Anthem

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Anthem by Anne Ran, chapter one. It is a sin to write this.
It is a sin to think wordsno others think, and to put
them down on a paper no othersare to see. It is base and
evil. It is as if weare speaking alone to no ears but our

(00:21):
own. And we know well thatthere is no transgression blacker than to do
or think alone. We have brokenthe laws. The laws say that men
may not write unless the Council ofVocations bid them. So may we be
forgiven. But this is not theonly sin upon us. We have committed

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a greater crime. And for thiscrime there is no name. What punishment
awaits us if it be discovered,we know not, for no such crime
has come in the memory of men, and there are no laws to provide
for it. It is dark here. The flame of the candle stands still
in the air. Nothing moves inthis tunnel save our hand on the paper.

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We are alone here under the earth. It is a fearful word alone.
The laws say that none among menmay be alone, ever and at
any time, for this is thegreat transgression and the root of all evil.
But we have broken many laws,and now there is nothing here save

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our one body and it is strangeto see only two legs stretched on the
ground, and on the wall beforeus the shadow of our one head.
The walls are cracked, and waterruns upon them in thin threads, without
sound, black and glistening as blood. We stole the candle from the larder
of the home of the street sweepers. We shall be sentenced to ten years

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in the palace of corrective detention ifit be discovered. But this matters not.
It matters only that the light isprecious, and we should not waste
it to write when we need itfor that work, which is our crime.
Nothing matters save the work, oursecret, our evil, our precious
work. Still we must also write, for may the council have mercy upon

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us. We wish to speak foronce to no ears, but our own.
Our name is equality seven two fivetwo one, as it is written
on the iron bracelet which all menwear on their left wrist, with their
names upon it. We are twentyone years old. We are six feet

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tall, and this is a burden, for there are not many men who
are six feet tall. Ever,have the teachers and leaders pointed to us
and frowned and said, there isevil in your bones? Equality seven two
five two one. For your bodyhas grown beyond the bodies of your brothers.
But we cannot change our bones norour body. We were born with

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a curse has always driven us tothoughts which are forbidden. It has always
given us wishes which men may notwish. We know that we are evil,
but there is no will in usand no power to resist it.
This is our wonder and our secretfear, that we know and do not
resist. We strive to be likeall of our brother men, for all

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men must be alike. Over theportals of the Palace of the World Council,
there are words cut in marble whichwe are required to repeat to ourselves
whenever we are tempted. We areone and all, and all in one.
There are no men but only theGreat We one, indivisible and forever.

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We repeat this to ourselves, butit helps us not. These words
were cut long ago. There isa green mold in the grooves of the
letters, and yellow streaks in themarbles, which come from more years than
men could count. And these wordsare truth, for they are written on

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the Palace of the World Council,and the World Council is the body of
all truth. Thus has it beenever since the Great Rebirth, and farther
back than that no memory can reach. But we must never speak of the
times before the Great Rebirth, elsewe are sentenced to three years in the
palace of corrective attention. It's onlythe old ones who whisper about it.

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In the evenings, in the homeof the useless, they whisper many strange
things, of the towers which roseto the sky in those unmentionable times,
and of the wagons which moved withouthorses, and of the lights which burned
without flame. But those times wereevil, and those times passed away when

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men saw the great truth, whichis this, that all men are won,
and that there is no will savethe will of all men. Together,
all men are good and wise.It is only we equality seven two
five two one, we alone whowere born with a curse, for we

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are not like our brothers. Andas we look back upon our life,
we see that it has ever beenthus, and that it has brought us,
step by step to our last supremetransgression, our crime of crimes.
Hidden here under the ground, weremember the home of the infants, where

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we lived till we were five yearsold, together with all the children of
the city who had been born inthe same year. The sleeping halls there
were white and clean and bare ofall things save one hundred beds. We
were just like all our brothers.Then, save for one transgression, we
fought with our bathers. There werefew offenses blacker than to fight with our

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brothers at any age and for anycause whatsoever. The counsel of the home
told us so, And of allthe children of that year, we were
locked in the cellar most often.When we were five years old, we
were sent to the home of thestudents, where they were ten wards for

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our ten years of learning. Menmust learn till they reached their fifteenth year.
Then they go to work in thehome of the students. We arose
when the big bell rang in thetower, and we went to our beds.
When it rang again, before weremoved our garments, we stood in
the great sleeping hall, and weraised our right arms, and we sat

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all together with the three teachers atthe head. We are nothing mankind is
all by the grace of our brothers, or we allowed our lives. We
exist through by and for our brothers, who are the state Amen. Then

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we slept the sleeping halls were whiteand clean and bare of all things save
one hundred beds. We Equality seventwo five two one were not happy in
those years in the home of thestudents. It was not that the learning
was too hard for us. Itwas that the learning was too easy.

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This is a great sin to beborn with a head which is too quick.
It is not good to be differentfrom our brothers, but it is
evil to be superior to them.The teachers told us so, and they
frowned when they looked upon us.So we fought against this curse. We
tried to forget our lessons, butwe always remembered. We tried not to

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understand what the teachers taught, butwe always understood it before the teachers had
spoken. We looked upon Union fivethree nine nine two, who were a
pair, oh boy with only halfa brain, and we tried to say
and do as they did, thatwe might be like them, like Union
five three nine nine two. Butsomehow the teachers knew that we were not,

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and we were lashed more often thanall the other children. The teachers
were just for they had been appointedby the councils, and the counsels are
the voice of all justice, forthey are the voice of all men.
And if sometimes, in the secretdarkness of our heart we regret that which
befell us on our fifteenth birthday,we knew that it was through our own

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guilt we had broken a law,for we had not paid heed to the
words of our teachers. The teachershad said to us, all, dare
not choose in your mind the workyou would like to do. When you
leave the home of the students,you shall do what the Council of Vocations
shall prescribe for you. The Councilof Vocation knows in its great wisdom where

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you are needed by your brother men, better than you can know it in
your unworthy little minds. And ifyou are not needed by your brother men,
there is no reason for you toburden the earth with your bodies.
We knew this well in the yearsof our childhood. But our curse broke

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our will. We were guilty,and we confessed it here. We were
guilty of the great transgression of preference. We preferred some work and some lessons
to others. We did not listenwell to the history of the councils elected
since the Great Rebirth, but weloved the science of things we wish to
know. We wish to know aboutall the things which make the earth around

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us. We ask so many questionsthat the teachers forbade it. We think
that there are mysteries in the skyand under the water, and in the
plant which grow. But the Councilof Scholars has said that there are no
mysteries. And the Council of Scholarsknows all things. And we learned much

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from our teachers. We learned thatthe earth is flat, and that the
sun revolves around it, which causesthe day and night. We learned the
names of all the winds which blowover the seas and push the sails of
our great ships. We learned howto bleed men, to cure them of
all ailments. We loved the scienceof things. And in the darkness,

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in the secret hour, when weawoke in the night, and there were
no brothers around us, but onlytheir shapes in the beds and their snores,
we closed our eyes, and weheld our lips shut, and we
stopped our breath, that no shuddermight let our brothers see or hear or
guess. And we thought that wewished to be sent to the home of

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the scholars when our time would come. All of the great modern inventions come
from the home of scholars, suchas the newest one, which was found
only one hundred years ago, ofhow to make candles from wax and string,
also how to make glass, whichis put in our windows to protect

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us from the rain. To findthese things, the scholars must study the
earth and learn from the rivers,from the sands, from the winds and
the rocks. And if we wentto the home of scholars, we could
learn from these. Also we couldask questions of these, for they do
not forbid questions, and questions giveus no rest. We know not why

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our curse makes us seek. Weknow not whatever and ever, but we
cannot resist it. It whispers tous that there are great things on this
earth of ours, that we mustknow them. We ask why must we
know? But it has no answerto give us. We must know that

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we may know. So we wishedto be sent to the home of scholars.
We wished it so much that ourhands trembled under the blankets in the
night, and we bit our armto stop that other pain which we could
not endure. It was evil,and we dared not face our brothers in
the morning, for men may wishnothing for themselves, and we were punished

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when the Council of Vocations came togive us our life mandates, which tell
those who reached their fifteenth year whattheir work is to be for the rest
of their days. The Council ofVocations came in on the first day of
spring, and they sat in theGreat Hall, and we who were fifteen,
and all the teachers came into theGreat Hall, and the Council of

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Vocations sat on a high dais,and they had but two words to speak
to each of the students. Theycalled the students' names, and when the
students stepped before them, one afteranother, the council said carpenter or doctor,
or cook or leader. Then eachstudent raised their right arm and said,

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the will of our brothers be done. Now. If the council said
carpenter or cook, the students soassigned go to work and do not study
any further. But if the councilhas said Leader, then those students go
to the home of the Leaders,which is the greatest house in the city,
for it has three stories, andthere they study for many years,

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so that they may become candidates andbe elected to the City Council, and
the State Council and the World Councilby a free and general vote of all
men. But we wish not tobe a leader, even though it is
a great honor. We wish tobe a scholar. So we awaited our
turn in the Great Hall, andthen we heard the Council of Vocations call

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our name equality seven two five twoOne walked to the dais, and our
legs did not tremble, and welooked up at the council. There were
five members of the council, threeof the male gender and two of the
female. Their hair was white,and their faces were cracked as the clay

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of a dry river bed. Theywere old. They seemed older than the
marble of the Temple of the WorldCouncil. They sat before us, and
they did not move, and wesaw no breath to stir the folds of
their white togas. But we knewthat they were alive, for a finger
of the hand of the oldest rosepointed to us and fell down again.

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This was the only thing which moved, for the lips of the oldest did
not move. As they said,street sweeper, We felt the cords of
our neck grow tight as our headrose higher to look upon the faces of
the council, and we were happy. We knew we had been guilty,

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but now we had a way toatone for it. We would accept our
life mandate, and we would workfor our brothers gladly and willingly, and
we would erase our sin against them, which they did not know, but
we knew, for we were happyand proud of ourselves and of the victory
over ourselves. We raised our rightarm and we spoke, and our voice

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was the clearest, the steadiest voicein the hall that day, and we
said, the will of our brothersbe done. And we looked straight into
the eyes of the council, Buttheir eyes were as cold as blue glass
buttons. So we went into thehome of the street sweepers. It is
a gray house on a narrow street. There is a sun dial in the

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courtyard by which the council of thehome can tell the hours of the day
and when to ring the bell.When the bell rings, we arise from
our beds. The sky is greenand cold in our windows to the east,
and the shadow on the sun dialmarks off a half hour. While
we dress and eat our breakfast inthe dining hall, where there are five

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long tables with twenty clay plates andtwenty clay cups on each table. Then
we go to work in the streetsof the city with our brooms and our
rakes. In five hours, whenthe sun is high, we return to
the home and we eat our middaymeal, for which one half hour is

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allowed. Then we go to workagain. In five hours, the shadows
are blue on the pavements, andthe sky is blue with a deep brightness
which is not bright. We comeback to have our dinner, which last
one hour. Then the bell ringsand we walk in a straight column to
one of the city halls for thesocial meeting. Other columns of men arrive

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from the homes of the different trades. The candles are lit, and the
councils of the different homes stand ina pulpit, and they speak to us
of our duties and our brother men. Then visiting leaders mount the pulpit and
they read to us the speeches whichwere made in the city council that day.
For the city council represents all men, and all men must know.

