto been a silent auditor,
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  Speaker 1: and received his assent given with a hesitating cough and
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  Speaker 1: a glance at mister Beamish. The Landlord would express no opinion,
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  Speaker 1: and mister Fotheringay returning to mister Beamish received the unexpected
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  Speaker 1: concession of a qualified assent to his definition of a miracle.
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  Speaker 1: For instance, said mister Fotheringay, greatly encouraged, he would be
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  Speaker 1: a miracle. That's lamp in the natural course of nature
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  Speaker 1: couldn't burn like that upside down, could it, Beamish? You
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  Speaker 1: say it couldn't, said Beamish, And you said, Fotheringay, You
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  Speaker 1: don't mean to say eh, No, said Beamish reluctantly. No,
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  Speaker 1: it couldn't. Very well, said mister Fotheringay. Then here comes someone,
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  Speaker 1: as it might be me along here and stands as
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  Speaker 1: it might be here, and says to that lamp, as
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  Speaker 1: I might do, collecting all my will turn upsie down
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  Speaker 1: without breaking, and gone burning steady and Hello. It was
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  Speaker 1: enough to make anyone say hello. The impossible, the incredible
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  Speaker 1: was visible to them all. The lamp hung inverted in
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  Speaker 1: the air, burning quietly, with its flame pointing down. It
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  Speaker 1: was as solid as indisputable as ever a lamp was
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  Speaker 1: the prosaic common lamp of the long dragon bar. Mister
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  Speaker 1: Fotheringay stood with an extended forefinger and the knitted brows
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  Speaker 1: of one anticipating a catastrophic smash. The cyclist, who was
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  Speaker 1: sitting next to the lamp, ducked and jumped across the bar.
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  Speaker 1: Everybody jumped more or less. Miss Maybridge turned and screamed.
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  Speaker 1: For nearly three seconds, the lamp remained still. A faint
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  Speaker 1: cry of mental distress came from mister Fotheringay. I can't
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  Speaker 1: keep it up, he said any longer. He staggered back,
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  Speaker 1: and the inverted lamp suddenly flared, fell against the corner
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  Speaker 1: of the bar, bounced aside, smashed upon the floor, and
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  Speaker 1: went out. It was lucky it had a metal receiver,
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  Speaker 1: or the whole place would have been in a blaze.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Coxe was the first to speak, and his remark,
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  Speaker 1: sure of needless excrescences, was to the effect that Fotheringay
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  Speaker 1: was a fool. Fotheringay was beyond disputing even so fundamental
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  Speaker 1: a proposition as that he was astonished, beyond measure at
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  Speaker 1: the thing that had occurred. The subsequent conversation threw absolutely
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  Speaker 1: no light on the matter so far as Fotheringay was concerned.
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  Speaker 1: The general opinion not only followed mister Cox very closely,
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  Speaker 1: but very vehemently. Everyone accused Fotheringay of a silly trick
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  Speaker 1: and presented him to himself as a foolish destroyer of
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  Speaker 1: comfort and security. His mind was in a tornado of perplexity.
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  Speaker 1: He was himself inclined to agree with them, and he
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  Speaker 1: made a remarkably ineffectual opposition to the proposal of his departure.
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  Speaker 1: He went home, flushed and heated, coat, collar crumpled, eyes smarting,
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  Speaker 1: and ears red. He watched each of the ten street
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  Speaker 1: lamps nervously as he passed it. It was only when
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  Speaker 1: he found himself alone in his little bedroom in Church
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  Speaker 1: Row that he was able to grapple seriously with his
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  Speaker 1: memories of the occurrence and ask what on earth happened.
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  Speaker 1: He had removed his coat and boots and was sitting
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  Speaker 1: on the bed with his hands in his pockets, repeating
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  Speaker 1: the text of his defense for the seventeenth time. I
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  Speaker 1: didn't want the confounded thing to upset. When it occurred
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  Speaker 1: to him that at the precise moment he had said
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  Speaker 1: the commanding words, he had inadvertently willed the thing he said,
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  Speaker 1: and that when he had seen the lamp in the air,
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  Speaker 1: he had felt that it depended on him to maintain
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  Speaker 1: it there. Without being clear how this was to be done.
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  Speaker 1: He had not a particularly complex mind, or he might
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  Speaker 1: have stuck for a time at that inadvertently willed embracing,
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  Speaker 1: as it does, the abstrusest problems of voluntary action. But
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  Speaker 1: as it was, the idea came to him with a
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  Speaker 1: quite acceptable haziness. And from that following, as I must admit,
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  Speaker 1: no clear logical path, he came to the test of experiment.
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  Speaker 1: He pointed resolutely to his candle and collected his mind.
