Reading Help The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
reel; I felt a nightmare sensation of falling; and, looking round, `
` I saw the laboratory exactly as before. Had anything happened? For `
` a moment I suspected that my intellect had tricked me. Then I noted `
` the clock. A moment before, as it seemed, it had stood at a minute `
` or so past ten; now it was nearly half-past three! `
` `
` 'I drew a breath, set my teeth, gripped the starting lever with both `
` hands, and went off with a thud. The laboratory got hazy and went `
` dark. Mrs. Watchett came in and walked, apparently without seeing `
` me, towards the garden door. I suppose it took her a minute or so to `
` traverse the place, but to me she seemed to shoot across the room `
` like a rocket. I pressed the lever over to its extreme position. The `
` night came like the turning out of a lamp, and in another moment `
` came to-morrow. The laboratory grew faint and hazy, then fainter `
` and ever fainter. To-morrow night came black, then day again, night `
` again, day again, faster and faster still. An eddying murmur filled `
` my ears, and a strange, dumb confusedness descended on my mind. `
` `
` 'I am afraid I cannot convey the peculiar sensations of time `
` travelling. They are excessively unpleasant. There is a feeling `
` exactly like that one has upon a switchback--of a helpless headlong `
` motion! I felt the same horrible anticipation, too, of an imminent `
` smash. As I put on pace, night followed day like the flapping of a `
` black wing. The dim suggestion of the laboratory seemed presently to `
` fall away from me, and I saw the sun hopping swiftly across the sky, `
` leaping it every minute, and every minute marking a day. I supposed `
` the laboratory had been destroyed and I had come into the open air. `
` I had a dim impression of scaffolding, but I was already going too `
` fast to be conscious of any moving things. The slowest snail that `
` ever crawled dashed by too fast for me. The twinkling succession of `
` darkness and light was excessively painful to the eye. Then, in the `
` intermittent darknesses, I saw the moon spinning swiftly through her `
` quarters from new to full, and had a faint glimpse of the circling `
` stars. Presently, as I went on, still gaining velocity, the `
` palpitation of night and day merged into one continuous greyness; `
` the sky took on a wonderful deepness of blue, a splendid luminous `
` color like that of early twilight; the jerking sun became a streak `
` of fire, a brilliant arch, in space; the moon a fainter fluctuating `
` band; and I could see nothing of the stars, save now and then a `
` brighter circle flickering in the blue. `
` `
` 'The landscape was misty and vague. I was still on the hill-side `
` upon which this house now stands, and the shoulder rose above me `
` grey and dim. I saw trees growing and changing like puffs of vapour, `
` now brown, now green; they grew, spread, shivered, and passed away. `
` I saw huge buildings rise up faint and fair, and pass like dreams. `
` The whole surface of the earth seemed changed--melting and flowing `
` under my eyes. The little hands upon the dials that registered my `
` speed raced round faster and faster. Presently I noted that the sun `
` belt swayed up and down, from solstice to solstice, in a minute or `
` less, and that consequently my pace was over a year a minute; and `
` minute by minute the white snow flashed across the world, and `
` vanished, and was followed by the bright, brief green of spring. `
` `
` 'The unpleasant sensations of the start were less poignant now. They `
` merged at last into a kind of hysterical exhilaration. I remarked `
` indeed a clumsy swaying of the machine, for which I was unable to `
` account. But my mind was too confused to attend to it, so with a `
` kind of madness growing upon me, I flung myself into futurity. At `
` first I scarce thought of stopping, scarce thought of anything but `
` these new sensations. But presently a fresh series of impressions `
` grew up in my mind--a certain curiosity and therewith a certain `
` dread--until at last they took complete possession of me. What `
` strange developments of humanity, what wonderful advances upon our `
` rudimentary civilization, I thought, might not appear when I came to `
` look nearly into the dim elusive world that raced and fluctuated `
` before my eyes! I saw great and splendid architecture rising about `
` me, more massive than any buildings of our own time, and yet, as it `
` seemed, built of glimmer and mist. I saw a richer green flow up the `
` hill-side, and remain there, without any wintry intermission. Even `
` through the veil of my confusion the earth seemed very fair. And so `
` my mind came round to the business of stopping. `
` `
` 'The peculiar risk lay in the possibility of my finding some `
` substance in the space which I, or the machine, occupied. So long `