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Then we sing hymns, the Hymnof Brotherhood, the Hymn of Equality,
and the hymn of the collective spirit. The sky is a soggy purple when
we return to the home. Thenthe bell rings, and we walk in
a straight column to the city theaterfor three hours of social recreation. Their
a play is shown upon the stage, with two great choruses from the home

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of the actors, which speak andanswer all together in two great voices.
The plays are about toil, andhow good it is. Then we walk
back to the home in a straightcolumn. The sky is like a black
sieve, pierced by silver drops thattremble, ready to burst through. The

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moths beat against the street lanterns.We go to our beds, and we
sleep till the bell rings again.The sleeping halls are white and clean and
bare of all things save one hundredbeds. Thus we have lived each day
of four years until two springs ago, when our crime happened. Thus must

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all men live until they are forty. At forty they're worn out. At
forty they are sent to the homeof the useless, where the old ones
live. The old ones do notwork, for the state takes care of
them. They sit in the sunand summer, and they sit by the
fire in winter. They do notspeak often, for they are weary.
The old ones know that they aresoon to die. When a miracle happens

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and some one lives to be fortyfive, they are the ancient ones,
and children stare at them when passingby the home of the useless. Such
is to be our life, asthat of all our brothers, and of
the brothers who came before us.Such would have been our life had we
not committed our crime, which haschanged all things for us. And it

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was our curse which drove us toour crime. We had been a good
street sweeper, and like all ourbrothers, street sweepers, save for our
cursed wish to know. We lookedtoo long at the stars at night,
and at the trees and the earth. And when we cleaned the yard of
the home of the scholars, wegathered the glass vials, the pieces of

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metal, the dried bones which theyhad discarded. We wished to keep these
things and to study them, butwe had no place to hide them.
So we carried them to the citycesspool, and then we made the discovery.
It was on a day of thespring before last. We street sweepers
worked in brigades of three, andwe were with Union five three nine ninety

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two. They of the half brain, and with internet National for eight eight
one eight now Union five three nineninety two were a sickly lad, and
sometimes they were stricken with convulsions,when their mouth froths and their eyes turn
white. But International four eight eightone eight are different. They are tall,

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strong youth, and in their eyesare like fireflies, for there is
laughter in their eyes. We cannotlook upon International four eight eight one eight
and not smile and answer for this. They were not liked in the home
of the students, as it werenot proper to smile without reason. And

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also they were not liked because theytook pieces of coal, and they drew
pictures upon the walls, and theywere pictures which made men laugh. But
it is only our brothers in thehome of the artists, which are permitted
to draw pictures. So International foureight eight one eight were sent to the

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home of the street sweepers like ourselvesInternational four eight eight one eight, And
we are friends. This is anevil thing to say, for it is
a great transgression, the great transgressionof preference, to love any among men
better than the others. Since wemust love all men, and all men

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are of our friends, so Internationalfour eight eight one eight. And we
have never spoken of it, butwe know, we know when we look
into each other's eyes, and whenwe look thus without words, we both
know other things, also, strangethings for which there are no words.

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And these things frighten us. Soon that day of the spring before last
Union five three nine ninety two,we're stricken with convulsions on the edge to
the city, near the city theater. We left them to lie in the
shade of the theater tent, andwe went with International four eight eight one
eight to finish our work. Wecame together to the great ravine behind the

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theater. It is empty save fortrees and weeds. Behind the ravine there
is a plane, and behind theplane there lies the uncharted forest, about
which men must not think. Wewere gathering the papers and the rags which
the wind had blown from the theaterwhen we saw an iron bar among the

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weeds. It was old and rustedby many rains. We pulled with all
our strength, but we could notmove it. So we called International four
eight eight one eight, and togetherwe scraped the earth around the bar.
Of a sudden, the earth fellin before us, and we saw an
old iron grill over a black holeeNational four eight eight one eight. Step

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back, but we pulled at thegrill and it gave way. And then
we saw iron rings as steps leadingdown a shaft into a darkness without bottom.
We shall go down, we saidto International four eight eight one eight.
It is forbidden. They answered,We said, the Council does not

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know of this hole, so itcannot be forbidden. And they answered,
since the Council does not know ofthis hole, there could be no law
permitting to enter it, and everythingwhich is not permitted by law is forbidden.
But we said we shall go.Nonetheless, they were frightened, but
they stood by and watched us go. We hung on the iron rings with

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our hands and our feet. Wecould see nothing below us, and above
us. The hole open upon thesky grew smaller and smaller, till it
came to be the size of abutton. But still we went down.
Then our foot touched the ground.We rubbed our eyes, for we could
not see. Then our eyes becameused to the darkness, and we could

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not believe what we saw. Noman known to us could have built this
place, nor the men known toour brothers who lived before us, and
yet it was built by men.It was a great tunnel. Its walls
were hard and smooth to the touch. It felt like stone, but it

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wasn't stone. On the ground therewere long, thin tracts of iron,
but it was not iron. Itfelt smooth and cold as glass. We
knelt and we crawled forward, ourhand groping along the iron line to see
where it would lead. But therewas an unbroken night ahead. Only the
iron tracks glowed through it, straightand white, calling us to follow.

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But we could not follow, forwe were losing the puddle of light behind
us. So we turned and wecrawled back, our hand on the iron
line, and our heart beat inour fingertips without reason. And then we
knew, We knew suddenly that thisplace was left from the unmentionable times.
So it was true, and thosetimes had been, and all the wonders

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of those times, hundreds upon hundredsof years ago. Men knew secrets which
we have lost. And we thoughtthis is a foul place. They are
damned to touch the things of thedimensionable times. But our hand, which
followed the track as we crawled,clung to the iron as if it would

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not leave it, as if theskin of our hand were thirsty and begging
of the metal, some secret fluidbeating its coldness, we returned to the
earth. International four eight eight oneeight looked upon us and stepped back.
Equality seven two five two one.They said, your face is white.
But we could not speak, andwe stood looking upon them. They backed

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away as if they dared not touchus. Then they smiled, but it
was not a gay smile. Itwas lost and pleading. But still we
could not speak. Then they said, we shall report our find to the
city council, and both of uswill be rewarded. And then we spoke.

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Our voice was hard, and therewas no mercy in our voice.
We said, we shall not reportour find to the city council. We
shall not report it to any men. They raised their hands to their ears,
for never had they heard such wordsas these. International four eight eight
one eight. We asked, willyou report us to the council and see

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us lashed to death before your eyes? They stood straight of a sudden,
and they answered, rather would wedie? Then we said, keep silent.
This place is ours. This placebelongs to us Equality seven two five
two one, and to no othermen on earth. And if we ever

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surrender it, we shall surrender ourlife with it. Also then we saw
that the eyes of International four eighteight one eight were fold to the lids
with tears that dared not drop.They whispered, and their voice trembled,
so that their words lost all shape. The will of the Council is above

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all things, for it is thewill of our brothers, which is holy.
But if you wish it so,we shall obey you. Rather shall
we be evil with you than goodwith all our brothers. May the Council
have mercy upon both our hearts.Then we walked away together and back to
the home of the street sweepers,and we walked in silence. Thus did

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it come to pass that each night, when the stars are high and the
streets sweepers sit in the city theater, we equality seven two five two one
steal out and run through the darknessto our place. It is easy to
leave the theater. When the candlesare blown and the actors come on to
the stage. No eyes can seeus as we crawl under our seat and

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under the cloth of the tent.Later, it is easy to steal through
the shadows and fall in nine nextto International four eight eight one eight.
As the column leaves the theater,it is dark in the streets, and
there are no men about, forno men may walk through the city when
they have no mission to walk there. Each night we run to the ravine

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and we remove the stones we havepiled upon the iron grill to hide it
from men. Each night, forthree hours we are under the earth alone.
We have stolen candles from the homeof the street sweepers. We have
stolen flints and knives and paper,and we have brought them to this place.

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We have stolen glass vials and powdersand acids from the home of the
scholars. Now we sit in thetunnel for three hours each night, and
we study. We melt strange metals, and we mix acids, and we
cut open the bodies of the animalswhich we find in the city cesspool.
We have built an oven of thebricks we gathered in the streets. We

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burn the wood we find in theravine. The fire flickers in the oven,
and the blue shadows dance upon thewalls, and there is no sound
of men to disturb us. Wehave stolen manuscripts. This is a great
offense. Manuscripts are precious for ourbrothers in the home of the clerks spend

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one year to copy one single scriptin their clear handwriting. Manuscripts are rare,
and they are kept in the homeof the scholars. So we sit
under the earth and we read thestolen scripts. Two years have passed since
we found this place, and inthese two years we have learned more than
we had learned in the ten yearsat the home of the students. We

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have learned things which are not inthe scripts. We have solved secrets of
which the scholars have no knowledge.We have come to see how great is
the unexplored, and how many lifetimeswill not bring us to the end of
our quest. We wish nothing saveto be alone and to learn, and
to feel as if with each dayour sight were growing sharper than the hawks

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and clearer than the rock crystal.Strange are the ways of evil. We
are false in the faces of ourbrothers. We are defying the will of
our councils. We alone, ofthe thousands who walk the earth, We
alone, in this hour, aredoing a work which has no purpose save
that we wish to do it.The evil of our crime is not for

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the human mind to probe the natureof our punishment, if it be discovered,
is not free for the human heartto ponder. Never not in the
memory of the ancient ones. Ancients, never have men done what we are
doing. And yet there is noshame in us and no regret. We

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say to ourselves that we are awretch and a traitor, but we feel
no burden upon our spirit, andno fear in our heart. And it
seems to us that our spirit isclear as a lake, troubled by no
eyes save those of the sun.And in our heart strange are the ways

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of evil. In our heart thereis the first peace we have known in
twenty years. End of Chapter one, Chapter two. Liberty five three thousand,
Liberty five three thousand, Liberty fivethree thousand. We wish to write

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this name, we wish to speakit, but we dare not speak it
above a whisper. For men areforbidden to take notice of women, and
women are forbidden to take notice ofmen. But we think of one among
women, those whose name is Liberty, five three thousand, and we think
of no others. The women whohave been assigned to work the soil live

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in the homes of the peasants beyondthe city. Where the city ends,
there is a great road winding offto the north, and we street sweepers
must keep this road clean. Forthe first mile post. There is a
hedge along the road, and beyondthe hedge lies the fields. The fields
are black and plowed, and theylie like a great fan before us,

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furrows gathered in some hand beyond thesky, spreading forth from that hand,
opening wide apart as they come towardus, like black pleats that sparkle with
thin green spangles. Women work inthe fields, and their white tunics in
the wind are like the wings ofsea gulls beating over the black soil.