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  Speaker 1: Though he felt he did a foolish thing be raised up,
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  Speaker 1: he said, But in a second that feeling vanished. The
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  Speaker 1: candle was raised, hung in the air one giddy moment,
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  Speaker 1: and as mister Fotheringay gasped, fell with a smash on
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  Speaker 1: his toilet table, leaving him in darkness save for the
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  Speaker 1: expiring glow of its wick. For a time. Mister Fotheringay
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  Speaker 1: sat in the darkness perfectly still. It did happen, after all,
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  Speaker 1: he said, And now I'm to explain it. I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: He sighed heavily and began feeling in his pockets for
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  Speaker 1: a match. He could find none, and he rose and
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  Speaker 1: groped about the toilet table. I wish I had a match,
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  Speaker 1: he said. He resorted to his coat, and there was
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  Speaker 1: none there. And then it dawned upon him that miracles
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  Speaker 1: were possible even with matches. He extended a hand and
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  Speaker 1: scowled at it in the dark. Let there be a
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  Speaker 1: match in that hand, he said. He felt some light
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  Speaker 1: object fall across his palm, and his fingers closed upon
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  Speaker 1: a match. After several ineffectual attempts to light this, he
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  Speaker 1: discovered it was a safety match. He threw it down,
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  Speaker 1: and then it occurred to him that he might have
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  Speaker 1: willed it lit. He did, and perceived it burning in
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  Speaker 1: the midst of his toilet's table mat He caught it
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  Speaker 1: up hastily, and it went out. His perception of possibilities enlarged,
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  Speaker 1: and he felt for and replaced the candle in its candlestick.
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  Speaker 1: Here you be lit, said mister Fotheringay, and forthwith The
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  Speaker 1: candle was flaring, and he saw a little black hole
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  Speaker 1: in the toilet cover, with a wisp of smoke rising
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  Speaker 1: from it. For a time he stared from this to
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  Speaker 1: the little flame and back, and then looked up and
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  Speaker 1: met his own gaze in the looking glass. By this help,
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  Speaker 1: he communed with himself in silence for a time how
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  Speaker 1: about miracles? Now, said mister Fotheringay at last, addressing his reflection.
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  Speaker 1: The subsequent meditations of mister Fotheringay were of a severe
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  Speaker 1: but confused description. So far he could see, it was
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  Speaker 1: a case of pure willing with him. The nature of
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  Speaker 1: his experiences so far disinclined him for any further experiments,
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  Speaker 1: at least until he had reconsidered them. But he lifted
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  Speaker 1: a sheet of paper and turned a glass of water
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  Speaker 1: pink and then green. And he created a snail, which
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  Speaker 1: he miraculously annihilated, and got himself a miraculous new tooth brush.
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  Speaker 1: Somewhere in the small hours, he had reached the fact
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  Speaker 1: that his will power must be of a particularly rare
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  Speaker 1: and pungent quality, a fact of which he had indeed
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  Speaker 1: had inklings before, but no certain assurance. The scare and
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  Speaker 1: perplexity of his first discovery was now qualified by pride
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  Speaker 1: in this evidence of singularity, and by vague intimations of advantage.
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  Speaker 1: He became aware that the church clock was striking one,
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  Speaker 1: and as it did not occur to him that his
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  Speaker 1: daily duties at comshots might be miraculously dispensed with, he
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  Speaker 1: resumed undressing in order to get to bed without further delay.
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  Speaker 1: As he struggled to get his shirt over his head,
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  Speaker 1: he was struck with a brilliant idea. Let me be
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  Speaker 1: in bed, he said, and found himself so undressed. He stipulated, and,
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  Speaker 1: finding the sheets cold, added hastily. And in my night shirt. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: in a nice soft woolen night shirt. Ah, he said,
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  Speaker 1: with immense enjoyment. And now let me be comfortably asleep.
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  Speaker 1: He awoke at his usual hour and was pensive all
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  Speaker 1: through breakfast time, wondering whether his overnight experience might not
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  Speaker 1: be a particularly vivid dream. At length, his mind turned
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  Speaker 1: again to cautious experiments. For instance, he had three eggs
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  Speaker 1: for breakfast. Two his landlady had supplied good but shoppy,
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  Speaker 1: and one was a delicious fresh goose egg, laid cooked
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  Speaker 1: and served by his extraordinary will. He hurried off the
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  Speaker 1: gumshots in a state of profound but carefully concealed excitement,
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  Speaker 1: and only remembered the shell of the third egg when
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  Speaker 1: his landlady spoke of it that night. All day he
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  Speaker 1: could do no work because of this astonishing new self knowledge.