` as I travelled at a high velocity through time, this scarcely `
` mattered; I was, so to speak, attenuated--was slipping like a vapour `
` through the interstices of intervening substances! But to come to `
` a stop involved the jamming of myself, molecule by molecule, into `
` whatever lay in my way; meant bringing my atoms into such intimate `
` contact with those of the obstacle that a profound chemical `
` reaction--possibly a far-reaching explosion--would result, and blow `
` myself and my apparatus out of all possible dimensions--into the `
` Unknown. This possibility had occurred to me again and again while I `
` was making the machine; but then I had cheerfully accepted it as an `
` unavoidable risk--one of the risks a man has got to take! Now the `
` risk was inevitable, I no longer saw it in the same cheerful light. `
` The fact is that, insensibly, the absolute strangeness of everything, `
` the sickly jarring and swaying of the machine, above all, the `
` feeling of prolonged falling, had absolutely upset my nerve. I told `
` myself that I could never stop, and with a gust of petulance I `
` resolved to stop forthwith. Like an impatient fool, I lugged over `
` the lever, and incontinently the thing went reeling over, and I was `
` flung headlong through the air. `
` `
` 'There was the sound of a clap of thunder in my ears. I may have `
` been stunned for a moment. A pitiless hail was hissing round me, `
` and I was sitting on soft turf in front of the overset machine. `
` Everything still seemed grey, but presently I remarked that the `
` confusion in my ears was gone. I looked round me. I was on what `
` seemed to be a little lawn in a garden, surrounded by rhododendron `
` bushes, and I noticed that their mauve and purple blossoms were `
` dropping in a shower under the beating of the hail-stones. The `
` rebounding, dancing hail hung in a cloud over the machine, and drove `
` along the ground like smoke. In a moment I was wet to the skin. `
` "Fine hospitality," said I, "to a man who has travelled innumerable `
` years to see you." `
` `
` 'Presently I thought what a fool I was to get wet. I stood up and `
` looked round me. A colossal figure, carved apparently in some white `
` stone, loomed indistinctly beyond the rhododendrons through the hazy `
` downpour. But all else of the world was invisible. `
` `
` 'My sensations would be hard to describe. As the columns of hail `
` grew thinner, I saw the white figure more distinctly. It was very `
` large, for a silver birch-tree touched its shoulder. It was of white `
` marble, in shape something like a winged sphinx, but the wings, `
` instead of being carried vertically at the sides, were spread so `
` that it seemed to hover. The pedestal, it appeared to me, was of `
` bronze, and was thick with verdigris. It chanced that the face was `
` towards me; the sightless eyes seemed to watch me; there was the `
` faint shadow of a smile on the lips. It was greatly weather-worn, `
` and that imparted an unpleasant suggestion of disease. I stood `
` looking at it for a little space--half a minute, perhaps, or half an `
` hour. It seemed to advance and to recede as the hail drove before it `
` denser or thinner. At last I tore my eyes from it for a moment and `
` saw that the hail curtain had worn threadbare, and that the sky was `
` lightening with the promise of the sun. `
` `
` 'I looked up again at the crouching white shape, and the full `
` temerity of my voyage came suddenly upon me. What might appear when `
` that hazy curtain was altogether withdrawn? What might not have `
` happened to men? What if cruelty had grown into a common passion? `
` What if in this interval the race had lost its manliness and had `
` developed into something inhuman, unsympathetic, and overwhelmingly `
` powerful? I might seem some old-world savage animal, only the more `
` dreadful and disgusting for our common likeness--a foul creature to `
` be incontinently slain. `
` `
` 'Already I saw other vast shapes--huge buildings with intricate `
` parapets and tall columns, with a wooded hill-side dimly creeping `
` in upon me through the lessening storm. I was seized with a panic `
` fear. I turned frantically to the Time Machine, and strove hard to `
` readjust it. As I did so the shafts of the sun smote through the `
` thunderstorm. The grey downpour was swept aside and vanished like `
` the trailing garments of a ghost. Above me, in the intense blue `
` of the summer sky, some faint brown shreds of cloud whirled into `
` nothingness. The great buildings about me stood out clear and `
` distinct, shining with the wet of the thunderstorm, and picked out `
` in white by the unmelted hailstones piled along their courses. I `
` felt naked in a strange world. I felt as perhaps a bird may feel in `
` the clear air, knowing the hawk wings above and will swoop. My fear `
` grew to frenzy. I took a breathing space, set my teeth, and again `
