CHAPTER XXIX
THE REVOLT OF THE YOUNG
Amid all the strife and clamour of the next few days one thing standsout now in my mind with sinister radiance. It is that peculiar form oflawlessness which broke out and had as its object the destruction of theold.
There is no doubt that the idea of immortality got hold of people andcarried them away completely. The daily miracles that were occurring ofthe renewal of health and vigour, the cure of disease and the passing ofthose infirmities that are associated with advancing years, impressedthe popular imagination deeply. As a result there grew up a widespreaddiscontent and bitterness. The young--those who were as yet free fromthe germ--conceived in their hearts that an immense injustice had beendone to them.
It must be remembered that life at that time had taken on a strange andabnormal aspect. Its horizons had been suddenly altered by the germ.Although breadth had been given to it from the point of years, a curiouscontraction had appeared at the same time. It was a contraction feltmost acutely by those in inferior positions. It was a contraction thatowed its existence to the sense of being shut in eternally by those inhigher positions, whom death no longer would remove at convenientintervals. The student felt it as he looked at his professor. The clerkfelt it as he looked at his manager. The subaltern felt it as he lookedat his colonel. The daughter felt it when she looked at her mother, andthe son when he looked at his father. The germ had given simultaneouslya tremendous blow to freedom, and a tremendous impetus to freedom.
Thus, perhaps for the first time in history, there swiftly began anaccumulation and concentration of those forces of discontent which, innormal times, only manifest themselves here and there in therelationships between old and young men, and are regarded withgood-humoured patience. A kind of war broke out all over the country.
This war was terrible in its nature. All the secret weariness andunspoken bitterness of the younger generation found a sudden outlet.Goaded to madness by the prospect of a future of continual repression,in which the old would exercise an undiminished authority, the youngermen and women plunged into a form of excess over which a veil must bedrawn.... There is only one thing which can be recorded in their favour.Chloroform and drowning appear to have been the methods most often used,and they are perhaps merciful ways of death. The great London clubsbecame sepulchres. All people who had received the highest distinctionsand honours, whose names were household words, were removed withruthless determination. Scarcely a single well-known man or woman of theolder generation, whose name was honoured in science, literature, art,business or politics, was spared. All aged and wealthy people perished.A clean sweep was made, and made with a decision and unanimity that wasincredible.
It is painful now to recall the terrible nature of that civil war. Itlasted only a short time, but it opened my eyes to the inner plan uponwhich mortal man is based. For I am compelled to admit that thiswidespread murder, that suddenly flashed into being, was founded uponimpulses that lie deep in man's heart. They were those giant impulsesthat lie behind growth, and the effect of the germ was merely to throwthem suddenly into the broad light of day, unchained, grim andimplacable.
Fortunately, the germ spread steadily and quickly, killing as it did soall hate and desire.
Jason, still free from the germ, flung himself into the general uproarwith extraordinary vigour. It was clear that he thought the greatopportunity had come which would eventually bring him to the height ofhis power. To check the growing lawlessness and murder he advocated anew adjustment of property. Big meetings were held in the public spacesof London, and some wild ideas were formulated.
In the meantime the medical profession, as far as the men yet free fromthe germ were concerned, continued its work in a dull, mechanical way.Each day the number of patients fell lower, as the Blue Disease slowlyspread. Hammer, himself an Immortal, came to see me once, but only tospeak of the necessity for the immediate simplification of houses. Itwas odd to observe how, once a man became infected, his former interestsand anxieties fell away from him like an old garment. In Harley Streetan attitude of stubborn disbelief continued amongst those still mortal.There is something magnificent in that adamantine spirit which refusesto recognize the new, even though it moves with ever-increasingdistinctness before the very eyes of the deniers. I was not surprised. Iwas familiar with medical men.
Meanwhile the Royal Family became infected by the germ, and passed outof the public eye. The Prime Minister became a victim and vanished. Foronce a man had the germ in his system, as far as externals wereconcerned, he almost ceased to exist.
The infection of Jason occurred in my presence. He had come in toexplain to me a proposed line of campaign as regards the marriage laws.
"This germ of yours has given people the courage to think!" heexclaimed. "It is extraordinary how timid people were in thinking. Ithas launched them out, and now is the time to bring in new proposals."
"In all your calculations, you omit to recollect the effects of thegerm," I said. "Surely you have seen by now that it changes human naturetotally?"