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  Speaker 1: But this caused him no inconvenience, because he made up
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  Speaker 1: for it miraculously in his last ten minutes. As the
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  Speaker 1: day wore on, his state of mind passed from wonder
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  Speaker 1: to elation. Albeit the circumstances of his dismissal from the
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  Speaker 1: Long Dragon were still disagreeable to recall, and a garbled
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  Speaker 1: account of the matter that had reached his colleagues led
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  Speaker 1: to some badinage. It was evident he must be careful
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  Speaker 1: how he lifted frangible articles. But in other ways his
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  Speaker 1: gift promised more and more as he turned it over
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  Speaker 1: in his mind. He intended, among other things, to increase
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  Speaker 1: his personal property by unostentatious acts of creation. He called
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  Speaker 1: into existence a pair of very splendid diamond studs, and
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  Speaker 1: hastily annihilated them again. As Young Goldhot came across the
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  Speaker 1: counting house to his desk, he was afraid Young Gomshot
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  Speaker 1: might wonder how he had come by them. He saw
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  Speaker 1: quite clearly the gift required caution and watchfulness in its exercise,
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  Speaker 1: but so far as he could judge, the difficulties attending
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  Speaker 1: its masteries would be no greater than those he had
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  Speaker 1: already faced in the study of cycling. It was that analogy,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps quite as much as the feeling that he would
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  Speaker 1: be unwelcome in the long dragon that drove him out
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  Speaker 1: after supper into the lane beyond the gas works to
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  Speaker 1: rehearse a few miracles in private. There was possibly a
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  Speaker 1: certain want of originality in his attempts, for apart from
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  Speaker 1: his will power, mister Fotheringay was not a very exceptional man.
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  Speaker 1: The miracle of Moses Rod came to his mind, but
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  Speaker 1: the night was dark and unfavorable to the proper control
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  Speaker 1: of large miraculous snakes. Then he recollected the story of
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  Speaker 1: Tannhauser that he had read on the back of the
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  Speaker 1: Philharmonic program, that seemed to him singularly attractive and harmless.
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  Speaker 1: He stuck his walking stick, a very nice poona penang lawyer,
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  Speaker 1: into the turf that hedged the footpath, and commanded the
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  Speaker 1: dry wood to blossom. The air was immediately full of
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  Speaker 1: the scent of roses, and by means of a match,
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  Speaker 1: he saw for himself that this beautiful miracle was indeed accomplished.
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  Speaker 1: His satisfaction was ended by advancing footsteps. Afraid of a
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  Speaker 1: premature discovery of his powers, he addressed the blossoming stick
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  Speaker 1: hastily go back. What he meant was change back, but
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  Speaker 1: of course he was confused. The stick receded at a
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  Speaker 1: considerable velocity, and incontinently came a cry of anger and
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  Speaker 1: a bad word from the approaching person. Who you throwing
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  Speaker 1: brumbles at you fool, cried a voice that got me
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  Speaker 1: on the shin. I'm sorry, old Chap, said mister Fotheringay, and, then,
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  Speaker 1: realizing the awkward nature of the explanation, caught nervously at
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  Speaker 1: his mustache. He saw Winch, one of the three immering constables, advancing.
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  Speaker 1: What do you mean by it? Asked the constable. Hallo,
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  Speaker 1: it's you. Is it the gent that broke the lamp
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  Speaker 1: at the Long Dragon? I don't mean anything by it,
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  Speaker 1: said mister Fotheringay. Nothing at all? What you do it for? Then? Oh? Bother,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: said mister Fotheringay. Bother? Indeed, do you know that stick hurt?
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  Speaker 1: Would you do it for? Eh? For the moment, mister
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Fotheringay could not think what he had done it for.
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  Speaker 1: His silence seemed to irritate mister Winch. You've been assorting
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  Speaker 1: a police young man this time, that's what you've done.
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  Speaker 1: Look here, mister Winch, said mister Fotheringay, annoyed and confused,
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  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, very The fact is, well, he could think
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  Speaker 1: of no way but the truth. I was working a miracle.
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  Speaker 1: He tried to speak in an offhand way, but try
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  Speaker 1: as he would, he couldn't working a ere Don't you
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  Speaker 1: talk rot work in a miracle? Indeed miracle? Well it's
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  Speaker 1: downright funny. Why use the chap that don't believe in miracles?
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  Speaker 1: Fact is, this is another of your silly conjuring tricks.
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  Speaker 1: That's what this is now, I tell you. But mister
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  Speaker 1: Fotheringay never heard what mister Winch was going to tell him.
