Reading Help The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
turning such schemes over in my mind I pursued our way towards the `
` building which my fancy had chosen as our dwelling. `
` `
` `
` `
` VIII `
` `
` `
` 'I found the Palace of Green Porcelain, when we approached it about `
` noon, deserted and falling into ruin. Only ragged vestiges of glass `
` remained in its windows, and great sheets of the green facing had `
` fallen away from the corroded metallic framework. It lay very high `
` upon a turfy down, and looking north-eastward before I entered it, I `
` was surprised to see a large estuary, or even creek, where I judged `
` Wandsworth and Battersea must once have been. I thought then--though `
` I never followed up the thought--of what might have happened, or `
` might be happening, to the living things in the sea. `
` `
` 'The material of the Palace proved on examination to be indeed `
` porcelain, and along the face of it I saw an inscription in some `
` unknown character. I thought, rather foolishly, that Weena might `
` help me to interpret this, but I only learned that the bare idea of `
` writing had never entered her head. She always seemed to me, I `
` fancy, more human than she was, perhaps because her affection was so `
` human. `
` `
` 'Within the big valves of the door--which were open and broken--we `
` found, instead of the customary hall, a long gallery lit by many `
` side windows. At the first glance I was reminded of a museum. `
` The tiled floor was thick with dust, and a remarkable array of `
` miscellaneous objects was shrouded in the same grey covering. Then `
` I perceived, standing strange and gaunt in the centre of the hall, `
` what was clearly the lower part of a huge skeleton. I recognized `
` by the oblique feet that it was some extinct creature after the `
` fashion of the Megatherium. The skull and the upper bones lay `
` beside it in the thick dust, and in one place, where rain-water had `
` dropped through a leak in the roof, the thing itself had been worn `
` away. Further in the gallery was the huge skeleton barrel of a `
` Brontosaurus. My museum hypothesis was confirmed. Going towards the `
` side I found what appeared to be sloping shelves, and clearing away `
` the thick dust, I found the old familiar glass cases of our own `
` time. But they must have been air-tight to judge from the fair `
` preservation of some of their contents. `
` `
` 'Clearly we stood among the ruins of some latter-day South `
` Kensington! Here, apparently, was the Palaeontological Section, `
` and a very splendid array of fossils it must have been, though the `
` inevitable process of decay that had been staved off for a time, and `
` had, through the extinction of bacteria and fungi, lost ninety-nine `
` hundredths of its force, was nevertheless, with extreme sureness if `
` with extreme slowness at work again upon all its treasures. Here and `
` there I found traces of the little people in the shape of rare `
` fossils broken to pieces or threaded in strings upon reeds. And the `
` cases had in some instances been bodily removed--by the Morlocks as `
` I judged. The place was very silent. The thick dust deadened our `
` footsteps. Weena, who had been rolling a sea urchin down the sloping `
` glass of a case, presently came, as I stared about me, and very `
` quietly took my hand and stood beside me. `
` `
` 'And at first I was so much surprised by this ancient monument of an `
` intellectual age, that I gave no thought to the possibilities it `
` presented. Even my preoccupation about the Time Machine receded a `
` little from my mind. `
` `
` 'To judge from the size of the place, this Palace of Green Porcelain `
` had a great deal more in it than a Gallery of Palaeontology; `
` possibly historical galleries; it might be, even a library! To me, `
` at least in my present circumstances, these would be vastly more `
` interesting than this spectacle of oldtime geology in decay. `
` Exploring, I found another short gallery running transversely to the `
` first. This appeared to be devoted to minerals, and the sight of a `
` block of sulphur set my mind running on gunpowder. But I could find `
` no saltpeter; indeed, no nitrates of any kind. Doubtless they had `
` deliquesced ages ago. Yet the sulphur hung in my mind, and set up a `
` train of thinking. As for the rest of the contents of that gallery, `
` though on the whole they were the best preserved of all I saw, I had `
` little interest. I am no specialist in mineralogy, and I went on `
` down a very ruinous aisle running parallel to the first hall I had `
` entered. Apparently this section had been devoted to natural `
` history, but everything had long since passed out of recognition. A `
` few shrivelled and blackened vestiges of what had once been stuffed `
` animals, desiccated mummies in jars that had once held spirit, a `
` brown dust of departed plants: that was all! I was sorry for that, `
` because I should have been glad to trace the patent readjustments by `