He stared at me uncomprehendingly. He was one of those men, so common inpublic life, who have no power of understanding what they themselveshave not experienced. He continued with undiminished enthusiasm.
"We must have marriage contracts for definite periods. With theincreased state of health, and the full span of life confronting everyman, we must face the problem squarely. Now what stands in our way?"
He got up and went to the window. It was a dull foggy day, and there wasfrost on the ground. He stared outside for some moments.
"What, I repeat, stands in our way?"
"Well?"
"The Church, and a mass of superstitions that we have inherited from theOld Testament. That's what stands in our way. We still attach more valueto the Old Testament than to the New. The Scotch, for example, like theJews.... Yes, of course.... What was I saying?"
He left the window and sat down once more before me, moving ratherlistlessly.
"Yes, Harden. Of course. That's what it is, isn't it? Do youremember--diddle--yes it was diddle, diddle----"
He paused and frowned.
"Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle," he muttered, "Yes--hey,diddle, diddle, diddle--that's what it is, isn't it?"
"Of course," I said. "It's all really that."
"Just diddle, diddle, diddle?"
"Yes--if you like."
"That is substituting diddle for riddle," he said earnestly. He frownedagain and passed his hand across his eyes.
"Yes," I said calmly. "It's going a step up."
I suppose about half an hour passed before either of us spoke againafter this extraordinary termination to our conversation. In absolutesilence we sat facing one another and during that time I saw the bluestain growing clearer and clearer in Jason's eyes. At last he rose.
"It's very odd," he said. "Tell me, were you like this?"
"How do you feel?"
"As if I had been drunk and suddenly had been made sober. I will leaveyou. I want to think. I will go down to the country."
"And your papers?"
"We must have a new Press," he said, and left the room.
That same day the great railway accident occurred just outside Londonthat led to the death of sixty people, many of them Immortals. Itseffect on public imagination was profound. All dangerous enterprisesbecame invested with a terrible radiance. Men asked themselves if, inface of a future of health, it was worth risking life in rashness of anydescription, and gradually traffic came to a standstill. Long before thegerm had infected the whole populace all activities fraught with dangerhad ceased. The coal mines were abandoned. The railways were silent. Thestreets of London became empty of traffic.
Blue-stained people began to throng the streets of London in vastmasses, moving to and fro without aim or purpose, perfectly orderly,vacant, lost--like Sarakoff's butterflies....
Thornduck came to see me one day when the reign of the germ waspractically absolute in London.
"They are wandering into the country in thousands," he remarked. "Theyhave lost all sense of home and possession. They are vague, trying toform an ideal socialistic community. What a mess your germ is making oflife! They're not ready for it. The question is whether they will rousethemselves to consider the food question."
"We need scarcely any food," I replied. "I've had nothing to eatto-day."
"Nor I. But since we're still linked up to physical bodies we mustrequire some nourishment."
"I have eaten two biscuits and a little cheese in the last twenty-fourhours. Surely you don't think that food is to be a serious problem undersuch circumstances?"
"It might be. You must remember that initiative is now destroyed in thevast majority of people. They may permit themselves to die of inanition.Can you say you have an appetite now?"
I reflected for some time, striving to recall the feeling of hungerthat belonged to the days of desire.
"No. I have no appetite."
"Think carefully. In place of appetite have you no tendencies?"
"I feel a kind of lethargy," I said at last. "I felt it yesterday andto-day it is stronger."
"As if you wished to sleep?"
"Not exactly. But it is akin to that. I have some difficulty in keepingmy attention on things. There is a kind of pull within me awayfrom--away from reality."
He nodded.
"I went in to see your Russian friend. He's upstairs. He is not exactlyasleep. He is more like a man partially under the influence of a drug."
"I will go and see him," I said.
Sarakoff was lying on the bed with his eyes shut. He was breathingquietly. His eyelids quivered, as if they might open at any moment, butmy entrance did not rouse him. His limbs were relaxed. I spoke to himand tried to wake him, without result. Then I remembered how I hadstumbled across the body of Herbert Wain in the Park some days ago. Hehad seemed to be in a strange kind of sleep. I sat down on the bed andstared at the motionless figure of the Russian. There was somethingstrangely pathetic in his pose. His rough hair and black beard, his keenaquiline face seemed weirdly out of keeping with his helpless state.Here lay the man whose brain had once teemed with ambitious desires,relaxed and limp like a baby, while the nails of his hands, turquoiseblue, bore silent witness to his great experiment on humanity. Had itfailed? Where was all that marvellous vision of physical happiness thathad haunted him? The streets of London were filled with people, nolonger working, no longer crying or weeping, but moving aimlessly, likepeople in a dream. Were they happy? I moved to the window and drew downthe blind.