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And there it was that we sawLiberty five three thousand, walking along the
furrows. Their body was straight andthin as a blade of iron. Their
eyes were dark and hard and glowing, with no fear in them, no
kindness, and no guilt. Theirhair was golden as the sun. Their
hair flew in the wind, shiningand wild, as if it defied men

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to restrain it. They threw seedsfrom their hands as if they were designed
to fling a scornful gift, andthe earth was a beggar under their feet.
We stood still for the first timewe knew fear and then pain,
and we stood still that we mightnot spill this pain, more precious than

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pleasure. Then we heard a voidfrom the others call their name, Liberty
five three thousand, and they turnedand walked back. Thus we learned their
name, and we stood watching themgo till their white tunic was lost in
the blue mist. And the followingday, as we came to the northern
road, we kept our eyes uponLiberty five three thousand in the field.

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And each day thereafter we knew theillness of waiting for our hour on the
northern road, and there we lookedat Liberty five three thousand. Each day.
We knew not whether they looked atus also, but we think they
did. Then one day they cameclose to the hedge, and suddenly they
turned to us. They turned ina whirl, and the movement of their

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body stopped, as if slashed off, as suddenly as it had started.
They stood still as a stone,and they looked straight upon us, straight
in our eyes. There was nosmile on their face, and no welcome,
but their face was taut and theireyes were dark. Then they turned
its swiftly and they walked away fromus. But the following day, when

(35:07):
we came to the road, theysmiled. They smiled to us and for
us, and we smiled in answer. Their head fell back, and their
arms fell, as if their armsand their thin white neck were stricken.
Suddenly, with a great lassitude,they were not looking upon us, but
upon the sky. Then they glancedat us over their shoulder, and we

(35:30):
felt as if a hand had touchedour body, slipping softly from our lips
to our feet. Every morning thereafterwe greeted each other with our eyes.
We dared not speak. It isa transgression to speak to men of other
trades, save in groups at thesocial meetings. But once standing at the
hedge, we raised our hand toour forehead and then moved it slowly,

(35:53):
palm down towards Liberty five three thousand. Had the others seen it, they
would have guessed nothing, or itlooked only as if we were shading our
eyes for the sun. But Libertyfive to three sat thousand saw it and
understood. They raised their hand totheir forehead and moved it as we had.
Thus each day we greet Liberty fivethree thousand, and they answer,

(36:15):
And no men can suspect we donot wonder at this new sin of ours.
It is our second transgression of preference. For we do not think of
all of the brothers as we must, but only of one, and their
name is Liberty five three thousand.We do not think of why we think
of them. We do not knowwhy. When we think of them,

(36:36):
we feel of a sudden that theearth is good and that it is not
a burden to live. We donot think of them as Liberty five three
thousand any longer. We have giventhem a name in our thoughts. We
call them the Golden One. Butit is a sin to give men other
names which distinguished them from other men. Yet we call them the Golden One.

(37:00):
But they are not like the others. The Golden One are not like
the others. And we take noheed of the law which says that men
may not think of women save thetime of mating. This is the time
each spring when all the men olderthan twenty and all the women older than
eighteen, are sent for one nightto the city palace of Mating, and

(37:21):
each of the men have one ofthe women assigned to them by the Council
of Eugenics. Children are born eachwinter, but women never see their children,
and children never know their parents.Twice have we been sent to the
Palace of mating. But it isan ugly and shameful matter of which we
do not like to think. Wehad broken so many laws, and today

(37:44):
we have broken one more. Todaywe spoke to the Golden One. The
other women were far off in thefield when we stopped at the hedge by
the side of the road. TheGolden One were kneeling along the moat which
runs through the field, and thedrops of water falling from their hands as
they raised the water to their lipswere like sparks of fire in the sun.

(38:05):
Then the Golden One saw us,and they did not move, kneeling
there looking at us, and circlesof light played upon their white tunic from
the sun on the water of themoat, and one sparkling drop fell from
a finger of their hand, heldas frozen in the air. Then the
Golden One rose and walked to thehedge, as if they had heard a

(38:28):
command in our eyes. The twoother street sweepers of our brigade were a
hundred paces away down the road,and we thought that International four eight eight
one eight would not betray us,and Union five three nine nine two would
not understand. So we looked straightupon the golden one, and we saw
the shadows of their lashes on theirwhite cheeks, and the sparks of sun

(38:51):
on their lips, and we said, you are beautiful, Liberty five three
thousand. Their face did not move, and they did not avert their eyes.
Only their eyes grew wider, andthere was a triumph in their eyes.
And it was not triumph over us, but over things we could not
guess. Then they asked, whatis your name? Equality seven two five

(39:16):
two one. We answered, youare not one of our brothers, Equality
seven two five two one, forwe do not wish you to be.
We cannot say what they meant,for there are no words for their meaning.
But we knew it without words,and we knew it. Then no,

(39:37):
we answered, nor are you oneof our sisters? If you could
see among scores of women, willyou look upon us? We shall look
upon you, Liberty five three thousand, if we see you among all the
women of the earth. Then theyasked, our street sweepers sent to different

(39:59):
parts of the city, or dothey always work in the same places.
They always work in the same places, we answered, and no one will
take this road away from us.Your eyes, they said, are not
like the eyes of any among men. And suddenly, without cause for the
thought which came to us, wefelt cold, cold to our stomach.

(40:22):
How old are you, we asked. They understood our thought, for they
lowered their eyes for the first timeseventeen they whispered, and we sighed,
as if a burden had been takenfrom us. For we had been thinking,
without reason, of the palace amating, and we thought that we

(40:42):
would not let the Golden One besent to the palace. How to prevent
it, how to bar the willof the councils, we knew not,
But we knew suddenly that we would. Only we do not know why such
thought came to us, For theseugly matters bear no relation to us in
the Golden One, what relation canthey bear? Still, without reason,

(41:06):
as we stood there by the hedge, we felt our lips drawn tight with
hatred, a sudden hatred for allour brother men. And the Golden One
saw it and smiled slow, slowly, And there was in their smile the
first sadness we had seen in them. We think that in the wisdom of
women, the Golden One had understoodmore than we can understand. Then three

(41:32):
of the sisters in the field appearedcoming toward the road, So the Golden
One walked away from us. Theytook the bag of seeds, and they
threw the seeds into the furrowers ofearth as they walked away. But the
seeds flew wildly, for the handof the Golden One was trembling. Yet,
as we walked back to the homeof the street sweepers, we felt

(41:53):
that we wanted to sing without reason. So we were reprimanded to in the
dining hall, for without knowing it, we had begun to sing aloud some
tune we had never heard. Butit is not proper to sing without reason,
save at the social meetings. Weare singing because we are happy,

(42:15):
we answered the one of the homecounsel, who reprimanded us. Indeed,
you are happy, they answered,How else can men be when they live
for their brothers. And now,sitting here in our tunnel, we wonder
about these words. It is forbiddennot to be happy, for, as

(42:36):
it has been explained to us,men are free, and the earth belongs
to them, and all things onearth belong to all men, and the
will of all men together is goodfor all, and so all men must
be happy. Yet, as westand at night in the Great Hall,
removing our garments for sleep, welook upon our brothers, and we wonder.

(42:58):
The heads of our brothers are bowed. The eyes of our brothers are
dull, and never do they lookone another in the eyes. The shoulders
of our brothers are hunched, andthe muscles are drawn, as if their
bodies were shrinking and wished to shrinkout of sight. And a word steals
into our mind as we look uponour brothers, and that word is fear.

(43:22):
There is a fear hanging in theair of the sleeping halls, and
in the air of the streets.Fear walks through our city, fear without
name, without shape. All menfeel it, and none dare to speak.
We feel it also, and weare in the home of the street
sweepers. But here in our tunnelwe feel it no longer. The air

(43:44):
is pure. Under the ground,there is no odor of men. And
these three hours give us strength.For our hours above the ground, our
body is betraying us, for thecounsel of the home looks with suspicion upon
us. It is not good tofeel too much joy, nor to be
glad that our body lives, forwe matter not, and it must not

(44:06):
matter to us whether we live ordie, which is to be as our
brothers will it. But we Equalityseven two five two one are glad to
be living. If this is avice, then we wish no virtue.
Yet our brothers are not like us. All is not well with our brothers.
There are Fraternity two five five othree, a quiet boy with wise

(44:31):
kind eyes, who cry suddenly withoutreason, and in the midst of the
day or night, and their bodyshakes with sobs, so they cannot explain.
There are Solidarity nine six three fourseven, who are bright youth without
fear in the day, but theyscream in their sleep, and they scream,

(44:52):
help us, help us, helpus into the night, in a
voice which chills our bones. Butthe doctors cannot cure Solidarity nine six three
four seven. And as we allundress at night in the dim light of
candles, our brothers are silent,for they dare not speak the thoughts of
their minds, for all must agreewithal, and they cannot know if their

(45:16):
thoughts are the thoughts of all,so they fear to speak, And they
are glad when the candles are blownfor the night, and we equality seven
two five two, one look throughthe window upon the sky, and there
is peace in the sky, andcleanliness and dignity. And beyond the city
there lies the plane, and beyondthe plane black upon the black sky,

(45:40):
there lies the uncharted forest. Wedo not wish to look upon the uncharted
forests, we do not wish tothink of it. But ever do our
eyes return to that black patch uponthe sky. Men never enter the uncharted
forests, for there is no powerto explore it, and no path to
lead among its ancient trees, whichstands as guards of fearful secrets. It

(46:05):
is whispered that once or twice ina hundred years one among the men of
the city escape alone and run intothe uncharted forests without call or reason.
These men do not return. Theyperish from hunger and from the claws of
the wild beasts that roam the forests. But our councils say this is only
a legend. We have heard thatthere are many uncharted forests over the lands