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  Speaker 1: He realized he had given himself away, flung his valuable
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  Speaker 1: secret to all the winds of heaven. A violent gust
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: of irritation swept him to action. He turned on the
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  Speaker 1: constable swiftly and fiercely. Here he said, I've had enough
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  Speaker 1: of this. I have I'll show you a silly conjuring trick.
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  Speaker 1: I will go to hades go Now he was alone.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Fotheringay performed no more miracles that night, nor did
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  Speaker 1: he trouble to see what had become of his flowering stick.
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  Speaker 1: He returned to the town scared and very quiet, and
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  Speaker 1: went to his bedroom. Lord. He said it's a powerful gift,
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  Speaker 1: an extremely powerful gift. I didn't hardly mean as much
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  Speaker 1: as that. Not really, I wonder what Hades is like.
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  Speaker 1: He sat on the bed, taking off his boots. Struck
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  Speaker 1: by a happy thought, he transferred the Constable to San Francisco,
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  Speaker 1: and without any more interference with normal causation, went soberly
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  Speaker 1: to bed. In the night, he dreamt of the anger
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  Speaker 1: of Winch. The next day, mister Fotheringay heard two interesting
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: items of news. Some one had planted a most beautiful
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: climbing rose against the elder mister Gumshot's private house in
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  Speaker 1: the Lullaborough Road, and the river as far as Rawling's
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  Speaker 1: mill was to be dragged for Constable Winch. Mister Fotheringay
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  Speaker 1: was abstracted and thoughtful all that day, and performed no
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  Speaker 1: miracles except certain provisions for Winch, and the miracle of
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  Speaker 1: completing his day's work with punctual perfection in spite of
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  Speaker 1: all the bee swarm of thoughts that hummed through his mind,
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  Speaker 1: and the extraordinary abstraction and meekness of his manner, was
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  Speaker 1: remarked by several people and made a matter for jesting.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: For the most part, he was thinking of Winch. On
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: Sunday evening he went to chapel, and oddly enough, mister Maydig,
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  Speaker 1: who took a certain interest in occult matters, preached about
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  Speaker 1: things that are not lawful. Mister Fotheringay was not a
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: regular chapel goer, but the system of assertive skepticism to
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: which I have already alluded was now very much shaken.
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  Speaker 1: The tenor of the sermon threw an entirely new light
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  Speaker 1: on these novel gifts, and he suddenly decided to consult
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: mister Maydig immediately after the service. So soon as that
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: was determined, he found himself wondering why he had not
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: done so before. Mister Maydig, a lean, excitable man with
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: quite remarkably long wrists and neck, was gratified at a
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: request for a private conversation from my young man, whose
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: carelessness in religious matters was a subject for general remark
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: in the town. After a few necessary delays, he conducted
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: him to the study of the Manse, which was contiguous
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  Speaker 1: to the chapel. Seated him comfortably, and standing in front
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  Speaker 1: of a cheerful fire, his legs through a Roodian arch
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: of shadow on the opposite wall, requested mister Fotheringay to
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: state his business. At first, mister Fotheringay was a little
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: abashed and found some difficulty in opening the matter. You
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: will scarcely believe me, mister Maydig. I am afraid, and
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: so forth for some time. He tried a question at last,
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: and asked mister Maydig his opinion of miracles. Mister Maydig
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: was still saying well, in an extremely judicial tone, when
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: mister Fotheringay interrupted again. You don't believe. I suppose that
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: some common sort of person like myself, for instance, as
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: it might be sitting here now, might have some sort
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: of twist inside him that made him able to do
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: things by his will. It's possible, said mister Maydig. Something
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: of the sort. Perhaps is possible if I might make
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: free with something here. I think I might show you
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: by a sort of experiment, said mister Fotheringay. Now take
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: that tobacco jar on the table, for instance. What I
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: want to know is whether what I am going to
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: do with it is a miracle or not. Just half
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: a minute, mister Maydig, please, He knitted his brows, pointed
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: to the tobacco jar, and said, be a bowl of violets.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: The tobacco jar did as it was ordered. Mister Maydig
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: started violently at the change, and stood looking from the
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: thormatogist to the bowl of flowers. He said nothing. Presently,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: he ventured to lean over the table and smell the violets.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: They were fresh picked and very fine ones. Then he
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: stared at mister Fotheringay again. How did you do that?
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: He asked. Mister Fotheringay pulled his mustache, just told it.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: And there you are. Is that a miracle? Or is
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: it black art? Or what is it? And what do
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: you think's the matter with me? That's what I want
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: to ask. It's a most extraordinary occurrence. And this day
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: last week I knew no more that I could do
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: things like that than you did. It came quite sudden.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: It's something odd about my will, I suppose. And that's
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: as far as I can see. Is that the only thing?