"This may be the end," I thought. "The germ will be sweeping throughFrance now. It may be the end of all things."
I rejoined Thornduck in the study.
"Sarakoff is in a kind of trance," I observed. "What do you make of it?"
"Isn't it natural?" he asked. "What kind of a man was he? What motivesdid he work on? Just think what the killing of desire means. All thosethings that depended on worldly ambition, self-gratification, physicalpleasure, conceit, lust, hatred, passion, egotism, selfishness, vanity,avarice, sensuality and so on, are undermined and rendered paralysed bythe germ. What remains? Why, in most people, practically nothingremains."
"Even so," I said, "I don't see why Sarakoff should go into a trance."
"He's gone into a trance simply because there's not enough left in himto constitute an individuality. The germ has taken the inside clean outof him. He's just an immortal shell now."
"Then do you think----?"
I stared at him wonderingly.
"I think that the germ will send most of the world to sleep."
He got up and walked to the window. The clear noonday light fell on histhin sensitive face and accentuated the pallor of his skin.
"All those who are bound on the wheel of desire will fall asleep," hemurmured. A smile flickered on his lips and he turned and looked at me.
"Harden," he said, "it's really very funny. It's infinitely humorous,isn't it?"
"I see nothing humorous in anything," I replied. "I've lost all sense ofhumour."
He raised his eyebrows.
"Of humour?" he queried. "Surely not. Humour is surely immortal."
CHAPTER XXX
THE GREAT SLEEP
On that day the animals in London fell asleep with few exceptions. Theexceptions were, I believe, all dogs. I do not pretend to explain, howit came about that dogs remained awake longer than other animals. Thereason may be that dogs have some quality in them which is superior evento the qualities found in man, for there is a sweetness in the nature ofdogs that is rare in men and women.
Many horses were overcome in the streets and lay down where they were.No attempt was made to remove them. They were left, stretched out ontheir sides, apparently unconscious.
And many thousands of men and women fell asleep. In some cases men wereovercome by the sleep before their dogs, which has always seemed strangeto me. It was Thornduck who told me this, for he remained awake duringthis period that the germ reigned supreme. He tells me that I fellasleep the next evening in my chair in the study and that he carried meupstairs to my room. I had just returned from visiting Leonora, whom Ihad found unconscious. He made a tour of London next morning. In theCity there was a profound stillness.
In the West End matters were much the same. In Cavendish Square heentered many houses and found silence and sleep within. Everywhere doorsand windows were wide open, giving access to any who might desire it. Hevisited the Houses of Parliament only to find a few comatoseblue-stained men lying about on the benches. For the sleep had overtakenpeople by stealth. One day, passing by the Zoo, he had climbed the fenceand made an inspection of the inmates. With the exception of an elephantthat was nodding drowsily, the animals lay motionless in their cages,deep in the trance that the germ induced.
From time to time he met a man or woman awake like himself and stoppedto talk. Those who still retained sufficient individuality to continueexistence were the strangest mixture of folk, for they were of everyclass, many of them being little better than beggars. They were peoplein whom the desire of life played a minor part. They were those peoplewho are commonly regarded as being failures, people who live and dieunknown to the world. They were those people who devote themselves to anobscure existence, shun the rewards of successful careers, and areridiculed by all prosperous individuals. It seems that Thornduck wasinstrumental in calling a meeting of these people at St. Paul's. Therewere about two thousand of them in all, but many in the outlying suburbsremained ignorant of the meeting, and Thornduck considers that in theLondon district alone there must have been some thousands who did notattend. At the meeting, which must have been the strangest in allhistory, the question of the future was discussed. Many believed thatthe effect of the germ on those in the great sleep would ultimately leadto a cessation of life owing to starvation. Thornduck held that the germwould pass, arguing on principles that were so unscientific that Irefrain from giving them. Eventually it appears that a decision wasreached to leave London on a certain date and migrate southwards insearch of a region where a colony might be founded under laws andcustoms suitable for Immortals. Thornduck says that there was one thingthat struck him very forcibly at the meeting at St. Paul's. All thepeople gathered there had about them a certain sweetness and strength,which, although it was very noticeable, escaped his powers of analysis.