(46:29):
among the cities, and it iswhispered that they have grown over the ruins
of many cities of the unmentionable Times. The trees have swallowed the ruins,
and the bones under the ruins,and all the things which perished. And
as we look upon the uncharted forestfar in the night, we think of

(46:49):
the secrets of the unmentionable times,and we wonder how it came to pass
that these secrets were lost to theworld. We have heard the legends of
the great fighting, in which manymen fought on one side, and only
a few on the other. Thesefew were the evil Ones, and they
were conquered. Then great fires ragedover the land, and in these fires

(47:12):
the evil Ones were burned. Andthe fire which is called the dawn of
the Great Rebirth was the script fire, where all the scripts of the evil
Ones were burned, and with themall the words of the evil Ones.
Great mountains of flames stood in thesquares of the city for three months.
Then came the Great Rebirth. Thewords of the evil Ones, the words

(47:37):
of the unmentionable Times. What arethe words which we have lost? May
the Council have mercy upon us.We had no wish to write such a
question, and we knew not whatwe were doing till we had written it.
We shall not ask this question,and we shall not think it,

(47:58):
we shall not call death on ourhead. And yet, and yet there
is some word, one single word, which is not in the language of
men, but which has been Andthis is the unspeakable word, which no
men may speak nor hear. Butsometimes, and it is rare, sometimes

(48:19):
somewhere one among men find that word. They find it upon scraps of old
manuscripts, or cut into the fragmentsof ancient stones. But when they speak
it, they are put to death. There is no crime punished by death
in this world save this one crimeof speaking the unspeakable word. We have

(48:40):
seen one of such men burned alivein the square of the city. And
it was a sight which has stayedwith us through the years, and it
haunts us and follows us, andit gives us no rest. We were
a child, then ten years old, and we stood in the great square

(49:00):
with all the children and all themen of the city, sent to behold
the burning. They brought the transgressorout into the square and led them into
the pyre. They had torn outthe tongue of the transgressor so that they
could speak no longer. The transgressorwere young and tall. They had hair

(49:21):
of gold and eyes of blue asmorning. They walked to the pyre,
and their step did not falter.And of all the faces in that square,
of all the faces which shrieked andscreamed and spat curses upon them,
theirs was the calmest and happiest face. As the chains were wound over their

(49:42):
body at the stake, and aflame set to the pyre, the transgressor
looked upon the city. There wasa thin thread of blood running from the
corner of their mouth, but theirlips were smiling. And a monstrous thought
came to us then, which hasnever left us. We had heard of

(50:04):
saints. There are the saints oflabor, the saints of the councils,
the saints of the Great Rebirth.But we had never seen a saint,
nor what the likeness of a saintshould be. And we thought, then,
standing in the square, that thelikeness of a saint was the face
we saw before us in the flames, the face of the transgressor of the

(50:27):
unspeakable word. As the flames rose, a thing happened which no eyes saw
but ours, else we would notbe living today. Perhaps it had only
seemed to us, but it seemedto us that the eyes of the transgressor
had chosen us from the crowd andwere looking straight upon us. There was

(50:49):
no pain in their eyes, andno knowledge of the agony of their body.
There was only joy in them,and pride, a pride holier than
it it is fit for human prideto be. And it seemed as if
these eyes were trying to tell ussomething through the flames, to send into
our eyes some word without sound.And it seemed as if these eyes were

(51:13):
begging us to gather that word andnot let it go from us and from
the earth. But the flames rose, and we could not guess the word.
What, even if we had toburn for it like the saint of
the Pyre? What is the unspeakableword? End of Chapter two, Chapter

(51:34):
three we equality seven two five twoone have discovered a new power of nature,
and we have discovered it alone,and we are to know it.
It is said, now, letus be lashed for it, if we
must. The Council of Scholars hassaid that we all know the things which

(51:57):
exist, and therefore all the thingswhich are not known by all do not
exist. But we think that theCouncil of Scholars is blind The secrets of
this earth are not for all mento see, but only for those who
will seek them. We know,for we have found a secret unknown to
all our brothers. We know notwhat this power is, nor whence it

(52:22):
comes, but we know it isnature. We have watched it and worked
with it. We saw it firsttwo years ago. One night we were
cutting open the body of a deadfrog when we saw its leg jerking.
It was dead, yet it moved. Some power unknown to men was making

(52:45):
it move. We could not understandit. Then, after many tests,
we found the answer. The froghad been hanging on a wire of copper,
and it had been the metal ofour knife which had sent a strange
power to the copper through the brineof the FOG's body. We put a
piece of copper and a piece ofzinc into a jar of brine. We

(53:07):
touched a wire to them, andthere under our fingers was a miracle which
had never occurred before, a newmiracle and a new power. This discovery
haunted us. We followed it inpreference to all our studies. We worked
with it. We tested it inmore ways than we can describe, and

(53:31):
each step was another miracle unveiling Beforeus. We came to know that we
had found the greatest power on earth, for it defies all the laws known
to men. It makes the needlemove and turn on the compass, which
we stole from the house of scholars. But we had been taught, when
still a child, that the loadstone points to the north, and this

(53:54):
is a law which nothing can change. Yet our new power defied all laws.
We found that it causes lightning,and never have men known what causes
lightning in thunderstorms. We raised atall rod of iron by the side of
our hole and watched it from below. We have seen the lightning strike it

(54:15):
again and again, and now weknow that metal draws the power of the
sky, and that metal can bemade to give it forth. We have
built strange things with this discovery ofours. We used it for the copper
wires which we found here under theground. We have walked the length of
our tunnel with a candle lighting theway. We could go no further than

(54:38):
a half a mile, for earthand rock had fallen at both ends.
But we gathered all the things wefound, and we brought them to our
workplace. We found strange boxes withbars of metal inside, with many cords
and strands and coils of metal.We found wires that led to strange little

(54:59):
globes of glass gass on the walls. They contain threads of metal thinner than
a spider's web. These things helpus in our work. We do not
understand them, but we think thatthe men of the unmentionable times had known
our power of the sky, andthese things had some relation to it.

(55:19):
We do not know, but weshall learn. We cannot stop now,
even though it frightens us that weare alone in our knowledge. No single
one can possess greater wisdom than themany scholars who are elected by all men
for their wisdom. Yet we can, we do. We have fought against

(55:39):
saying it, But now it issaid. We do not care. We
forget all men, all laws,and all things save our medals and our
wires. So much is still tobe learned. So long a road lies
before us, And what care weif we must travel it alone? End

(56:02):
of Chapter three, Chapter four.Many days passed before we could speak to
the Golden One again. But thencame the day when the sky turned white,
as if the sun had burst andspread its flame in the air,
and the fields lay still without breath, and the dust of the road was
white in the glow. So thewomen of the field were weary, and

(56:24):
they tarried over their work, andthey were far from the road when we
came, But the Golden One stoodalone at the hedge, waiting. We
stopped, and we saw that theireyes, so hard and scornful to the
world, were looking at us asif they would obey any word we might
speak. And we said, wehave given you a name in our thoughts,

(56:46):
Liberty five three thousand. What isour name? They asked the Golden
One, Nor do we call youequality seven two five two one when we
think of you? What name haveyou given us? They looked straight into
our eyes, and they held theirhead high, and they answered the unconquered.

(57:10):
For a long time we could notspeak. Then we said, such
thoughts are forbidden, Golden One,But you think such thoughts as these,
and you wish us to think them. We looked into their eyes and we
could not lie. Yes, wewhispered, and they smiled, and then
we said, our dearest one,do not obey us. They stepped back

(57:35):
and their eyes were wide, andstill speak those words again? They whispered,
Which words we asked? But theydid not answer, and we knew
it. Our dearest one, wewhispered, Never have men said this to
women. The head of the GoldenOne bowed slowly, and they stood still

(57:58):
before us, there, arms attheir sides, the palms of their hands
turned to us, as if theirbody were delivered in submission to our eyes,
and we could not speak. Thenthey raised their head, and they
spoke simply and gently, as ifthey wished us to forget some anxiety of

(58:19):
their own. The day is hot, they said, and you have worked
for many hours, and you mustbe weary. No, we answered,
It is cooler in the fields,they said, and there is water to
drink. Are you thirsty, yes, we answered, but we cannot cross
the hedge. We shall bring thewater to you, they said. Then

(58:43):
they knelt by the moat, theygathered water into their two hands. They
rose, and they held the waterout to our lips. We do not
know if we drank that water.We only knew suddenly that their hands were
empty, but we were still holdingour lips to their hands, and that
they knew it, but did notmove. We raised our head and stepped

(59:06):
back, for we did not understandwhat had made us do this, and
we were afraid to understand it.And the golden One stepped back and stood
looking upon their hands in wonder.Then the golden One moved away, even
though no others were coming. Andthey moved, stepping back as if they
could not turn from us, theirarms bent before them, as if they

(59:30):
could not lower their hands. Endof Chapter four, Chapter five. We
made it, we created it,We brought it forth from the night of
the ages. We alone, ourhands, our mind ours alone, and

(59:52):
only we know not what we aresaying. Our head is reeling. We
look upon the light which we wehad made. We shall be forgiven for
anything we say tonight. Tonight,after more days in trials than we can
count, we finished building a strangething from the remains of the unmentionable times,

(01:00:15):
a box of glass, devised togive forth the power of the sky,
of greater strength than we had everachieved before. And when we put
our wires to this box, whenwe closed the current, the wire glowed,
it came to life, it turnedred, and a circle of light
lay on the stone before us.We stood, and we held our head

(01:00:38):
in our hands. We could notconceive of that which we had created.
We had touched no flint, madeno fire, Yet there was light,
light that came from nowhere, lightfrom the heart of metal. We blew
out the candle. Darkness swallowed us, and there was nothing left around us,

(01:01:00):
nothing save the night and a thinthread of flame in it, as
a crack in the wall of aprison. We stretched our hands to the
wire, and we saw our fingersin the red glow. We could not
see our body nor feel it.And in that moment nothing existed save our
two hands over a wire, glowingin a black abyss. Then we thought

(01:01:22):
of the meaning of that which laybefore us. We can light our tunnel,
and the city, and all thecities of the world with nothing save
metal and wires. We can giveour brothers a new light, cleaner and
brighter than any they have ever known. The power of the sky can be
made to do men's bidding. Thereare no limits to its secrets and its

(01:01:45):
might, and it can be madeto grant us anything if we but choose
to ask. Then we knew whatwe must do. Our discovery is too
great for us to waste our timein sweeping streets. We must not keep
our secret to ourselves, nor buriedunder the ground. We must bring it

