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The Country of the Blind and Other Stories - A Vision of Judgement · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty two of the Country of the Blind and
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  Speaker 1: Other Stories. I H. G. Wells. This Liberox recording is
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  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Read by Peter Yearsley. A Vision
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  Speaker 1: of Judgment Part one. Bra I listened, not understanding. Whiraarararaa
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  Speaker 1: good lord, said I still only half awake. What an
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  Speaker 1: infernal shindy tara'ah. It's enough, said I to wake, and
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  Speaker 1: stopped short. Where was I dara raah? Louder and louder.
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  Speaker 1: It's either some new invention, your ador adorer deafening, no,
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  Speaker 1: said I, speaking loud in order to hear myself. That's
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  Speaker 1: the last trump ooah. Part two. The last note jerked
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  Speaker 1: me out of my grave like a hooked Minnow. I
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  Speaker 1: saw my monument rather a mean little affair, and I
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  Speaker 1: wished I knew who'd done it. And the old elm
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  Speaker 1: tree and the sea view vanished like a puff of steam.
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  Speaker 1: And then all about me a multitude, no man, good number, nations, tongues, kingdoms, peoples,
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  Speaker 1: children of all the ages in an amphitheateral space as
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  Speaker 1: vast as the sky, and over against us. Seated on
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  Speaker 1: a throne of dazzling white cloud, the Lord God and
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  Speaker 1: all the host of his angels. I recognized Azrael by
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  Speaker 1: his darkness, and Michael by his sword. And the great
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  Speaker 1: angel who had blown the trumpet, stood with the trumpet
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  Speaker 1: still half raised. Part three prompt, said the little man
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  Speaker 1: beside me, very prompt. Do you see the angel with
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  Speaker 1: the book? He was ducking and craning his head about
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  Speaker 1: to see over and under and between the souls that
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  Speaker 1: crowded round us. Everybody's here, he said, everybody, And now
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  Speaker 1: we shall know DearS. Darwin, he said, going off at
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  Speaker 1: a tangent. He'll catch it. And there you see, that's tall,
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  Speaker 1: important looking man trying to catch the eye of the
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  Speaker 1: Lord God. That's the Duke. But there's a lot of
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  Speaker 1: people one doesn't know. Oh there's Priggles, the publisher. I've
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  Speaker 1: always wondered about printers overs. Priggles was a clever man.
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  Speaker 1: But we shall know now, even about him. I shall
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  Speaker 1: hear all that. I shall get most of the fun
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  Speaker 1: before my letters s He drew the air in between
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  Speaker 1: his teeth. Historical characters too. See that's Henry the eighth.
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  Speaker 1: There'll be a good bit of evidence. O Dame is tude.
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  Speaker 1: He lowered his voice. Noly Sis chap just in front
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  Speaker 1: of us, all covered with air paleolithic, you know, and
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  Speaker 1: there again. But I did not heed him, because I
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  Speaker 1: was looking at the Lord God. Part four. Is this all,
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  Speaker 1: asked the Lord God. The Angel a to the book.
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  Speaker 1: It was one of countless volumes like the British Museum
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  Speaker 1: reading room catalog, glanced at us and seemed to count
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  Speaker 1: us in the instant. That's all he said, and added,
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  Speaker 1: it was O God, a very little planet. The eyes
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  Speaker 1: of God surveyed us. Let us begin, said the Lord God.
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  Speaker 1: Part five. The Angel opened the book and read a name.
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  Speaker 1: It was a name full of a's, and the echoes
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  Speaker 1: of it came back out of the uttermost parts of space.
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  Speaker 1: I did not catch it clearly, because the little man
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  Speaker 1: beside me said, in a sharp jerk, what's that? It
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  Speaker 1: sounded like Ahab to me, but it could not have
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  Speaker 1: been the Ahab of scripture. Instantly, a small black figure
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  Speaker 1: was lifted up to a puffy cloud at the very
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  Speaker 1: feet of God. It was a stiff little figure, dressed
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  Speaker 1: in rich outlandish robes and crowned, and it folded its
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  Speaker 1: arms and scowled. Well, said God, looking down at him.
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  Speaker 1: We were privileged to hear the reply, and indeed the
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  Speaker 1: acoustic properties of the place were marvelous. I plead guilty,
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  Speaker 1: said the little figure. Tell them what you have done,
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  Speaker 1: said the Lord God. I was a king, said the
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  Speaker 1: little figure, A great king. And I was lustful and
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  Speaker 1: proud and cruel. I made wars. I devastated countries. I
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  Speaker 1: built palaces, and the mortal was the blood of men. Here,
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  Speaker 1: o God, the witnesses against me, calling to you for vengeance,
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  Speaker 1: hundreds and thousands of witnesses. He waved his hands towards us,
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  Speaker 1: and worse. I took a prophet, one of your prophets,
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  Speaker 1: one of my prophets, said the Lord God. And because
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  Speaker 1: he would not bow to me, I tortured him for
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  Speaker 1: four days and nights, and in the end he died.
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  Speaker 1: I did more, O God, I blasphemed. I robbed you
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  Speaker 1: of your honors, robbed me of my honors, said the
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  Speaker 1: Lord God. I caused myself to be worshiped in your stead.
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  Speaker 1: No evil was there, but I practiced it no cruelty,
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  Speaker 1: wherewith I did not stain my soul. And at last
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  Speaker 1: you smote me, O God. God raised his eyebrows slightly,
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  Speaker 1: and I was slain in battle. And so I stand
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  Speaker 1: before you meet for your nethermost hell, out of your greatness,
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  Speaker 1: daring no lies, daring no please, but telling the truth
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  Speaker 1: of my iniquities before all mankind. He ceased his face
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  Speaker 1: I saw distinctly, and it seemed to me white and terrible,
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  Speaker 1: and proud and strangely noble. I thought of Milton's satan.