` grappled fiercely, wrist and knee, with the machine. It gave under `
` my desperate onset and turned over. It struck my chin violently. One `
` hand on the saddle, the other on the lever, I stood panting heavily `
` in attitude to mount again. `
` `
` 'But with this recovery of a prompt retreat my courage recovered. I `
` looked more curiously and less fearfully at this world of the remote `
` future. In a circular opening, high up in the wall of the nearer `
` house, I saw a group of figures clad in rich soft robes. They had `
` seen me, and their faces were directed towards me. `
` `
` 'Then I heard voices approaching me. Coming through the bushes by `
` the White Sphinx were the heads and shoulders of men running. One of `
` these emerged in a pathway leading straight to the little lawn upon `
` which I stood with my machine. He was a slight creature--perhaps `
` four feet high--clad in a purple tunic, girdled at the waist with a `
` leather belt. Sandals or buskins--I could not clearly distinguish `
` which--were on his feet; his legs were bare to the knees, and his `
` head was bare. Noticing that, I noticed for the first time how warm `
` the air was. `
` `
` 'He struck me as being a very beautiful and graceful creature, but `
` indescribably frail. His flushed face reminded me of the more `
` beautiful kind of consumptive--that hectic beauty of which we used `
` to hear so much. At the sight of him I suddenly regained confidence. `
` I took my hands from the machine. `
` `
` `
` `
` IV `
` `
` `
` 'In another moment we were standing face to face, I and this fragile `
` thing out of futurity. He came straight up to me and laughed into my `
` eyes. The absence from his bearing of any sign of fear struck me at `
` once. Then he turned to the two others who were following him and `
` spoke to them in a strange and very sweet and liquid tongue. `
` `
` 'There were others coming, and presently a little group of perhaps `
` eight or ten of these exquisite creatures were about me. One of them `
` addressed me. It came into my head, oddly enough, that my voice was `
` too harsh and deep for them. So I shook my head, and, pointing to my `
` ears, shook it again. He came a step forward, hesitated, and then `
` touched my hand. Then I felt other soft little tentacles upon my `
` back and shoulders. They wanted to make sure I was real. There was `
` nothing in this at all alarming. Indeed, there was something in `
` these pretty little people that inspired confidence--a graceful `
` gentleness, a certain childlike ease. And besides, they looked so `
`
` I saw the laboratory exactly as before. Had anything happened? For `
` a moment I suspected that my intellect had tricked me. Then I noted `
` the clock. A moment before, as it seemed, it had stood at a minute `
` or so past ten; now it was nearly half-past three! `
` `
` 'I drew a breath, set my teeth, gripped the starting lever with both `
` hands, and went off with a thud. The laboratory got hazy and went `
` dark. Mrs. Watchett came in and walked, apparently without seeing `
` me, towards the garden door. I suppose it took her a minute or so to `
` traverse the place, but to me she seemed to shoot across the room `
` like a rocket. I pressed the lever over to its extreme position. The `
` night came like the turning out of a lamp, and in another moment `
` came to-morrow. The laboratory grew faint and hazy, then fainter `
` and ever fainter. To-morrow night came black, then day again, night `
` again, day again, faster and faster still. An eddying murmur filled `
` my ears, and a strange, dumb confusedness descended on my mind. `
` `
` 'I am afraid I cannot convey the peculiar sensations of time `
` travelling. They are excessively unpleasant. There is a feeling `
` exactly like that one has upon a switchback--of a helpless headlong `
` motion! I felt the same horrible anticipation, too, of an imminent `
` smash. As I put on pace, night followed day like the flapping of a `
` black wing. The dim suggestion of the laboratory seemed presently to `
` fall away from me, and I saw the sun hopping swiftly across the sky, `
` leaping it every minute, and every minute marking a day. I supposed `
` the laboratory had been destroyed and I had come into the open air. `
` I had a dim impression of scaffolding, but I was already going too `
` fast to be conscious of any moving things. The slowest snail that `
` ever crawled dashed by too fast for me. The twinkling succession of `
` darkness and light was excessively painful to the eye. Then, in the `
` intermittent darknesses, I saw the moon spinning swiftly through her `
` quarters from new to full, and had a faint glimpse of the circling `
` stars. Presently, as I went on, still gaining velocity, the `
` palpitation of night and day merged into one continuous greyness; `
` the sky took on a wonderful deepness of blue, a splendid luminous `
` color like that of early twilight; the jerking sun became a streak `