(01:02:07):
into the sight of all men.We need all our time. We need
the workrooms of the Home of theScholars. We want the help of our
brother scholars and the wisdom joined toours. There is so much work ahead
for all of us, for allthe scholars of the world. In a
month, the World Council of Scholarsis to meet in our city. It

(01:02:30):
is a great council to which thewisest of all lands are elected, and
it meets once a year in thedifferent cities of the earth. We shall
go to this council, and weshall lay before them as our gift,
the glass box. With the powerof the sky. We shall confess everything
to them. They will see,understand, and forgive, for our gift

(01:02:55):
is greater than our transgression. Theywill explain it to the Council of Vocations,
and we shall be assigned to theHome of the Scholars. This has
never been done before, but neitherhas a gift such as ours ever been
offered to men. We must wait. We must guard our tunnel as we
have never guarded it before. Forshould any men, save the scholars,

(01:03:20):
learn of our secret, they wouldnot understand it, nor would they believe
us. They would see nothing saveour crime of working alone, and they
would destroy us and our light.We care not about our body, but
our light is yes, we docare. For the first time, we
do care about our body, forthis wire is a part of our body,

(01:03:44):
as a vein torn from us,glowing with our blood. We are
proud of this threat of metal,or of our hands which made it?
Or is there a line to dividethese two? We stretch out our arms
for the first time. Do weknow how strong our arms are? And
a strange thought comes to us.We wonder for the first time in our

(01:04:05):
life what we look like. Mennever see their own faces and never ask
their brothers about it, for itis evil to have concern for their own
faces or bodies. But tonight,for a reason we cannot fathom, we
wish it were possible to us toknow the likeness of our own person.

(01:04:28):
End of Chapter five, Chapter six. We have not written for thirty days.
For thirty days we have not beenhere in our tunnel. We had
been caught. It happened on thatnight when we wrote last. We forgot
that night to watch the sand inthe glass, which tells us when three

(01:04:49):
hours have passed and it's time toreturn to the city theater. When we
remembered the sand had run out,hastened to the theater, but the big
tent stood gray and silent against thesky. The streets of the city lay
before us, dark and empty.If we went back to hide in our

(01:05:11):
tunnel, we would be found inour light with us. So we walked
to the home of the street sweepers. When the council of the home questioned
us, we looked upon the facesof the council, but there was no
curiosity in those faces, and noanger, and no mercy. So when
the oldest of them asked, wherehave you been, we thought of our

(01:05:34):
glass box and of our light,and we forgot all else, and we
answered, we will not tell you. The oldest did not question us further.
They turned to the two youngest andsaid, and their voice was bored,

(01:05:54):
take our brother equality two five twoone to the Palace of corrective Detention.
Lashed them until they tell. Sowe were taken to the stone room
under the Palace of Corrective Detention.This room has no windows, and it
is empty save for an iron post. Two men stood by the post,

(01:06:16):
naked for leather aprons and leather hoods, over their faces. Those who had
brought us departed, leaving us tothe two judges who stood in a corner
of the room. The judges weresmall, thin men, gray and bent.
They gave the signal to the twostrong hooded ones. They tore our

(01:06:36):
clothes from our body. They threwus down upon our knees, and they
tied our hands to the iron post. The first blow of the lash felt
as if our spine had been cutin two. The second blow stopped the
first, and for a second wefelt nothing. Then pain struck us in

(01:06:57):
our throat, and fire ran inour liu without air, but we did
not cry out. The lash whistledlike a singing wind. We tried to
count the blows, but we lostcount. We knew that the blows were
falling upon our back, only wefelt nothing upon our back any longer.

(01:07:17):
A flaming grill kept dancing before oureyes, and we thought of nothing save
that grill, a grill, agrill of red squares. And then we
knew that we were looking at thesquares of the iron grill in the door.
And there was also the squares ofthe stone on the walls, and
the squares which the lash was cuttingupon our back, crossing and recrossing itself

(01:07:42):
in our flesh. Then we sawa fist before us. It knocked our
chin up, and we saw thered froth of our mouth on the withered
fingers. And the judge asked,where have you been? But we jerked
our head away, our face uponour tied hands, and bit our lips.

(01:08:03):
The lash whistled again. We wonderedwho was sprinkling burning coal dust upon
the floor, for we saw dropsof red twinkling on the stones around us.
Then we knew nothing save two voicessnarling steadily, one after the other,
even though we knew that they werespeaking many minutes apart. Where have

(01:08:26):
you been? Where have you been? Where have you been? Where have
you been? And our lips moved, but the sound trickled back in our
throat, and the sound was onlythe light, the light, the light.
Then we knew nothing. We openedour eyes, lying on our stomach

(01:08:46):
on the brick floor of a cell, we looked upon two hands lying before
us on the bricks, and wemoved them, and we knew that they
were our hands, but we couldnot move our body. Then we smile
mild, for we thought of thelight and that we had not betrayed it.
We lay in ourselves for many days. The door opened twice each day,

(01:09:10):
once for the men who brought usbread and water, and once for
the judges. Many judges came toour cell, first the humblest and then
the most honored judges of the city. They stood before us in their white
togas, and they asked, areyou ready to speak? But we shook
our head, lying before them onthe floor, and they departed. We

(01:09:31):
counted each day and each night asit passed. Then tonight we knew that
we must escape, for tomorrow theWorld Council of Scholars is to meet in
our city. It was easy toescape from the Palace of Corrective Detention.
The locks are old on the doors, and there are no guards about.
There is no reason to have guards, for men have never defied the councils

(01:09:54):
so far as to escape from whateverplace they were ordered to be. Our
body is healthy, and strength returnsto it speedily. We lunged against the
door, and it gave way.We stole through the dark passages, and
through the dark streets, and downinto our tunnel. We lit the candle,
and we saw that our place hadnot been found, and nothing had

(01:10:15):
been touched, And our glass boxstood before us on the cold oven,
as we had left it. Whatmatter they now the scars upon our back.
Tomorrow, in the full light ofday, we shall take our box
and leave our tunnel open, andwalk through the streets to the home of
the scholars. We shall put beforethem the greatest gift ever offered to men.

(01:10:40):
We shall tell them the truth.We shall hand to them as our
confession these pages we have written.We shall join our hands to theirs.
We shall work together with the powerof the sky for the glory of mankind.
Our blessing upon you, our brothers. Tomorrow you will take us back
to your fold, and we shallbe an outcast no longer. Tomorrow we

(01:11:04):
shall be one of you again tomorrow. End of chapter six, Chapter seven.
It is dark here in the forest. The leaves rustle over our head,
black against the last gold of thesky. The moss is soft and
warm. We shall sleep on thismoss for many nights till the beasts of

(01:11:28):
the forest come to tear our body. We have no bed now save the
moss, and no future save thebeasts. We are old now, yet
we were young this morning when wecarried our glass box through the streets of
the city to the home of thescholars. No men stopped us, for
there were none about the Palace ofcorrective Detention, and the others knew nothing.

(01:11:51):
No men stopped us at the gate. We walked through the empty passages
and into the Great Hall, wherethe World Council of Scholars sat in solemn
meeting. We saw nothing as weentered, save the sky in the great
windows, blue and glowing. Thenwe saw the scholars, who sat around
a long table. They were asshapeless clouds, huddled at the rise of

(01:12:15):
a great sky. There were themen whose famous names we knew, and
others from distant lands whose names wehad not heard. We saw a great
painting on the wall over their heads, of the twenty illustrious men who had
invented the candle. All the headsof the Council turned to us as we

(01:12:35):
entered. These great and wise ofthe earth did not know what to think
of us, and they looked uponus with wonder and curiosity, as if
we were a miracle. It istrue that our tunic was torn and stained
with brown stains which had been blood. We raised our right arm, and

(01:12:59):
we said our greeting to you,our honored brothers of the World Council of
Scholars. Then collective zero zero zerozero nine, the oldest and wisest of
the council spoke and asked, whoare you, our brother for you do
not look like a scholar. Ourname is Equality seven two five two one,

(01:13:23):
we answered, and we are astreet sweeper of this city. Then
it was as if a great windhad stricken the hall, for all the
scholars spoke at once, and theywere angry and frightened. A street sweeper,
a street sweeper walking in upon theWorld Council of Scholars. It is

(01:13:44):
not to be believed. It isagainst all the rules and all the laws.
But we knew how to stop them. Our brothers, we said,
we matter not nor our transgression.It is only our brother men who matter.
Give no thought to us, forwe are nothing. But listen to

(01:14:05):
our words, for we bring youa gift such as has never been brought
to men. Listen to us,for we hold the future of mankind in
our hands. Then they listened.We placed our glass box on the table
before them. We spoke of it, and of our long quest, and

(01:14:28):
of our tunnel, and of ourescape from the palace of corrective detention.
Not a hand moved in that hallas we spoke, nor an eye.
Then we put the wires to thebox, and they all bent forward and
sat still, watching. And westood still, our eyes upon the wire,
and slowly, slowly, as aflush of blood, a red flame

(01:14:49):
trembled in the wire. Then thewire glowed. But terror struck the men
of the council. They leaped totheir feet. They ran from the table.
They stood pressed against the wall,huddled together, seeking the warmth of
one another's bodies to give them courage. We looked upon them, and we

(01:15:12):
laughed and said, fear nothing,our brothers. There is a great power
in these wires. But this poweris tamed. It is yours. We
give it to you. Still theywould not move. We give you the
power of the sky, we cried, We give you the key to the
earth. Take it, and letus be one of you, the humblest

(01:15:36):
among you. Let us work togetherand harness this power, and make it
ease the toil of men. Letus throw away our candles and our torches.
Let us flood our cities with light. Let us bring a new light
to men. But they looked uponus and suddenly we were afraid, for

(01:15:58):
their eyes were still and small andevil. Our brothers, we cried,
have you nothing to say to us? Then Collective zero zero zero zero nine
moved forward. They moved to thetable, and the others followed. Yes,

(01:16:21):
spoke Collective zero zero zero zero nine, we have much to say to
you. The sound of their voicebrought silence to the hall, and to
the beat of our heart. Yes, said Collective zero zero zero zero nine.
We have much to say to awretch who have broken all the laws,

(01:16:43):
and who boast of their infamy.How dared you think that your mind
held greater wisdom than the minds ofyour brothers? And if the council had
agreed that you'd be a street sweeper, how dared you think that you could
be of greater use to men thanin sweeping the streets? How dared you
gut her cleaner? Spoke Fraternity ninethree four five two. To hold yourself