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Could you do? Other things besides that? Lord? Yes, said
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: mister Fotheringay, Just anything, he thought, and suddenly recalled a
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: conjuring entertainment he had seen here. He pointed, Change into
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: a bowl of fish. No, not that, change into a
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: glass bowl full of water with goldfish swimming in it.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: That's better. You see that, mister Maydig. It's astonishing, it's incredible.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: You are either a mostly extraordinary that SnO. I could
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: change it into anything, said mister Fotheringay. Just anything. Here
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: be a pigeon, will you. In another moment, a blue
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: pigeon was fluttering round the room and making mister Maydig
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: duck every time it came near him. Stop there, will you,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: said mister Fotheringay, and the pigeon hung motionless in the air.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: I could change it back to a ball of flowers,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: he said, and after replacing the pigeon on the table,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: worked that miracle. I expect you will want your pipe
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: in a bit, he said, and restored the tobacco jar.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: Mister Maydig had followed all these later changes in a
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: sort of ejaculatory silence. He stared at mister Fotheringay, and
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: in a very gingerly manner, picked up the tobacco jar,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: examined it, replaced it on the table. Oh, was the
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: only expression of his feelings. Now after that, it's easier
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: to explain what I came about, said mister Fotheringay, and
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: proceeded to a lengthy and involve narrative of his strange experiences,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: beginning with the affair of the lamp in the Long Dragon,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: and complicated by persistent allusions to Winch. As he went on,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: the transient pride mister Maydig's consternation had caused passed away.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: He became the very ordinary mister Fotheringay of every day intercourse. Again,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: mister Maydig listened intently, the tobacco jar in his hand,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: and his bearing changed also with the course of the narrative. Presently,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: while mister Fotheringay was dealing with the miracle of the
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: third egg, the minister interrupted with a fluttering extended hand.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: It is possible, he said, It is credible, is amazing,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: of course, but it reconciles a number of amazing difficulties.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: The power to work miracles is a gift, a peculiar quality,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: like genius or second sight. Hitherto it has come very
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: rarely and to exceptional people. But in this case I
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: have always wondered at the miracles of Homet, and at
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: Jogi's miracles, and the miracles of Madame Blavatsky. But of course, yes,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: it is simply a gift. It carries out so beautifully
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: the arguments of that great thinker. Mister Maydig's voice sank
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: his grace the Duke of Argyle. Here we plumb some profound,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: a law deeper than the ordinary laws of nature. Yes, yes,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: God gone. Mister Fotheringay proceeded to tell of his misadventure
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: with Wench, and mister Maydig, no longer over awed or scared,
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: began to jerk his limbs about and interject astonishment. It's
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: this what troubled me most, proceeded, mister Fotheringay. It's this
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: that I'm most midiately immediately in want of advice, for
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: of course he's at San Francisco, wherever San Francisco may be.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: But of course it's awkward for both of us. As
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: you'll see, mister Maydig, I don't see how he can
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: understand what has happened. And I dare say he's scared
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: and exasperated something tremendous, and trying to get at me.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: I dare say he keeps on starting off to come here.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: I send him back by a miracle every few hours
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: when I think of it. And of course that's a
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: thing he won't be able to understand, and it's bound
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: to annoy him. And of course if he takes a
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: ticket every time. It will cost him a lot of money.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: I done the best I could for him, but of
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: course it's difficult for him to put himself in my place.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: I thought afterwards that his clothes might have got scorched,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: you know, if hades is all it's supposed to be
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: before I shifted him. In that case, I suppose they'd
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: have locked him up in San Francisco. Of course I
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: willed him a new suit of clothes on him directly.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: I thought of it. But you see, I'm already in
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: a deuce of a tangle. Mister Maydigg looked serious. I
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: see you are in a tangle. Yes, it's a difficult position.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: How you are to end it? He became diffuse and inconclusive. However,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: we'll leave winch for a little and discuss the larger question.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: I don't think this is a case of the black
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Art or anything of the sort. I don't think there
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: is any taint of criminality about it at all. Mister Fotheringay,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: none whatever, unless you are suppressing material facts. No, it's miracles,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: pure miracles, miracles, if I may say so, of the
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: very highest class. He began to pace the hearth rug
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: and gesticulate, while mister Fotheringay sat with his arm on
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: the table and his head on his arm, looking worried.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: I don't see how I am to manage about Winch,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: he said. A gift of working miracles, apparently a very
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: powerful gift, said mister Meydick. We'll find a way about Wench.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: Never fear, my dear sir, you are a most important man,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: a man of the most astonishing possibilities. As evidence, for example,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: and in other ways, the things you may do. Yes,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: I've thought of a thing or two, said mister Fotheringay,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: But some of the things came a bit twisty. You