He attempted on several occasions to get into telegraphic communicationwith the Continent, but failed. In his wanderings he entered many homes,always being careful to lay out at full length any of the unconsciousinmates who were asleep on chairs, for he feared that they might come toharm, and that their limbs might become stiffened into unnaturalpostures.
All the time he had a firm conviction that the phase of sleep wastemporary. He himself had moments in which a slight drowsiness overtookhim, but he never lost the enhanced power of thought that I hadexperienced in the early stages of the Blue Disease. So absolute washis conviction that a general awakening w
ould come about that he beganto busy his mind with the question as to what he could do, inconjunction with the other Immortals who were still awake, to benefithumanity when it should emerge from the trance. This question wasdiscussed continually. Many thought that they should burn all records,financial, political, governmental and private, so that some opportunityof starting afresh might be given to mankind, enslaved to the past andfettered by law and custom. But the danger of chaos resulting from sucha step deterred him. He confessed that the more he thought on thesubject the more clearly he saw that under the circumstances belongingto its stage of evolution, the organization of the world was suited tothe race that inhabited it. All change, he saw, had to come from within,and that to alter external conditions suddenly and artificially might doincredible harm. We were constructed to develop against resistance, andto remove such resistances before they had been overcome naturally wasto tamper with the inner laws of life. And so, after long discussion,they did nothing....
It is curious to reflect that they, earnest men devoted to progress,having at their mercy the machinery of existence, walked through themidst of sleeping London and did nothing. But then none of them werefanatics, for Thornduck stated that the fanatics fell early to sleep,thus proving that the motives behind their fanaticism were egotistical,and a source of satisfaction to themselves. He made a point of visitingthe homes of some of them. Philanthropists, too, succumbed early.
On the seventh day after the great sleep had overtaken London theeffects of the germ began to wane. Those who had fallen asleep latestwere the earliest to open their eyes. The blue stain rapidly vanishedfrom eyes, skin and nails.... I regained my waking sense on the eveningof the seventh day and found myself in a small country cottage whitherThornduck had borne me in a motor-car, fearing lest awakened Londonmight seek some revenge on the discoverers of the germ. Sarakoff lay ona couch beside me, still fast asleep.
The first clear idea that came to me concerned Alice Annot. I determinedto go to her at once. Then I remembered with vexation that I hadwantonly smashed two vases worth ten pounds apiece.
I struggled to my feet. My hands were thin and wasted. I was ravenouswith hunger. I felt giddy.
"What's the time?" I called confusedly. "It must be very late. Wake up!"
And I stooped down and began to shake Sarakoff violently.
THE END
Printed in Great Britain byRichard Clay & Sons, Limited,BRUNSWICK ST., STAMFORD ST., S.E. 1,AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
[Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in theoriginal text have been corrected for this electronic edition.
In Chapter III, a missing period was added after "his pipe and tobaccopouch".
In Chapter IV, a missing quotation mark was added before "pyocyaneus,indeed", and a comma was changed to a period after "Of course".
In Chapter VI, a missing period was added after "'A very unsatisfyingview, surely?' he remarked".
In Chapter VIII, "the municipal authorites" was changed to "themunicipal authorities", "this phenomen" was changed to "thisphenomenon", and "scanned the colums" was changed to "scanned thecolumns".
In Chapter XIII, a comma was changed to a period after "cold and dark",and "protaplasm" was changed to "protoplasm".
In Chapter XIV, a period was added after "something other than lifeexists".
In Chapter XV, "in the in the hall" was changed to "in the hall".
In Chapter XVI, "Dr Harden" (in the sentence ending "in smooth andpleasant tones") was changed to "Dr. Harden", and commas were changed toperiods following "The gift of immortality" and "if it were true".
In Chapter XVIII, "millenium" was changed to "millennium".
In Chapter XXIII, a missing period was added after "the millennium wasat hand".
In Chapter XXVI, a missing period was added after "with conviction","flutted" was changed to "fluttered", and "I'ad my breakfast" waschanged to "I 'ad my breakfast".
In Chapter XXIX, "undimished enthusiasm" was changed to "undiminishedenthusiasm".]
The Blue Germ Page 29