` of fire, a brilliant arch, in space; the moon a fainter fluctuating `
` band; and I could see nothing of the stars, save now and then a `
` brighter circle flickering in the blue. `
` `
` 'The landscape was misty and vague. I was still on the hill-side `
` upon which this house now stands, and the shoulder rose above me `
` grey and dim. I saw trees growing and changing like puffs of vapour, `
` now brown, now green; they grew, spread, shivered, and passed away. `
` I saw huge buildings rise up faint and fair, and pass like dreams. `
` The whole surface of the earth seemed changed--melting and flowing `
` under my eyes. The little hands upon the dials that registered my `
` speed raced round faster and faster. Presently I noted that the sun `
` belt swayed up and down, from solstice to solstice, in a minute or `
` less, and that consequently my pace was over a year a minute; and `
` minute by minute the white snow flashed across the world, and `
` vanished, and was followed by the bright, brief green of spring. `
` `
` 'The unpleasant sensations of the start were less poignant now. They `
` merged at last into a kind of hysterical exhilaration. I remarked `
` indeed a clumsy swaying of the machine, for which I was unable to `
` account. But my mind was too confused to attend to it, so with a `
` kind of madness growing upon me, I flung myself into futurity. At `
` first I scarce thought of stopping, scarce thought of anything but `
` these new sensations. But presently a fresh series of impressions `
` grew up in my mind--a certain curiosity and therewith a certain `
` dread--until at last they took complete possession of me. What `
` strange developments of humanity, what wonderful advances upon our `
` rudimentary civilization, I thought, might not appear when I came to `
` look nearly into the dim elusive world that raced and fluctuated `
` before my eyes! I saw great and splendid architecture rising about `
` me, more massive than any buildings of our own time, and yet, as it `
` seemed, built of glimmer and mist. I saw a richer green flow up the `
` hill-side, and remain there, without any wintry intermission. Even `
` through the veil of my confusion the earth seemed very fair. And so `
` my mind came round to the business of stopping. `
` `
` 'The peculiar risk lay in the possibility of my finding some `
` substance in the space which I, or the machine, occupied. So long `
` as I travelled at a high velocity through time, this scarcely `
` mattered; I was, so to speak, attenuated--was slipping like a vapour `
` through the interstices of intervening substances! But to come to `
` a stop involved the jamming of myself, molecule by molecule, into `
` whatever lay in my way; meant bringing my atoms into such intimate `
` contact with those of the obstacle that a profound chemical `
` reaction--possibly a far-reaching explosion--would result, and blow `
` myself and my apparatus out of all possible dimensions--into the `
` Unknown. This possibility had occurred to me again and again while I `
` was making the machine; but then I had cheerfully accepted it as an `
` unavoidable risk--one of the risks a man has got to take! Now the `
` risk was inevitable, I no longer saw it in the same cheerful light. `
` The fact is that, insensibly, the absolute strangeness of everything, `
` the sickly jarring and swaying of the machine, above all, the `
` feeling of prolonged falling, had absolutely upset my nerve. I told `
` myself that I could never stop, and with a gust of petulance I `
` resolved to stop forthwith. Like an impatient fool, I lugged over `
` the lever, and incontinently the thing went reeling over, and I was `
` flung headlong through the air. `
` `
` 'There was the sound of a clap of thunder in my ears. I may have `
` been stunned for a moment. A pitiless hail was hissing round me, `
` and I was sitting on soft turf in front of the overset machine. `
` Everything still seemed grey, but presently I remarked that the `
` confusion in my ears was gone. I looked round me. I was on what `
` seemed to be a little lawn in a garden, surrounded by rhododendron `
` bushes, and I noticed that their mauve and purple blossoms were `
` dropping in a shower under the beating of the hail-stones. The `
` rebounding, dancing hail hung in a cloud over the machine, and drove `
` along the ground like smoke. In a moment I was wet to the skin. `
` "Fine hospitality," said I, "to a man who has travelled innumerable `
` years to see you." `
` `
` 'Presently I thought what a fool I was to get wet. I stood up and `
` looked round me. A colossal figure, carved apparently in some white `
` stone, loomed indistinctly beyond the rhododendrons through the hazy `
` downpour. But all else of the world was invisible. `
` `
` 'My sensations would be hard to describe. As the columns of hail `
` grew thinner, I saw the white figure more distinctly. It was very `
` large, for a silver birch-tree touched its shoulder. It was of white `