(01:17:03):
as one alone, and with thoughtsof one and not of many, You
shall be burned at the stake,said Democracy four six nine ninety eight.
No, this should be lashed,said Unanimity seven three three o four,
till there is nothing left under thelashes. No, said Collective zero zero

(01:17:26):
zero zero nine. We cannot decideupon this, our brothers. No such
crime has ever been committed, andit is not for us to judge,
nor for any small council. Weshall deliver this creature to the World Council
itself and let their will be done. We looked upon them, and we
pleaded, our brothers, you areright. Let the will of the Council

(01:17:53):
be done upon our body. Wedo not care but the light. What
will you do with the light?Collective zero zero zero zero nine looked upon
us, and they smiled. Soyou think you have found a new power,
said Collective zero zero zero zero nine. Do you think all your brothers

(01:18:17):
think that? No, we answered, what is not thought by all men
cannot be true, said Collective zerozero zero zero nine. You have worked
on this alone, asked International onefive five three seven. Yes, we

(01:18:40):
answered, what is not done collectivelycannot be good, said International one five
five three seven. Many men inthe homes of the scholars have had strange
new ideas in the past, saidSolidarity eight one one six four. But

(01:19:00):
when the majority of their brother scholarsvoted against them, they abandoned their ideas.
As all men must. This boxis useless, said Alliance six seven
three four nine. Should it bewhat they claim of it, said Harmony
nine two six four to two,then it would bring ruin to the department

(01:19:23):
of candles. The candle is agreat boon to mankind, as approved by
all men. Therefore it cannot bedestroyed by the whim of one. This
would wreck the plans of the worldcouncils, said Unanimity two nine nine one
three. And without the plans ofthe World Council, the sun cannot rise.
It took fifty years to secure theapproval of all the councils for the

(01:19:45):
candle, and to decide upon thenumber needed, and to refit the plans
so as to make the candles insteadof the torches. This touched upon thousands
and thousands of men working in scoresof states. We cannot alter the plans
again so soon. And if thisshould lighten the toil of men, said

(01:20:08):
Similarity, five zero three zero six, then it is a great evil,
for men have no cause to existsave in toiling for other men. Then
Collective zero zero zero zero nine roseand pointed at our box. This thing,

(01:20:29):
they said, must be destroyed,and all the others cried as one,
it must be destroyed. Then weleapt to the table, We seized
our box. We shoved them aside, and we ran to the window.
We turned, and we looked atthem for the last time, and a
rage such as is not fit forhumans to know, choked our voice in

(01:20:56):
our throat. You fools, wecried, you fools, do you thrice?
Damned fools? We swung our fiststhrough the windowpane, and we leapt
out in a ringing rain of glass. We fell, but we never let
the box fall from our hands.Then we ran. We ran blindly,

(01:21:18):
and men and houses streaked past usin a torrent without shape, and the
road seemed not to be flat beforeus, but as if it were leaping
up to meet us. And wewaited for the earth to rise and strike
us in the face. But weran. We knew not where we were
going. We knew only that wemust run, run to the end of

(01:21:42):
the world, to the end ofour days. Then we knew suddenly that
we were lying on a soft earth, and that we had stopped. Trees
taller than we had ever seen beforestood over us in a great silence.
Then we knew we were in theuncharted forest. We had not thought of
coming here, But our legs hadcarried our wisdom, and our legs had

(01:22:05):
brought us to the uncharted forest againstour will. Our glass box lay beside
us. We crawled to it.We fell upon it, our face in
our arms, and we lay still. We lay thus for a long time.
Then we rose. We took ourbox and walked on into the forest.

(01:22:30):
It mattered not where we went.We knew that men would not follow
us, for they never entered theuncharted forest. We had nothing to fear
from them. The forest disposes ofits own victims. This gave us no
fear either. Only we wished tobe away from the city and the air

(01:22:51):
that touches upon the air of thecity. So we walked on, our
box in our arms, our heartempty. We are doomed. Whatever days
are left to us, we shallspend them alone. And we have heard
of the corruption to be found insolitude. We have torn ourselves from the

(01:23:12):
truth, which is our brother men. And there is no road back for
us, and no redemption. Weknow these things, but we do not
care. We care for nothing onearth. We are tired. Only the
glass box in our arms is likeliving heart that gives us strength. We

(01:23:34):
have lied to ourselves. We havenot built this box for the good of
our brothers. We built it forits own sake. It is above all
our brothers. To us, itis truth above their truth. Why wonder
about this? We have not manydays to live. We are walking to

(01:23:59):
the fangs awaiting us somewhere among thegreat silent trees. There is not a
thing behind us to regret. Thena blow of pain struck us, our
first and our only. We thoughtof the Golden One. We thought of
the golden One, whom we shallnever see again. Then the pain passed.

(01:24:23):
It is best we are one ofthe damned. It is best if
the Golden One forget our name andthe body which bore that name. End
Chapter seven, Chapter eight. Ithas been a day of wonder. This
our first day in the forest.We awoke when a ray of sunlight fell

(01:24:45):
across our face. We wanted toleap to our feet, as we have
had to leap to our feet everymorning of our life. But we remembered
suddenly that no bell had rung,and there was no bell to ring anywhere.
We lay on our back. Wethrew our arms out, and we

(01:25:05):
looked up at the sky. Theleaves had edges of silver that trembled and
rippled like a river of green,and fire flowing high above us. We
did not wish to move. Wethought suddenly that we could lie thus as
long as we wished, and welaughed loud at the thought. We could

(01:25:27):
also rise, or run, orleap or fall down again. We were
thinking that these were things without sense. But before we knew it, our
body had risen in one leap.Our arms stretched out of their own will,
and our body whirled and whirled tillit raised a wind to rustle through
the leaves of the bushes. Thenour hands seized a branch and swung us

(01:25:51):
high into a tree, with noaim save the wonder of learning the stretch
of our body. The branch snappedunder us, and we fell upon the
moss that was soft as a cushion. Then our body, losing all sense,
rolled over and over on the moss, dry leaves, and our tunic
in our hair, in our face, and we heard suddenly that we were

(01:26:15):
laughing, laughing aloud, laughing,as if there were no power left in
us save laughter. Then we tookour glass box and we went into the
forest. We went on, cuttingthrough the branches, and it was as
if we were swimming through a seaof leaves, with the bushes as waves,

(01:26:40):
rising and falling and rising around us, and flinging their green sprays high
on the tree tops. The treesparted before us, calling us forward.
The forest seemed to welcome us.We went on without thought, without care,
with nothing to feel save the songof our body. We stopped when

(01:27:01):
we felt hunger. We saw birdsin the tree branches, and flying from
under our footsteps. We picked astone and scent it as an arrow at
a bird. It fell before us. We made a fire, We cooked
the bird, We ate it,and no meal had ever tasted better to
us. And we thought suddenly thatthere was this great satisfaction to be found

(01:27:25):
in the food which we need andobtained by our own hand. And we
wished to be hungry again, andsoon that we might know again this strange
new pride in eating. Then wewalked on, and we came to a
stream which lay as a streak ofglass among the trees. It lay so
still that we saw no water,but only a cut in the earth in

(01:27:49):
which the trees grew down, upturned, and the sky at the bottom,
we knelt by the stream, andwe bent down to drink. Then we
stopped, for upon the blue ofthe sky below us, we saw our
own face for the first time.We sat still, and we held our

(01:28:14):
breath, for our face and ourbody were beautiful. Our face was not
like the faces of our brothers,for we felt no pity when we looked
upon it. Our body was notlike the bodies of our brothers, for
our limbs were straight and thin,and hard and strong. And we thought

(01:28:35):
that we could trust this being wholooked upon us from the stream, and
that we had nothing to fear fromthis being. We walked on till the
sun had set. When the shadowsgathered among the trees, we stopped in
a hollow between the roots, wherewe shall sleep tonight. And suddenly,
for the first time this day,we remembered that we are the damned.

(01:29:00):
We remembered it, and we laughed. We are writing this on the paper
we had hidden in our tunic,together with the written pages we had brought
for the World Council of Scholars,but never given to them. We have
much to speak of to ourselves,and we hope we shall find the words

(01:29:20):
for it in the days to come. Now we cannot speak, for we
cannot understand. End Chapter eight,Chapter nine. We have not written for
many days. We did not wishto speak, for we needed no words

(01:29:43):
to remember that which has happened tous. It was our second day in
the forest that we heard steps behindus. We hidden the bushes and we
waited. The steps came closer,and then we saw the fold of a
white tunic among the trees, anda gleam of gold. We leapt forward.
We ran to them, and westood looking upon the Golden One.

(01:30:10):
They saw us, and their handsclosed into fists, and the fists pulled
their arms down, as if theywished their arms to hold them, while
their bodies swayed, and they couldnot speak. We dared not come too
close to them. We asked,and our voice trembled, how come you

(01:30:32):
to be here, Golden One?But they whispered, only we have found
you. How came you to bein the forest, we asked. They
raised their head, and there wasa great pride in their voice. They
answered, we have followed you.Then we could not speak, and they

(01:31:00):
said, we heard that you hadgone to the uncharted forest. For the
whole city is speaking of it.So on the night of the day when
we heard it, we ran awayfrom the home of the peasants. We
found the marks of your feet acrossthe plain where no men walk. So

(01:31:20):
we followed them, and we wentinto the forest, and we followed the
path where the branches were broken byyour body. Their white tunic was torn,
and the branches had cut the skinof their arms. But they spoke
as if they had never taken noticeof it, nor of weariness, nor

(01:31:42):
of fear. We have followed you, they said, and we shall follow
you wherever you go. If dangerthreatens you, we shall face it.
Also, if it be death,we shall die with you. You are
damned, and we wish to shareyour damnation. They looked upon us,

(01:32:03):
and their voice was low, butthere was bitterness and triumph in their voice.
Your eyes are as a flame,but our brothers have neither hope nor
fire. Your mouth is cut ofgranite, but our brothers are soft and
humble. Your head is high,but our brothers cringe. You walk,

(01:32:28):
but our brothers crawl. We wishto be damned with you, rather than
be blessed with all of our brothers. Do as you please with us,
but do not send us away fromyou. Then they knelt and bowed their
golden head before us. We hadnever thought of that which we did.

(01:32:55):
We bent to raise the golden Oneto their feet, but when we touched
them, it was as if madnesshad stricken us. We seized their body,
and we pressed our lips to theirs. The golden one breathed once,
and their breath was a moan,and then their arms closed around us.

(01:33:16):
We stood together for a long time, and we were frightened that we had
lived for twenty one years and hadnever known what joy is possible to men.
Then we said, our dearest one, fear nothing of the forest.
There is no danger in solitude.We have no need of our brothers.