` which the conquest of animated nature had been attained. Then we `
` came to a gallery of simply colossal proportions, but singularly `
` ill-lit, the floor of it running downward at a slight angle from the `
` end at which I entered. At intervals white globes hung from the `
` ceiling--many of them cracked and smashed--which suggested that `
` originally the place had been artificially lit. Here I was more in `
` my element, for rising on either side of me were the huge bulks of `
` big machines, all greatly corroded and many broken down, but some `
` still fairly complete. You know I have a certain weakness for `
` mechanism, and I was inclined to linger among these; the more so as `
` for the most part they had the interest of puzzles, and I could make `
` only the vaguest guesses at what they were for. I fancied that if `
` I could solve their puzzles I should find myself in possession of `
` powers that might be of use against the Morlocks. `
` `
` 'Suddenly Weena came very close to my side. So suddenly that she `
` startled me. Had it not been for her I do not think I should have `
` noticed that the floor of the gallery sloped at all. [Footnote: It `
` may be, of course, that the floor did not slope, but that the museum `
` was built into the side of a hill.--ED.] The end I had come in at `
` was quite above ground, and was lit by rare slit-like windows. As `
` you went down the length, the ground came up against these windows, `
` until at last there was a pit like the "area" of a London house `
` before each, and only a narrow line of daylight at the top. I went `
` slowly along, puzzling about the machines, and had been too intent `
` upon them to notice the gradual diminution of the light, until `
` Weena's increasing apprehensions drew my attention. Then I saw that `
` the gallery ran down at last into a thick darkness. I hesitated, and `
` then, as I looked round me, I saw that the dust was less abundant `
` and its surface less even. Further away towards the dimness, it `
` appeared to be broken by a number of small narrow footprints. My `
` sense of the immediate presence of the Morlocks revived at that. `
` I felt that I was wasting my time in the academic examination of `
` machinery. I called to mind that it was already far advanced in the `
` afternoon, and that I had still no weapon, no refuge, and no means `
` of making a fire. And then down in the remote blackness of the `
` gallery I heard a peculiar pattering, and the same odd noises I had `
` heard down the well. `
` `
` 'I took Weena's hand. Then, struck with a sudden idea, I left her `
` and turned to a machine from which projected a lever not unlike `
` those in a signal-box. Clambering upon the stand, and grasping this `
` lever in my hands, I put all my weight upon it sideways. Suddenly `
` Weena, deserted in the central aisle, began to whimper. I had judged `
` the strength of the lever pretty correctly, for it snapped after a `
` minute's strain, and I rejoined her with a mace in my hand more than `
` sufficient, I judged, for any Morlock skull I might encounter. And I `
` longed very much to kill a Morlock or so. Very inhuman, you may `
` think, to want to go killing one's own descendants! But it was `
` impossible, somehow, to feel any humanity in the things. Only my `
` disinclination to leave Weena, and a persuasion that if I began to `
` slake my thirst for murder my Time Machine might suffer, restrained `
` me from going straight down the gallery and killing the brutes I `
` heard. `
` `
` 'Well, mace in one hand and Weena in the other, I went out of that `
` gallery and into another and still larger one, which at the first `
` glance reminded me of a military chapel hung with tattered flags. `
` The brown and charred rags that hung from the sides of it, I `
` presently recognized as the decaying vestiges of books. They had `
` long since dropped to pieces, and every semblance of print had left `
` them. But here and there were warped boards and cracked metallic `
` clasps that told the tale well enough. Had I been a literary man I `
` might, perhaps, have moralized upon the futility of all ambition. `
` But as it was, the thing that struck me with keenest force was the `
` enormous waste of labour to which this sombre wilderness of rotting `
` paper testified. At the time I will confess that I thought chiefly `
` of the _Philosophical Transactions_ and my own seventeen papers upon `
` physical optics. `
` `
` 'Then, going up a broad staircase, we came to what may once have `
` been a gallery of technical chemistry. And here I had not a little `
` hope of useful discoveries. Except at one end where the roof had `
` collapsed, this gallery was well preserved. I went eagerly to every `
` unbroken case. And at last, in one of the really air-tight cases, `
` I found a box of matches. Very eagerly I tried them. They were `
` perfectly good. They were not even damp. I turned to Weena. "Dance," `
` I cried to her in her own tongue. For now I had a weapon indeed `