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: saw that fish at first, wrongsort of bowl and wrongsort
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: of fish, and I thought i'd ask some one. A
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: proper course, said mister Maydig. A very proper course altogether,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: the proper course. He stopped and looked at mister Fotheringay.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: It's practically an unlimited gift. Let us test your powers,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: for instance, if they really are, if they really are
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: all they seemed to be, and so incredible as it
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: may seem. In the study of the little house behind
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: the Congregational Chapel on the evening of Sunday, November tenth,
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: eighteen ninety six, mister Fotheringay, egged on and inspired by
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: mister Maydig, began to work miracles. The reader's attention is
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: especially and definitely called to the date. He will object,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: probably has already objected, that certain points in this story
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: are improbable, that if any things of the sort already
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: described had indeed occurred, they would have been in all
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: the papers at that time. The details immediately following he
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: will find particularly hard to accept, because, among other things,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: they involve the conclusion that he or she, the reader
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: in question, must have been killed in a violent and
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: unprecedented manner more than a year ago. Now, a miracle
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: is nothing if not improbable, and as a matter of fact,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: the reader was killed in a violent and unprecedented manner
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: in eighteen ninety six. In the subsequent course of this
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: story that will become perfectly clear and credible, as every
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: right minded and reasonable reader will admit. But this is
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: not the place for the end of the story, being
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: but little beyond the hither side of the middle, and
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: at first the miracles worked by mister Fotheringay were tim amid,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: little miracles, little things with the cups and parlor fitments,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: as feeble as the miracles of theosophists, and feeble as
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: they were, they were received with awe by his collaborator.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: He would have preferred to settle the winch business out
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: of hand, but mister Maydig would not let him. But
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: after they had worked a dozen of these domestic trivialities,
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: their sense of power grew, their imagination began to show
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: signs of stimulation, and their ambition enlarged. Their first larger
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: enterprise was due to hunger and the negligence of Missus Minchin,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: mister Maydig's housekeeper. The meal to which the minister conducted
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: mister Fotheringay was certainly ill laid and uninviting as refreshment
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: for two industrious miracle workers. But they were seated, and
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: mister Maydig was descanting in sorrow rather than in anger,
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: upon his housekeeper's shortcomings. Before it occurred to mister Fotheringay
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: that an opportunity lay before him. Don't you think, mister Maydig,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: he said, if it isn't a liberty, I, my dear
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: mister Fotheringay, Of course no, I didn't think. Mister Fotheringay
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: waved his hand, What shall we have? He said, in
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: a large inclusive spirit, and at mister Maydigg's order, revised
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: the supper very thoroughly. As for me, he said, eyeing
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: mister Maydig's selection, I am always particularly fond of a
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: tankard of stout and a nice Welsh rabbit, and I'll
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: order that I ain't much given to burgundy. And forthwith
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: stout and a Welsh rarebit promptly appeared at his command.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: They sat long at their supper, talking like equals as
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: mister Fotheringay presently perceived, with a glow of surprise and
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: gratification of all the miracles they would presently do. And
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: by the bye, mister Meydig said, mister Foingay, I might
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: perhaps be able to help you in a domestic way.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: Don't quite follow, said mister Maydig, pouring out a glass
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: of miraculous old burgundy. Mister Fotheringay helped himself to a
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: second Welsh rabbit out of vacancy and took a mouthful.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: I was thinking, he said, I might be able chump
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: Chong to work chum Chom a miracle with missus minchin
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: chum Chom, make her a better woman. Mister Maydig put
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: down the glass and looked doubtful she is. She strongly
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: objects to interference, you know, mister Fotheringay. And as a
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: matter of fact, it's well past eleven, and she's probably
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: in bed and asleep. Do you think on the whole
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: mister Fotheringay considered these objections. I don't see that it
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: shouldn't be done in her sleep. For a time, mister
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: Maydig opposed the idea, and then he yielded. Mister Fotheringay
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: issued his orders, and a little less at their ease,
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: perhaps the two gentlemen proceeded with their repast. Mister Maydig
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: was enlarging on the changes he might expect in his
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: housekeeper next day, with an optimism that seemed even to
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: mister Fotheringay's supper senses, a little forced and hectic. When
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: a series of confused noises from upstairs began, their eyes
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: exchanged interrogations, and mister Maydig left the room hastily. Mister
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: Fotheringay heard him calling up to his housekeeper, and then
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: his footsteps going softly up to her. In a minute
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: or so, the minister returned, his step light, his face radiant, wonderful,
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: he said, and touching, most touching, he began pacing the
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: hearth rug. A repentance, a most touching repentance through the
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: crack of the door. Poor woman, a most wonderful change.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: She had got up. She must have got up at once.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: She had got up out of her sleep to smash