(01:33:43):
Let us forget their good and ourevil. Let us forget all things save
that we are together, and thatthere is joy between us. Give us
your hand. Look ahead. Itis our own world, golden one,
a strange, unknown world, butour own. Then we walked on into

(01:34:08):
the forest, their hand in ours, And that night we knew that to
hold the body of a woman inour arms is neither ugly nor shameful,
but the one ecstasy granted to therace of men. We have walked for
many days. The forest has noend, and we seek no end.

(01:34:33):
But each day added to the chainof days between us and the city is
like an added blessing. We havemade a bow and many arrows. We
can kill more birds than we needfor our food. We find water and
fruit in the forest. At night, we choose a clearing, and we

(01:34:53):
build a ring of fires around it. We sleep in the midst of that
ring, and the beasts dare notattack us. We can see their eyes,
green and yellow as coals, watchingus from the tree branches beyond.
The fires smolder as a crown ofjewels around us, and smoke stands still
in the air in columns made blueby the moonlight. We sleep together in

(01:35:19):
the midst of the ring, thearms of the Golden One around us,
their head upon our breast. Somedaywe shall stop and build a house,
when we shall have gone far enough. But we do not have to hasten.

(01:35:39):
The days before us are without end, like the forest. We cannot
understand this new life which we havefound. Yet it seems so clear and
so simple. When questions come topuzzle us, we walk faster, then
turn and forget all things as wewatch the golden one following the Shahadows of

(01:36:00):
leaves fall upon their arms as theyspread the branches apart, but their shoulders
are in the sun. The skinof their arms is like a blue mist,
but their shoulders are white and glowing, as if the light fell not
from above, but rose from underthe skin. We watched the leaf which
has fallen upon their shoulder, andit lies at the curve of their neck,

(01:36:27):
and a drop of dew glistens uponit like a jewel. They approach
us, and they stop laughing,knowing what we think, and they wait
obediently without question, till it pleasesus to turn and go on. We
go on, and we bless theearth under our feet. But questions come
to us again as we walk insilence. If that we have found is

(01:36:54):
the corruption of solitude, then whatcan men wish for save corruption? If
this is the great evil of beingalone, then what is good and what
is evil? Everything which comes fromthe many is good, everything which comes
from one is evil. Thus wehave been taught with our first breath,

(01:37:18):
we have broken the law, butwe have never doubted it. Yet now,
as we walk the forest, weare learning to doubt. There is
no life for men save in usefultoil for the good of their brothers,
But we live not. When wetoiled for our brothers, we were only

(01:37:39):
weary. There is no joy formen save the joy shared with all their
brothers. But the only things whichtaught us joy were the power created in
our wires and the Golden One.And both these joys belonged to us alone.
They came from us alone. Theybear no relation to our brothers,

(01:38:00):
and they do not concern our brothersin any way. Thus do we wonder
there is some error, one frightfulerror, in the thinking of men.
What is that error? We donot know. But the knowledge struggles within
us, struggles to be born today. The Golden One stopped suddenly and said,

(01:38:24):
we love you. But then theyfrowned and shook their head and looked
at us helplessly. No, theywhispered, that is not what we wished
to say. They were silent.Then they spoke slowly, and their words
were halting, like the words ofa child learning to speak for the first
time. We are one alone andonly, and we love you, who

(01:38:50):
are one alone and only. Welooked into each other's eyes, and we
knew that the breath of a miraclehad touched us and fled and left us
groping vainly, and we felt torn, torn for some word we could not
find. End Chapter nine, Chapterten. We are sitting at a table.

(01:39:17):
We were writing this upon paper madethousands of years ago. The light
is dim, and we cannot seethe golden one, only one lock of
gold on the pillow of an ancientbed. This is our home. We
came upon it to day at sunrise. For many days we have been crossing

(01:39:39):
a chain of mountains. The forestrose among cliffs, and whenever we walked
out upon a barren stretch of rock, we saw great peaks before us in
the west, and to the northof us, and to the south.
As far as our eyes could see. The peaks were red and brown,

(01:40:00):
with the green streaks of forest asvanes upon them, with blue mists as
veils over their heads. We hadnever heard of these mountains, nor seen
them marked on any map. Theuncharted forest has protected them from the cities
and from the men of the cities. We climbed paths where the wild goat

(01:40:21):
dared not follow. Stones rolled fromunder our feet, and we heard them
striking the rocks below. Farther andfarther down, and the mountains rang with
each stroke, and long after thestrokes had died. But we went on,
for we knew that no men wouldever follow our track nor reach us

(01:40:43):
here. Then to day, atsunrise, we saw a white flame among
the trees, high on a sheerpeak before us. We thought that it
was a fire, and we stopped. But the flame was unmoving, yet
blinding as liquid metal. So weclimbed towards it through the rocks, and
there before us, on a broadsummit, with the mountains rising behind it,

(01:41:09):
stood a house such as we hadnever seen, and the white fire
came from the sun on the glassof its windows. The house had two
stories and a strange roof, flatas a floor. There was more window
than wall upon its walls, andthe windows went on straight around the corners.
Though how this house kept standing wecould not guess. The walls were

(01:41:33):
hard and smooth of that stone,unlike stone which we had seen in our
tunnel. We both knew it withoutwords. This house was left from the
unmentionable times. The trees had protectedit from time and weather and from men
who have less pity than time andweather. We turned to the golden one,

(01:41:54):
and we asked, are you afraid? But they shook their head.
So we walked to the door,and we threw it open, and we
stepped together into the house of theunmentionable times. We shall need the days
in the years ahead to look,to learn, and to understand the things
of this house. To day,we could only look and try to believe

(01:42:16):
the sight of our eyes. Wepulled the heavy curtains from the windows,
and we saw that the rooms weresmall, and we thought that not more
than twelve men could have lived here. We thought it strange that man had
been permitted to build a house foronly twelve. Never had we seen rooms
so full of light. The sunrays danced upon the colors, colors in

(01:42:40):
more colors than we thought possible,we who had seen no houses save the
white ones, the brown ones,and the gray. There were great pieces
of glass on the walls, butit was not glass, for when we
looked upon it, we saw ourown bodies and all the things behind us,
as on the face of a lake. There were strange things which we

(01:43:03):
had never seen, and the useof which we do not know. And
there were globes of glass everywhere ineach room. The globes with the metal
cobwebs inside, such as we hadseen in our tunnel. We found the
sleeping Hall, and we stood inawe upon its threshold, for it was

(01:43:24):
a small room, and there wereonly two beds in it. We found
no other beds in the house,and then we knew that only two had
lived here. And this passes understanding. What kind of world did they have?
The men of the unmentionable times?We found garments, and the golden
One gasped at the sight of them, for they were not white tunics nor

(01:43:47):
white togas they were of all color, no two of them alike. Some
crumbled to dust as we touched them, but the others were of heavier cloths
and felt soft and new in ourfingers. We found a room with walls
made of shelves, which held rowsof manuscripts from the floor to the ceiling.

(01:44:10):
Never had we seen such a numberof them, nor of such strange
shape. They were not soft androlled, they had hard shells of cloth
and leather, and the letters ontheir pages were small, and so even
that we wondered at the men whohad such handwriting. We glanced through the

(01:44:30):
pages, and we saw that theywere written in our language, but we
found many words which we could notunderstand. Tomorrow we shall begin to read
these scripts. When we had seenall the rooms of the house, we
looked at the Golden One, andwe knew the thought in our minds.

(01:44:50):
We shall never leave this house,we said, nor let it be taken
from us. This is our homeand the end of our journey. This
is your house, golden one,and ours, and it belongs to no
other men whatever, as far asthe earth may stretch, We shall not

(01:45:11):
share it with others. And weshare not our joy with them, nor
our love, nor our hunger.So be it to the end of our
days, Your will be done,they said. Then we went out to
gather wood for the great hearth ofour home. We brought water from the

(01:45:31):
stream which runs among the trees underour windows. We killed a mountain goat,
and we brought its flesh to becooked in a strange copper pot we
found in a place of wonders,which must have been the cooking room of
the house. We did this workalone, for no words of ours could
take the Golden One away from thebig glass, which is not glass.

(01:45:55):
They stood before it, and theylooked and looked upon their own body.
When the sun sank beyond the mountains, the golden One fell asleep on the
floor, amidst jewels and bottles ofcrystal and flowers of silk. We lifted
the golden One in our arms,and we carried them to a bed,
their head falling softly upon our shoulder. Then we lit a candle, and

(01:46:18):
we brought paper from the room ofthe manuscripts, and we sat by the
window, for we knew that wecould not sleep tonight. And now we
look upon the earth in the sky. The spread of naked rock and peaks
and moonlight is like a world readyto be borne. It seems to us
it asks a sign from us,a spark, a first commandment. We

(01:46:43):
cannot know what word we are togive, nor what great deed this earth
expects to witness. We know itwaits. It seems to say it has
great gifts to lay before us.We are to speak. We are to
give its gold, its highest meaning, to all this glowing space of rock
and sky. We look ahead.We beg our heart for guidance and answering

(01:47:09):
this call. No voice has spoken, yet we have heard. We look
upon our hands. We see thedusts of centuries, the dusts which hid
great secrets and perhaps great evils.And yet it stirs no fear within our
heart, but only silent reverence andpity may knowledge come to us. What

(01:47:32):
is this secret our heart has understood, and yet will not reveal to us,
although it seems to beat as ifit were endeavoring to tell it.
End Chapter ten, Chapter eleven.I am I think, I will,

(01:47:58):
my hands, my spirit, mysky, my forest, this earth of
mine. What must I say?Besides these are the words? This is

(01:48:18):
the answer. I stand here onthe summit of the mountain. I lift
my head and I spread my arms. This my body and spirit. This
is the end of the quest.I wish to know the meaning of things.

(01:48:40):
I am the meaning. I wishto find a warrant for being.
I need no warrant for being,and no word of sanction upon my being.
I am the warrant and the sanction. It is my eyes which see.
In the sight of my eyes grantsbeauty to the earth. It is

(01:49:02):
my ears which hear, and thehearing of my ears gives its song to
the world. It is my mindwhich thinks, and the judgment of my
mind is the only searchlight that confinethe truth. It is my will which
chooses, and the choice of mywill is the only edict I must respect.