` against the horrible creatures we feared. And so, in that derelict `
` museum, upon the thick soft carpeting of dust, to Weena's huge `
` delight, I solemnly performed a kind of composite dance, whistling `
` _The Land of the Leal_ as cheerfully as I could. In part it was a `
` modest _cancan_, in part a step dance, in part a skirt-dance (so far `
` as my tail-coat permitted), and in part original. For I am naturally `
` inventive, as you know. `
` `
` 'Now, I still think that for this box of matches to have escaped `
` the wear of time for immemorial years was a most strange, as for `
` me it was a most fortunate thing. Yet, oddly enough, I found a far `
` unlikelier substance, and that was camphor. I found it in a sealed `
` jar, that by chance, I suppose, had been really hermetically sealed. `
` I fancied at first that it was paraffin wax, and smashed the glass `
` accordingly. But the odour of camphor was unmistakable. In the `
` universal decay this volatile substance had chanced to survive, `
` perhaps through many thousands of centuries. It reminded me of a `
` sepia painting I had once seen done from the ink of a fossil `
` Belemnite that must have perished and become fossilized millions `
` of years ago. I was about to throw it away, but I remembered that `
` it was inflammable and burned with a good bright flame--was, in `
` fact, an excellent candle--and I put it in my pocket. I found no `
` explosives, however, nor any means of breaking down the bronze `
` doors. As yet my iron crowbar was the most helpful thing I had `
` chanced upon. Nevertheless I left that gallery greatly elated. `
` `
` 'I cannot tell you all the story of that long afternoon. It would `
` require a great effort of memory to recall my explorations in at all `
` the proper order. I remember a long gallery of rusting stands of `
` arms, and how I hesitated between my crowbar and a hatchet or a `
` sword. I could not carry both, however, and my bar of iron promised `
` best against the bronze gates. There were numbers of guns, pistols, `
` and rifles. The most were masses of rust, but many were of some `
` new metal, and still fairly sound. But any cartridges or powder `
` there may once have been had rotted into dust. One corner I saw was `
` charred and shattered; perhaps, I thought, by an explosion among the `
` specimens. In another place was a vast array of idols--Polynesian, `
` Mexican, Grecian, Phoenician, every country on earth I should think. `
` And here, yielding to an irresistible impulse, I wrote my name upon `
`
` building which my fancy had chosen as our dwelling. `
` `
` `
` `
` VIII `
` `
` `
` 'I found the Palace of Green Porcelain, when we approached it about `
` noon, deserted and falling into ruin. Only ragged vestiges of glass `
` remained in its windows, and great sheets of the green facing had `
` fallen away from the corroded metallic framework. It lay very high `
` upon a turfy down, and looking north-eastward before I entered it, I `
` was surprised to see a large estuary, or even creek, where I judged `
` Wandsworth and Battersea must once have been. I thought then--though `
` I never followed up the thought--of what might have happened, or `
` might be happening, to the living things in the sea. `
` `
` 'The material of the Palace proved on examination to be indeed `
` porcelain, and along the face of it I saw an inscription in some `
` unknown character. I thought, rather foolishly, that Weena might `
` help me to interpret this, but I only learned that the bare idea of `
` writing had never entered her head. She always seemed to me, I `
` fancy, more human than she was, perhaps because her affection was so `
` human. `
` `
` 'Within the big valves of the door--which were open and broken--we `
` found, instead of the customary hall, a long gallery lit by many `
` side windows. At the first glance I was reminded of a museum. `
` The tiled floor was thick with dust, and a remarkable array of `
` miscellaneous objects was shrouded in the same grey covering. Then `
` I perceived, standing strange and gaunt in the centre of the hall, `
` what was clearly the lower part of a huge skeleton. I recognized `
` by the oblique feet that it was some extinct creature after the `
` fashion of the Megatherium. The skull and the upper bones lay `
` beside it in the thick dust, and in one place, where rain-water had `
` dropped through a leak in the roof, the thing itself had been worn `
` away. Further in the gallery was the huge skeleton barrel of a `
` Brontosaurus. My museum hypothesis was confirmed. Going towards the `
` side I found what appeared to be sloping shelves, and clearing away `
` the thick dust, I found the old familiar glass cases of our own `
` time. But they must have been air-tight to judge from the fair `
` preservation of some of their contents. `
` `
` 'Clearly we stood among the ruins of some latter-day South `
` Kensington! Here, apparently, was the Palaeontological Section, `