` marble, in shape something like a winged sphinx, but the wings, `
` instead of being carried vertically at the sides, were spread so `
` that it seemed to hover. The pedestal, it appeared to me, was of `
` bronze, and was thick with verdigris. It chanced that the face was `
` towards me; the sightless eyes seemed to watch me; there was the `
` faint shadow of a smile on the lips. It was greatly weather-worn, `
` and that imparted an unpleasant suggestion of disease. I stood `
` looking at it for a little space--half a minute, perhaps, or half an `
` hour. It seemed to advance and to recede as the hail drove before it `
` denser or thinner. At last I tore my eyes from it for a moment and `
` saw that the hail curtain had worn threadbare, and that the sky was `
` lightening with the promise of the sun. `
` `
` 'I looked up again at the crouching white shape, and the full `
` temerity of my voyage came suddenly upon me. What might appear when `
` that hazy curtain was altogether withdrawn? What might not have `
` happened to men? What if cruelty had grown into a common passion? `
` What if in this interval the race had lost its manliness and had `
` developed into something inhuman, unsympathetic, and overwhelmingly `
` powerful? I might seem some old-world savage animal, only the more `
` dreadful and disgusting for our common likeness--a foul creature to `
` be incontinently slain. `
` `
` 'Already I saw other vast shapes--huge buildings with intricate `
` parapets and tall columns, with a wooded hill-side dimly creeping `
` in upon me through the lessening storm. I was seized with a panic `
` fear. I turned frantically to the Time Machine, and strove hard to `
` readjust it. As I did so the shafts of the sun smote through the `
` thunderstorm. The grey downpour was swept aside and vanished like `
` the trailing garments of a ghost. Above me, in the intense blue `
` of the summer sky, some faint brown shreds of cloud whirled into `
` nothingness. The great buildings about me stood out clear and `
` distinct, shining with the wet of the thunderstorm, and picked out `
` in white by the unmelted hailstones piled along their courses. I `
` felt naked in a strange world. I felt as perhaps a bird may feel in `
` the clear air, knowing the hawk wings above and will swoop. My fear `
` grew to frenzy. I took a breathing space, set my teeth, and again `
` grappled fiercely, wrist and knee, with the machine. It gave under `
` my desperate onset and turned over. It struck my chin violently. One `
` hand on the saddle, the other on the lever, I stood panting heavily `
` in attitude to mount again. `
` `
` 'But with this recovery of a prompt retreat my courage recovered. I `
` looked more curiously and less fearfully at this world of the remote `
` future. In a circular opening, high up in the wall of the nearer `
` house, I saw a group of figures clad in rich soft robes. They had `
` seen me, and their faces were directed towards me. `
` `
` 'Then I heard voices approaching me. Coming through the bushes by `
` the White Sphinx were the heads and shoulders of men running. One of `
` these emerged in a pathway leading straight to the little lawn upon `
` which I stood with my machine. He was a slight creature--perhaps `
` four feet high--clad in a purple tunic, girdled at the waist with a `
` leather belt. Sandals or buskins--I could not clearly distinguish `
` which--were on his feet; his legs were bare to the knees, and his `
` head was bare. Noticing that, I noticed for the first time how warm `
` the air was. `
` `
` 'He struck me as being a very beautiful and graceful creature, but `
` indescribably frail. His flushed face reminded me of the more `
` beautiful kind of consumptive--that hectic beauty of which we used `
` to hear so much. At the sight of him I suddenly regained confidence. `
` I took my hands from the machine. `
` `
` `
` `
` IV `
` `
` `
` 'In another moment we were standing face to face, I and this fragile `
` thing out of futurity. He came straight up to me and laughed into my `
` eyes. The absence from his bearing of any sign of fear struck me at `
` once. Then he turned to the two others who were following him and `
` spoke to them in a strange and very sweet and liquid tongue. `
` `
` 'There were others coming, and presently a little group of perhaps `
` eight or ten of these exquisite creatures were about me. One of them `
` addressed me. It came into my head, oddly enough, that my voice was `
` too harsh and deep for them. So I shook my head, and, pointing to my `
` ears, shook it again. He came a step forward, hesitated, and then `
` touched my hand. Then I felt other soft little tentacles upon my `
` back and shoulders. They wanted to make sure I was real. There was `
` nothing in this at all alarming. Indeed, there was something in `
` these pretty little people that inspired confidence--a graceful `
` gentleness, a certain childlike ease. And besides, they looked so `
`