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: a private bottle of brandy in her box, and to
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: confess it too. But this gives us, It opens a
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: most amazing vista of possibilities. If we can work this
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: miraculous change in her. The things unlimited, seemingly, said mister Fotheringay,
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: and about mister Winch altogether unlimited. And from the hearth rug,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: mister maydig waving the Winch difficulty aside, unfolded a series
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: of wonderful proposals, proposals he invented as he went along.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: Now what those proposals were does not concern the essentials
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: of this story. Suffice it that they were designed in
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: a spirit of infinite benevolence, the sort of benevolence that
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: used to be called postprandial. Suffice it too, that the
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: problem of Winch remained unsolved. Nor is it necessary to
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: describe how far that series got to its fulfillment. There
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: were astonishing changes. The small hours found mister Maydig and
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: mister Fotheringay careering across the Chili Market Square under the
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: still moon in a sort of ecstasy of thormatagy. Mister
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: Maydig all flap and gesture, mister Fotheringay short and bristling,
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: and no longer abashed at his greatness. They had reformed
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: every drunkard in the parliamentary division, changed all the beer
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: and alcohol to water. Mister Maydig had overruled mister Fotheringay
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: on this point. They had further greatly improved the railway
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: communication of the place, drained Flinders Swamp, improved the soil
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: of one Tree Hill, and cured the vicar's wart. And
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: they were going to see what could be done with
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: the injured pier at Southbridge. The place, gasped mister Maydig,
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: won't be the same place tomorrow, how surprised and thankful
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: everyone will be. And just at that moment the church
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: clock struck three, I say, said mister Fotheringay. That's three o'clock.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: I must be getting back. I've got to be at
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: business by eight. And beside missus Whims, we're only beginning,
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: said mister Maydig. Full of the sweetness of unlimited power.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: We're only beginning. Think of all the good we're doing
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: when people wake, but said mister Fotheringay. Mister Maydig gripped
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: his arm. Suddenly his eyes were bright and wild. My
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: dear chap, he said, there's no hurry. Look. He pointed
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: to the moon at the zenith. Joshua Joshua, said, mister Fotheringay.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: Joshua said, mister Maydig, why not stop it? Mister Fotheringay
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: looked at the moon. That's a bit tall, he said,
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: after a pause, Why not, said mister Maydig. Of course,
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: it doesn't stop. You stop the rotation of the earth.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: You know. Times It isn't as if we were doing
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: harm m said mister Fotheringay. Well, he sighed, I'll try here.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: He buttoned up his jacket and addressed himself to the
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: habitable globe with as good an assumption of confidence as
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: lay in his power. Just stop rotatingly, said mister Fotheringay. Inconsolately,
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: he was flying head over heels through the air at
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: the rate of dozens of miles a minute, in spite
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: of the innumerable circles he was describing per second, he thought,
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: for thought is wonderful, sometimes as sluggish as flowing pitch,
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: sometimes as instantaneous as light. He thought in a second,
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: and willed, let me come down safe and sound. Whatever
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: else happens, let me down safe and sound. He willed it,
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: only just in time, for his clothes, heated by his
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: rapid flight through the air, were already beginning to singe.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: He came down with a forcible, but by no means,
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: injurious ump, in what appeared to be a mound of
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: fresh turned earth. A large mass of metal and masonry,
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: extraordinarily like the clock tower in the middle of the
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: market square, hit the earth near him, ricocheted over him,
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: and flew into stone work, bricks and cement like a
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: bursting bomb. A hurtling cow hit one of the larger
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: blocks and smashed like an egg. There was a crash
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: that made all the most violent crashes of his past
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: life seemed like the sound of falling dust. And this
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: was followed by a descending series of lesser crashes. A
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: vast wind throughout earth and heaven, so that he could
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: scarcely lift his head to look. For a while, he
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: was too breathless and astonished even to see where he
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: was or what had happened. And his first movement was
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: to feel his head and reassure himself that his streaming
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: hair was still his own. Lord, gasped mister Fotheringay, scarce
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: able to speak. For the gale, I've had a squeak.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: What's gone wrong? Storms in thunder, and only a minute
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: ago a fine night, it's maydig set me on to
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: this sort of thing? What a wind? If I go
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: on falling in this way, I'm bound to have a
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: thundering accident. Where's maidig? What a confounded mess? Everything? Then
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: he looked about him, so far as his flapping jacket
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: would permit. The appearance of things was really extremely strange.
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: The sky's all right, anyhow, said mister Fotheringay. And that's
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: about all that is all right. And even there it
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: looks like a terrific gale coming up. But there's the
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: moon overhead, just as it was just now bright as midday.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: But as for the rest, where's the village, Where's where's anything?