` and a very splendid array of fossils it must have been, though the `
` inevitable process of decay that had been staved off for a time, and `
` had, through the extinction of bacteria and fungi, lost ninety-nine `
` hundredths of its force, was nevertheless, with extreme sureness if `
` with extreme slowness at work again upon all its treasures. Here and `
` there I found traces of the little people in the shape of rare `
` fossils broken to pieces or threaded in strings upon reeds. And the `
` cases had in some instances been bodily removed--by the Morlocks as `
` I judged. The place was very silent. The thick dust deadened our `
` footsteps. Weena, who had been rolling a sea urchin down the sloping `
` glass of a case, presently came, as I stared about me, and very `
` quietly took my hand and stood beside me. `
` `
` 'And at first I was so much surprised by this ancient monument of an `
` intellectual age, that I gave no thought to the possibilities it `
` presented. Even my preoccupation about the Time Machine receded a `
` little from my mind. `
` `
` 'To judge from the size of the place, this Palace of Green Porcelain `
` had a great deal more in it than a Gallery of Palaeontology; `
` possibly historical galleries; it might be, even a library! To me, `
` at least in my present circumstances, these would be vastly more `
` interesting than this spectacle of oldtime geology in decay. `
` Exploring, I found another short gallery running transversely to the `
` first. This appeared to be devoted to minerals, and the sight of a `
` block of sulphur set my mind running on gunpowder. But I could find `
` no saltpeter; indeed, no nitrates of any kind. Doubtless they had `
` deliquesced ages ago. Yet the sulphur hung in my mind, and set up a `
` train of thinking. As for the rest of the contents of that gallery, `
` though on the whole they were the best preserved of all I saw, I had `
` little interest. I am no specialist in mineralogy, and I went on `
` down a very ruinous aisle running parallel to the first hall I had `
` entered. Apparently this section had been devoted to natural `
` history, but everything had long since passed out of recognition. A `
` few shrivelled and blackened vestiges of what had once been stuffed `
` animals, desiccated mummies in jars that had once held spirit, a `
` brown dust of departed plants: that was all! I was sorry for that, `
` because I should have been glad to trace the patent readjustments by `
` which the conquest of animated nature had been attained. Then we `
` came to a gallery of simply colossal proportions, but singularly `
` ill-lit, the floor of it running downward at a slight angle from the `
` end at which I entered. At intervals white globes hung from the `
` ceiling--many of them cracked and smashed--which suggested that `
` originally the place had been artificially lit. Here I was more in `
` my element, for rising on either side of me were the huge bulks of `
` big machines, all greatly corroded and many broken down, but some `
` still fairly complete. You know I have a certain weakness for `
` mechanism, and I was inclined to linger among these; the more so as `
` for the most part they had the interest of puzzles, and I could make `
` only the vaguest guesses at what they were for. I fancied that if `
` I could solve their puzzles I should find myself in possession of `
` powers that might be of use against the Morlocks. `
` `
` 'Suddenly Weena came very close to my side. So suddenly that she `
` startled me. Had it not been for her I do not think I should have `
` noticed that the floor of the gallery sloped at all. [Footnote: It `
` may be, of course, that the floor did not slope, but that the museum `
` was built into the side of a hill.--ED.] The end I had come in at `
` was quite above ground, and was lit by rare slit-like windows. As `
` you went down the length, the ground came up against these windows, `
` until at last there was a pit like the "area" of a London house `
` before each, and only a narrow line of daylight at the top. I went `
` slowly along, puzzling about the machines, and had been too intent `
` upon them to notice the gradual diminution of the light, until `
` Weena's increasing apprehensions drew my attention. Then I saw that `
` the gallery ran down at last into a thick darkness. I hesitated, and `
` then, as I looked round me, I saw that the dust was less abundant `
` and its surface less even. Further away towards the dimness, it `
` appeared to be broken by a number of small narrow footprints. My `
` sense of the immediate presence of the Morlocks revived at that. `
` I felt that I was wasting my time in the academic examination of `
` machinery. I called to mind that it was already far advanced in the `
` afternoon, and that I had still no weapon, no refuge, and no means `
` of making a fire. And then down in the remote blackness of the `
` gallery I heard a peculiar pattering, and the same odd noises I had `
` heard down the well. `
` `
