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The World Set Free-Part1_H. G. WELLS (1866-1946)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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CHAPTER THE FOURTH

THE NEW PHASE



CHAPTER THE FIFTH

THE LAST DAYS OF MARCUS KARENIN



PRELUDE

THE SUN SNARERS



Section I

THE history of mankind is the history of the attainment of



external power. Man is the tool-using, fire-making animal. From

the outset of his terrestrial career we find him supplementing



the natural strength and bodily weapons of a beast by the heat of

burning and the rough implement of stone. So he passed beyond



the ape. From that he expands. Presently he added to himself the

power of the horse and the ox, he borrowed the carrying strength



of water and the driving force of the wind, he quickened his fire

by blowing, and his simple tools, pointed first with copper and



then with iron, increased and varied and became more elaborate

and efficient. He sheltered his heat in houses and made his way



easier by paths and roads. He complicated his social

relationships and increased his efficiency by the division of



labour. He began to store up knowledge. Contrivance followed

contrivance, each making it possible for a man to do more.



Always down the lengthening record, save for a set-back ever and

again, he is doing more.... A quarter of a million years ago the



utmost man was a savage, a being scarcely articulate, sheltering

in holes in the rocks, armed with a rough-hewn flint or a



fire-pointed stick, naked, living in small family groups, killed

by some younger man so soon as his first virile activity



declined. Over most of the great wildernesses of earth you would

have sought him in vain; only in a few temperate and sub-tropical



river valleys would you have found the squatting lairs of his

little herds, a male, a few females, a child or so.



He knew no future then, no kind of life except the life he led.

He fled the cave-bear over the rocks full of iron ore and the



promise of sword and spear; he froze to death upon a ledge of

coal; he drank water muddy with the clay that would one day make



cups of porcelain; he chewed the ear of wild wheat he had plucked

and gazed with a dim speculation in his eyes at the birds that



soared beyond his reach. Or suddenly he became aware of the scent

of another male and rose up roaring, his roars the formless



precursors of moral admonitions. For he was a great

individualist, that original, he suffered none other than



himself.

So through the long generations, this heavy precursor, this



ancestor of all of us, fought and bred and perished, changing

almost imperceptibly.



Yet he changed. That keen chisel of necessity which sharpened

the tiger's claw age by age and fined down the clumsy Orchippus



to the swift grace of the horse, was at work upon him--is at work

upon him still. The clumsier and more stupidly fierce among him



were killed soonest and oftenest; the finer hand, the quicker

eye, the bigger brain, the better balanced body prevailed; age by



age, the implements were a little better made, the man a little

more delicately adjusted to his possibilities. He became more



social; his herd grew larger; no longer did each man kill or

drive out his growing sons; a system of taboos made them



tolerable to him, and they revered him alive and soon even after

he was dead, and were his allies against the beasts and the rest



of mankind. (But they were forbidden to touch the women of the

tribe, they had to go out and capture women for themselves, and



each son fled from his stepmother and hid from her lest the anger

of the Old Man should be roused. All the world over, even to this



day, these ancient inevitable taboos can be traced.) And now

instead of caves came huts and hovels, and the fire was better



tended and there were wrappings and garments; and so aided, the

creature spread into colder climates, carrying food with him,



storing food--until sometimes the neglected grass-seed sprouted

again and gave a first hint of agriculture.



And already there were the beginnings of leisure and thought.

Man began to think. There were times when he was fed, when his






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