CHAPTER VI
THE ATTITUDE OF MR. THORNDUCK
We reached London next day in the afternoon. I felt exhausted and couldscarcely answer Sarakoff, who had talked continuously during thejourney.
But his theory had interested me. The Russian had revealed much of hischaracter, under the stress of excitement. He spoke of the coming ofImmortality in the light of a _physical_ boon to mankind. He seemed tosee in his mind's eye a great picture of comfort and physical enjoymentand of a humanity released from the grim spectres of disease and death,and ceaselessly pursuing pleasure.
"I love life," he remarked. "I love fame and success. I love comfort,ease, laughter, and companionship. The whole of Nature is beautiful tome, and a beautiful woman is Nature's best reward. Now that the dawn ofImmortality is at hand, Harden, we must set about reorganizing the worldso that it may yield the maximum of pleasure."
"But surely there will be some limit to pleasure?" I objected.
"Why? Can't you see that is just what there will not be?" he criedexcitedly. "We are going to do away with the confining limits. Yourimagination is too cramped! You sit there, huddled up in a corner, as ifwe had let loose a dreadful plague on Birmingham!"
"It may prove to be so," I muttered. I do not think I had any clear ideaas to the future, but there is a natural machinery in the mind thatdoubts golden ages and universal panaceas. Call it superstition if youwill, but man's instinct tells him he cannot have uninterrupted pleasurewithout paying for it. I said as much to the Russian.
He gave vent to a roar of laughter.
"You have all the caution and timidity of your race," he said. "You arefearful even in your hour of deliverance. My friend, it is impossible toconceive, even faintly, of the change that will come over us towards themeaning of life. Can't you see that, as soon as the idea of Immortalitygets hold of people, they will devote all their energies to making theirearth a paradise? Why, it is obvious. They will then know that there isno other paradise."
He took out his watch and made a calculation. His face became flushed.
"The bacillus has travelled forty-two miles towards Birmingham," hesaid, just as our train drew in to the London terminus.
I was busy with patients until dinner-time and did not see anything ofSarakoff. While working, my exhaustion and anxiety wore off, and werereplaced by a mild exhilaration. One of my patients was a professor ofengineering at a northern university; a brilliant young man, who, butfor physical disease, had the promise of a great career before him. Hehad been sent to me, after having made a round of the consultants, tosee if I could give him any hope as to the future. I went into his casecarefully, and then addressed him a question.
"What is your own view of your case, Mr. Thornduck?"
He looked surprised. His face relaxed, and he smiled. I suppose hedetected a message of hope in my expression.
"I have been told by half-a-dozen doctors that I have not long to live,Dr. Harden," he replied. "But it is very difficult for me to grasp thatview. I find that I behave as if nothing were the matter. I still go onworking. I still see goals far ahead. Death is just a word--frequentlyuttered, it is true--but meaningless. What am I to do?"
"Go on working."
"And am I to expect only a short lease of life?"
I rose from my writing-table and walked to the hearth. A surge of powercame over me as I thought of the bacillus which was so silently andsteadily advancing on Birmingham.
"Do you believe in miracles?" I asked.
"That is an odd question." He reflected for a time. "No, I don't thinkso. All one is taught now-a-days is in a contrary direction, isn't it?"
"Yes, but our knowledge only covers a very small field--perhaps anartificially isolated one, too."
"Then you think only a miracle will save my life?"
I nodded and gazed at him.
"You seem amused," he remarked quietly.
"I am not amused, Mr. Thornduck. I am very happy."
"Does my case interest you?"
"Extremely. As a case, you are typical. Your malady is invariably fatal.It is only one of the many maladies that we know to be fatal, while weremain ignorant of all else. Under ordinary circumstances, you wouldhave before you about three years of reasonable health and sanity."
"And then?"
"Well, after that you would be somewhat helpless. You would begin toemploy that large section of modern civilization that deals with thesomewhat helpless."
I began to warm to my theme, and clasped my hands behind my back.
"Yes, you would pass into that class that disproves all theories of akindly Deity, and you would become an undergraduate in the vast andlamentable University of Suffering, through whose limitless corridors wemedical men walk with weary footsteps. Ah, if only an intelligent groupof scientists had had the construction of the human body to plan! Thinkwhat poor stuff it is! Think how easy it would have been to make itmore enduring! The cell--what a useless fragile delicacy! And we aremade of millions of these useless fragile delicacies."
To my surprise he laughed with great amusement. He stood there, young,pleasant, and smiling. I stared at him with a curious uneasiness. Forthe moment I had forgotten what it had been my intention to say. Thedawn of Immortality passed out of my mind, and I found myself gazing, asit were, on something strangely mysterious.
"Your religion helps you?" I hazarded.
"Religion?" He mused for a moment. "Don't you think there is somemeaning behind our particular inevitable destinies--that we may perhapshave earned them?"
"Nonsense! It is all the cruel caprice of Nature, and nothing else."
"Oh, come, Dr. Harden, you surely take a larger view. Do you think theshort existence we have here is all the chance of activity we ever have?That I have a glimpse of engineering, and you have a short phase ofdoctoring on this planet, and that then we have finished allexperience?"
"Certainly. It would not be possible to take any other view--horrible."
"But you believe in some theory of evolution--of slow upward progress?"
"Yes, of course. That is proved beyond all doubt."
"And yet you think it applies only to the body--to the instrument--andnot to the immaterial side of us?"
I stared at him in astonishment.
"I do not think there is any immaterial side, Mr. Thornduck."
He smiled.
"A very unsatisfying view, surely?" he remarked.
"Unsatisfying, perhaps, but sound science," I retorted.
"Sound?" He pondered for an instant. "Can a thing be sound andunsatisfying at the same time? When I see a machine that's ugly--that'sunsatisfying from the artist's point of view--I always know it's wronglyplanned and inefficient. Don't you think it's the same with theories oflife?" He took out his watch and glanced at it. "But I must not keepyou. Good-bye, Dr. Harden."
He went to the door, nodded, and left the room before I recalled that Imeant to hint to him that a miracle was going to happen, and save hislife. I remained on the hearth-rug, wondering what on earth he meant.
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