` 'I took Weena's hand. Then, struck with a sudden idea, I left her `
` and turned to a machine from which projected a lever not unlike `
` those in a signal-box. Clambering upon the stand, and grasping this `
` lever in my hands, I put all my weight upon it sideways. Suddenly `
` Weena, deserted in the central aisle, began to whimper. I had judged `
` the strength of the lever pretty correctly, for it snapped after a `
` minute's strain, and I rejoined her with a mace in my hand more than `
` sufficient, I judged, for any Morlock skull I might encounter. And I `
` longed very much to kill a Morlock or so. Very inhuman, you may `
` think, to want to go killing one's own descendants! But it was `
` impossible, somehow, to feel any humanity in the things. Only my `
` disinclination to leave Weena, and a persuasion that if I began to `
` slake my thirst for murder my Time Machine might suffer, restrained `
` me from going straight down the gallery and killing the brutes I `
` heard. `
` `
` 'Well, mace in one hand and Weena in the other, I went out of that `
` gallery and into another and still larger one, which at the first `
` glance reminded me of a military chapel hung with tattered flags. `
` The brown and charred rags that hung from the sides of it, I `
` presently recognized as the decaying vestiges of books. They had `
` long since dropped to pieces, and every semblance of print had left `
` them. But here and there were warped boards and cracked metallic `
` clasps that told the tale well enough. Had I been a literary man I `
` might, perhaps, have moralized upon the futility of all ambition. `
` But as it was, the thing that struck me with keenest force was the `
` enormous waste of labour to which this sombre wilderness of rotting `
` paper testified. At the time I will confess that I thought chiefly `
` of the _Philosophical Transactions_ and my own seventeen papers upon `
` physical optics. `
` `
` 'Then, going up a broad staircase, we came to what may once have `
` been a gallery of technical chemistry. And here I had not a little `
` hope of useful discoveries. Except at one end where the roof had `
` collapsed, this gallery was well preserved. I went eagerly to every `
` unbroken case. And at last, in one of the really air-tight cases, `
` I found a box of matches. Very eagerly I tried them. They were `
` perfectly good. They were not even damp. I turned to Weena. "Dance," `
` I cried to her in her own tongue. For now I had a weapon indeed `
` against the horrible creatures we feared. And so, in that derelict `
` museum, upon the thick soft carpeting of dust, to Weena's huge `
` delight, I solemnly performed a kind of composite dance, whistling `
` _The Land of the Leal_ as cheerfully as I could. In part it was a `
` modest _cancan_, in part a step dance, in part a skirt-dance (so far `
` as my tail-coat permitted), and in part original. For I am naturally `
` inventive, as you know. `
` `
` 'Now, I still think that for this box of matches to have escaped `
` the wear of time for immemorial years was a most strange, as for `
` me it was a most fortunate thing. Yet, oddly enough, I found a far `
` unlikelier substance, and that was camphor. I found it in a sealed `
` jar, that by chance, I suppose, had been really hermetically sealed. `
` I fancied at first that it was paraffin wax, and smashed the glass `
` accordingly. But the odour of camphor was unmistakable. In the `
` universal decay this volatile substance had chanced to survive, `
` perhaps through many thousands of centuries. It reminded me of a `
` sepia painting I had once seen done from the ink of a fossil `
` Belemnite that must have perished and become fossilized millions `
` of years ago. I was about to throw it away, but I remembered that `
` it was inflammable and burned with a good bright flame--was, in `
` fact, an excellent candle--and I put it in my pocket. I found no `
` explosives, however, nor any means of breaking down the bronze `
` doors. As yet my iron crowbar was the most helpful thing I had `
` chanced upon. Nevertheless I left that gallery greatly elated. `
` `
` 'I cannot tell you all the story of that long afternoon. It would `
` require a great effort of memory to recall my explorations in at all `
` the proper order. I remember a long gallery of rusting stands of `
` arms, and how I hesitated between my crowbar and a hatchet or a `
` sword. I could not carry both, however, and my bar of iron promised `
` best against the bronze gates. There were numbers of guns, pistols, `
` and rifles. The most were masses of rust, but many were of some `
` new metal, and still fairly sound. But any cartridges or powder `
` there may once have been had rotted into dust. One corner I saw was `
` charred and shattered; perhaps, I thought, by an explosion among the `
` specimens. In another place was a vast array of idols--Polynesian, `
` Mexican, Grecian, Phoenician, every country on earth I should think. `
` And here, yielding to an irresistible impulse, I wrote my name upon `
`