(01:49:25):
Many words have been granted me,and some are wise, and some
are false, but only three areholy. I will it whatever road I
take. The guiding star is withinme. The guiding star and the lodestone
which point the way, they pointin, but one direction they point to

(01:49:48):
me. I know not if thisearth on which I stand is the core
of the universe, or if itis a speck of dust lost in eternity.
I know not, and I carenot, for I know what happiness
is possible to me on earth,and my happiness needs no higher aim to

(01:50:10):
vindicate it. My happiness is notthe means to any end. It is
the end. It is its owngoal, It is its own purpose.
Neither am I the means to anyend others may wish to accomplish. I

(01:50:30):
am not a tool for their use. I am not a servant of their
needs. I am not a bandagefor their wounds. I am not a
sacrifice on their altars. I ama man. This miracle of me is
mine to own and keep, andmine to guard, and mine to use,

(01:50:55):
and mine to kneel before. Ido not surrender my treasures, nor
do I share them. The fortuneof my spirit is not to be blown
into coins of brass and flung tothe winds as alms for the poor of
the spirit. I guard my treasures, my thought, my will, my

(01:51:24):
freedom, and the greatest of theseis freedom. I owe nothing to my
brothers, nor do I gather debtsfrom them. I ask none to live
for me, nor do I livefor any others. I covet no man's
soul, nor is my soul theirsto covet. I am neither foe nor

(01:51:48):
friend to my brothers, but suchas each of them shall deserve of me.
And to earn my love, mybrothers must do more than to have
been born. I do not grantmy love without reason, nor to any
chance or by who may wish toclaim it. I honor men with my

(01:52:13):
love, but honor is a thingto be earned. I shall choose friends
among men, but neither slave normasters. And I shall choose only such
as please me. And then Ishall love and respect, but neither command
nor obey. And we shall joinour hands when we wish, or walk

(01:52:39):
alone when we so desire. Forin the temple of his spirit. Each
man is alone. Let each mankeep his temple untouched and undefiled. Then
let him join hands with others ifhe wishes, but only beyond his holy
threshold. For the word we mustnever be spoken save by one's choice and

(01:53:08):
as a second thought. This wordmust never be placed first within man's soul,
else it becomes a monster, theroot of all the evils on earth,
the root of man's torture by men, and an unspeakable lie. The

(01:53:29):
word we is as lime poured overmen, which sets and hardens to stone
and crushes all beneath it. Andthat which is white and that which is
black are lost equally in the grayof it. And it is the word
by which the depraved steal the virtueof the good, by which the weak

(01:53:54):
steal the might of the strong,and by which the fools still the wisdom
of the sages. What is myjoy if all hands, even the unclean,
can reach into it? What ismy wisdom if even the fools can

(01:54:15):
dictate to me? What is myfreedom? If all creatures, even the
botched and impotent, are my masters? What is my life? If I
am but to bow, to agreeand to obey. But I am done

(01:54:36):
with this creed of corruption. Iam done with the monster of we,
the word of serfdom, of plunder, of misery, and falsehood and shame.
And now I see the face ofGod, and I raise this God

(01:54:56):
over the earth, and this Godwhom men have sawt since men came into
being, This God who will grantthem joy and peace and pride, This
God, this one word, Iend Chapter eleven, Chapter twelve. It

(01:55:20):
was when I read the first ofthe books I found in my house that
I saw the word I. Andwhen I understood this word, the book
fell from my hands, and Iwept, I who had never known tears.
I wept in deliverance and in pityfor all mankind. I understood the

(01:55:43):
blessed thing which I had called mycurse. I understood why the best in
me had been my sins and mytransgressions, and why I had never felt
guilt in my sins. I understoodthat centuries of chains and lash will not
kill the spirit of man, northe sense of truth within him. I

(01:56:06):
read many books for many days.Then I called the Golden One, and
I told her what I had readand what I had learned. She looked
at me, and the first wordsshe spoke were I love you. Then
I said, my dearest one,it is not proper for men to be

(01:56:27):
without names. There was a timewhen each man had a name of his
own to distinguish him from all othermen. So let us choose our names.
I have read of a man wholived many thousands of years ago,
and of all the names in thesebooks, his is the one I wished
to bear. He took the lightof the gods and brought it to men,

(01:56:50):
and he taught men to be gods. And he suffered for his deed,
as all bearers of light must suffer. His name was Prometheus. It
shall be your name, said theGolden One. And I have read of
a goddess, I said, whowas the mother of the earth and of

(01:57:10):
all the gods. Her name wasGaea. Let this be your name,
my Golden One, for you areto be the mother of a new kind
of gods. It shall be myname, said the Golden One. Now
I look ahead. My future isclear before me. The Saint of the
Pyre had seen the future when hechose me as his heir, as the

(01:57:33):
heir of all the saints and allthe martyrs who came before him, and
who died for the same cause,for the same word, no matter what
name they gave to their cause andtheir truth. I shall live here in
my own house. I shall takemy food from the earth by the toil

(01:57:54):
of my own hands. I shalllearn many secrets from my books. Through
the years ahead, I shall rebuildthe achievements of the past and open the
way to carry them further, theachievements which are open to me, but
close forever to my brothers, fortheir minds are shackled to the weakest and
dullest among them. I have learnedthat the power of the sky was known

(01:58:18):
to men long ago. They calledit electricity. It was the power that
moved their greatest invention. It litthis house with light that came from those
globes of glass on the walls.I have found the engine which produced this
light. I shall learn how torepair it and how to make it work
again. I shall learn how touse the wires which carry this power.

(01:58:42):
Then I shall build a barrier ofwires around my home and across the paths
which lead to my home. Abarrier light as a cobweb, more impassable
than a wall of granite a barriermy brothers will never be able to cross,
for they have nothing to fight mewith save the brute force of their

(01:59:03):
numbers. I have my mind.Then, here on this mountain top,
with the world below me and nothingabove me but the sun, I shall
live my own truth. Gay ispregnant with my child. He will be
taught to say I, and tobear the pride of it. He will

(01:59:23):
be taught to walk straight on hisown feet. He will be taught reverence
for his own spirit. When Ishall have read all the books and learned
my new way, when my homewill be ready and my earth tilled,
I shall steal one day for thelast time, into the cursed city of

(01:59:45):
my birth. I shall call tome, my friend who has no name
save international four eight eight one eight, and all those like him Fraternity two
five five o three, who crieswithout reason in solidarity nine six three four
seven, who calls for help inthe night, and a few others.

(02:00:09):
I shall call to me all themen and women whose spirit has not been
killed within them, and who sufferunder the yoke of their brothers. They
will follow me, and I shalllead them to my fortress. And here
in this uncharted wilderness. I andthey, my chosen friends, my fellow

(02:00:33):
builders, shall write the first chapterin the new history of Man. These
are the last things before me.And as I stand here at the door
of glory, I look behind mefor the last time. I look upon
the history of men, which Ihave learned from the books, and I
wonder. It was a long story, and the spirit which moved it was

(02:00:58):
the spirit of man's freedom. Butwhat is freedom? Freedom from what?
There is nothing to take a man'sfreedom away from him, save other men.
To be free, a man mustbe free of his brothers. That
is freedom, that and nothing else. At first man was enslaved by the

(02:01:26):
gods, but he broke their chains. Then he was enslaved by the kings,
but he broke their chains. Hewas enslaved by his birth, by
his kin, by his race,but he broke their chains. He declared
to all his brothers that a manhas rights which neither God, nor king,
nor other men can take away fromhim, no matter what their number,

(02:01:50):
For his is the right of man. And there is no right on
earth above this right. And hestood on the threshold to freedom, for
which the blood of the centuries behindhim had spilled. But then he gave
up all he had won, andfell lower than his savage beginning. What

(02:02:17):
brought it to pass? What disastertook their reason away from men? What
whip lashed them to their knees inshame and submission? The worship of the
word We. When men accepted thatworship, the structure of centuries collapsed about

(02:02:39):
them, the structure whose every beamhad come from the thought of some one
man, each in his day,down the ages, from the depths of
some one's spirit, such as spiritexisted, but for its own sake.
Those men who survived, those eagerto obey, eager to live for one

(02:03:00):
another. Since they had nothing elseto vindicate them, those men could neither
carry on nor preserve what they hadreceived. Thus did all thought, all
science, all wisdom perish on earth. Thus did men, men with nothing
to offer save their great numbers,lose the steel towers, the flying ships,

(02:03:24):
the power wires, all the thingsthat had not created and could never
keep. Perhaps later some men hadbeen born with the mind and the courage
to recover these things which were lost. Perhaps these men came before the Councilor
of Scholars. They answered as Ihad been answered and for the same reasons.

(02:03:45):
But I still wonder how it waspossible, in those graceless years of
transition long ago, that men didnot see whither they were going, and
went on in blindness and cowardice totheir fate. I wonder, for it
is hard for me to conceive howmen who knew the word I could give

(02:04:08):
it up and not know what theyhad lost. But such has been the
story. For I have lived inthe city of the damned, and I
know what horror men permitted to bebrought upon them. Perhaps in those days
there were few among men, afew of clear sight and clean soul,

(02:04:30):
who refused to surrender that word.What agony must have been theirs before that
which they saw coming and could notstop. Perhaps they cried out in protest
and in warning, but men paidno heed to their warning, and they
those few fought a hopeless battle,and they perished, with their banners smeared

(02:04:54):
by their own blood. And theychose to perish, for they knew to
them. I send my salute acrossthe centuries, and my pity theirs is
the banner in my hand, AndI wish I had the power to tell
them that the despair of their heartswas not to be final, and their

(02:05:16):
night was not without hope. Forthe battle they lost can never be lost.
For that which they died to save, can never perish. Through all
the darkness, through all the shameof which men are capable, the spirit
of man will remain alive on thisearth. It may sleep, but it

(02:05:41):
will awaken. It may wear chains, but it will break through, and
man will go on man not men. Here on this mountain, I and
my sons and my chosen friends shallbuild our new land and our fort,

(02:06:04):
and it will become as the heartof the earth, lost and hidden at
first, but beating, beating loudereach day, and word of it will
reach every corner of the earth,and the roads of the world will become
as veins which will carry the bestof the world's blood to my threshold.

(02:06:28):
And all my brothers and the councilsof my brothers will hear of it,
but they will be impotent against me. And the day will come when I
shall break the chains of the earthand raise the cities of the enslaved,
and my home will become the capitalof a world where each man will be
free to exist for his own sake, for the coming of that day,

(02:06:54):
I shall fight, I and mysons and my chosen friends, for the
freedom of man, for his rights, for his life, for his honor.
And here over the portals of myfort I shall cut in the stone
the word which is to be mybeacon and my banner. The word which

(02:07:20):
will not die, shall we allperish in battle. The word which can
never die on this earth, forit is the heart of it, and
the meaning and the glory, thesacred word ego end Chapter twelve, and

(02:07:43):
of anthem by an Ran

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