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: And what on earth? Set is wind a blowing? I
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: didn't order no wind. Mister Fotheringay struggled to get to
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: his feet. In vain, and after one failure, remained on
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: all fours. Holding on, He surveyed the moonlit world to leeward,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: with the tails of his jacket streaming over his head.
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: There's something serious wrong, said mister Fotheringay, And what it is,
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: goodness knows far and wide. Nothing was visible in the
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: white glare through the haze of dust that drove before
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: a screaming gale, but tumbled masses of earth and heaps
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: of incoate ruins. No trees, no houses, no familiar shapes,
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: only a wilderness of disorder, vanishing at last into the
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: darkness beneath the whirling columns and streamers, the lightnings and
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: thunderings of a swiftly rising storm. Near him in the
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: livid glare was something that might once have been an
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: elm tree, A smashed mass of splinters shivered from boughs
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: to base, and further a twisted mass of iron girders.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: Only too evidently, the viaduct rose out of the piled confusion.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: You see, when mister Fotheringay had arrested the rotation of
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: the solid globe, he had made no stipulation concerning the
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: trifling mover upon its surface, and the Earth spins so
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: fast that the surface at its equator is traveling at
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: rather more than a thousand miles an hour, and in
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: these latitudes at more than half that pace, so that
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: the village and mister Maydig, and mister Fotheringay, and everybody
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: and everything had been jerked violently forward at about nine
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: miles per second, that is to say, much more violently
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: than if they had been fired out of a cannon.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: And every human being, every living creature, every house, and
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: every tree, all the world as we know it had
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: been so jerked and smashed and utterly destroyed. That was
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: all these things mister Fotheringay did not, of course fully appreciate.
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: But he perceived that his miracle had miscarried, and with
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: that a great disgust of miracles came upon him. He
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: was in darkness now, for the clouds had swept together
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: and blotted out his momentary glimpse of the moon, and
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: the air was full of fitful, struggling, tortured wraiths of hail,
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: A great roaring of wind and waters filled the earth
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: and sky, and peering under his hand through the dust
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: and sleet to windward, he saw by the play of
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: the lightnings, a vast wall of water pouring towards him.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: May dig, screamed mister Fotheringay's feeble voice amid the elemental uproar. Here,
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: may Dig stop, cried mister Fotheringay to the advancing water. Oh,
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: for goodness sake, stop just a moment, said mister Fotheringay
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: to the lightnings and thunder. Stop just a moment while
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: I collect my thoughts. And now what shall I do?
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: He said? What shall I do? Lord? I wish Maydig
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: was about I know, said mister Fotheringay. And for goodness sake,
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: let's have it right this time. He remained on all fours,
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: leaning against the wind, very intent to have everything right. Ah,
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: he said, Let nothing what I'm going to order happen
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: until I say off. Lord, I wish I'd thought of
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: that before. He lifted his little voice against the whirlwind,
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: shouting louder and louder in the vain desire to hear
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: himself speak. Now, then he goes mind about that what
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: I said just now in the first place, when all
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: I've got to say is done. Let me lose my
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: miraculous power. Let my will become just like anybody else's
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: will and all these dangerous miracles be stopped. I don't
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: like em. I'd rather I didn't work em ever so much.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: That's the first thing. And the second is let me
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: be back just before the miracles begin. Let everything be
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: just as it was before that blessed lamp turned up.
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: It's a big job, but it's the last. Have you
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: got it? No more miracles, Everything as it was me
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: back in the Long Dragon, just before I drank my
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: half pint. That's it. Yes, He dug his fingers into
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: the mold, closed his eyes and said off. Everything became
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: perfectly still. He perceived that he was standing erect, So
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: you say, said a voice. He opened his eyes. He
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: was in the bar of the Long Dragon, arguing about
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: miracles with Toddy Beamish. He had a vague sense of
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: some great thing forgotten that instantaneously passed. You see that,
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: except for the loss of his miraculous powers, everything was
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: back as it had been. His mind and memory therefore
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: were now just as they had been at the time
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: when this story began, so that he knew absolutely nothing
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: of all that is told here, knows nothing of all
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: that is told here to this day. And among other things,
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: of course, he still did not believe in miracles. I
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: tell you that miracles, properly speaking, can't possibly happen, he said.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: Whatever you like to hold, and I'm prepared to prove
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: it up to the hilt. That's what you think, said
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: Toddy Beamish, And prove it if you can. Lookye here,
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: mister Beamish, said mister Fotheringay. Let us clearly understand what
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: a miracle is. It's something contrariwise to the course of nature,
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: done by power of will. End of Section twenty one.