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  Speaker 1: Most of that is from the obelisk, said the recording Angel.
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  Speaker 1: Finger on page it is, said the tyrannous man, with
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  Speaker 1: a faint touch of surprise. Then God suddenly bent forward
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  Speaker 1: and took this man in his hand and held him
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  Speaker 1: up on his palm, as if to see him better.
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  Speaker 1: He was just a little dark stroke in the middle
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  Speaker 1: of God's palm. Did he do all this? Said the
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  Speaker 1: Lord God. The recording Angel flattened his book with his
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  Speaker 1: hand in a way, said the recording Angel carelessly. Now
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  Speaker 1: when I looked again at the little man, his face
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  Speaker 1: had changed in a very curious manner. He was looking
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  Speaker 1: at the recording Angel with a strange apprehension in his eyes,
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  Speaker 1: and one hand fluttered to his mouth, just the movement
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  Speaker 1: of a muscle or so, and all that dignity of
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  Speaker 1: defiance was gone. Read, said the Lord God. The Angel
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  Speaker 1: read explaining very carefully and fully all the wickedness of
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  Speaker 1: the wicked man. It was quite an intellectual treat, a
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  Speaker 1: little daring in places, I thought, But of course heaven
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  Speaker 1: has its privileges. Part six. Everybody was laughing. Even the
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  Speaker 1: prophet of the Lord, whom the wicked man had tortured,
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  Speaker 1: had a smile on his face. The wicked man was
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  Speaker 1: really such a preposterous little fellow, And then said the
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  Speaker 1: recording angel, with a smile that set us all a cog.
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  Speaker 1: One day when he was a little irascible from over
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  Speaker 1: eating he Oh, not bad, cried the wicked man. Nobody
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  Speaker 1: knew of that. It didn't happen, screamed the wicked man.
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  Speaker 1: I was bad. I was really bad, frequently bad. But
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  Speaker 1: there was nothing so silly, so absolutely silly. The angel
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  Speaker 1: went on reading. Oh God, cried the wicked man. Don't
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  Speaker 1: let them know that I'll repent. I'll apologize. The wicked man,
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  Speaker 1: on God's hand, began to dance and weep. Suddenly shame
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  Speaker 1: overcame him. He made a while rush to jump off
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  Speaker 1: the ball of God's little finger, but God stopped him
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  Speaker 1: by a dexterous turn of the wrist. Then he made
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  Speaker 1: a rush for the gap between hand and thumb, but
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  Speaker 1: the thumb closed, and all the while the angel went
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  Speaker 1: on reading, the wicked man rushed to and fro across
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  Speaker 1: God's palm, and then suddenly turned about and fled up
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  Speaker 1: the sleeve of God. I expected God would turn him out,
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  Speaker 1: But the mercy of God is infinite. The recording angel paused, Eh,
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  Speaker 1: said the recording angel. Next said God, And before the
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  Speaker 1: recording angel could call a name, a hairy creature in
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  Speaker 1: filthy rags stood upon God's palm? Part seven? Has God
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  Speaker 1: got Hell up his sleeve? Then, said the little man
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  Speaker 1: beside me? Is there a hill? I asked, if you notice,
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  Speaker 1: he said, peering between the feet of the great angels.
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  Speaker 1: There's no particular indication of a celestial city, said the
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  Speaker 1: little woman near us, scowling. Here this blessed saint. Part eight.
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  Speaker 1: He was lord of the earth, but I was the
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  Speaker 1: prophet of the God of Heaven, cried the saint, and
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  Speaker 1: all the people marveled at the sign. For I, O, God,
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  Speaker 1: knew of the glories of thy paradise. No pain, no hardship,
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  Speaker 1: gashing with knives, splinters thrust under my nails, strips of
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  Speaker 1: flesh flayed off all for the glory and honor of God.
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  Speaker 1: God smiled, and at last I went I in my
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  Speaker 1: rags and sores, smelling of my my holy discomforts. Gabriel
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  Speaker 1: laughed abruptly and lay outside his gates, as a sign,
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  Speaker 1: as a wonder, as a perfect nuisance, said the recording angel,
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  Speaker 1: and began to read, heedless of the fact that the
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  Speaker 1: Saint was still speaking of the gloriously unpleasant things he
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  Speaker 1: had done, that paradise might be his. And behold in
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  Speaker 1: that book the record of the saint also was a revelation,
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  Speaker 1: a marvel. It seemed, not ten seconds before the Saint
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  Speaker 1: also was rushing to and fro with a great palm
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  Speaker 1: of God, not ten seconds And at last he also
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  Speaker 1: shrieked beneath that pitiless and cynical exposition, and fled also,
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  Speaker 1: even as the wicked man had fled into the shadow
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  Speaker 1: of the sleeve. And it was permitted us to see
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  Speaker 1: into the shadow of the sleeve, and the two sat
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  Speaker 1: side by side, stark of all delusions, in the shadow
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  Speaker 1: of the robe of God's charity, like brothers. And thither
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  Speaker 1: also I fled in my turn. Part nine. And now
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  Speaker 1: said God, as he shook us out of his sleeve,
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  Speaker 1: upon the planet he had given us to live upon,
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  Speaker 1: the planet that whirled about grit serious for a son.
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  Speaker 1: Now that you understand me and each other a little better,
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  Speaker 1: try again. Then he and his great angels turned themselves about,
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  Speaker 1: and suddenly had vanished, the throne had vanished. All about
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  Speaker 1: me was a beautiful land, more beautiful than any I
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  Speaker 1: had ever seen before, waste au stear and wonderful. And
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  Speaker 1: all about me were the enlightened souls of men in new,
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  Speaker 1: clean bodies. End of Section twenty two.