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Chapter 3 We,
Equality 7-2521, have discovered a new power of nature. And we have
discovered it alone, and we are to know it.
It
is said. Now let us be lashed for it, if we must. The Council of Scholars
has said that we all know the things which exist and therefore all the
things which are not known by all do not exist. But we think that the
Council of Scholars is blind. The secrets of this earth are not for all
men to see, but only for those who will seek them. We know, for we have
found a secret unknown to all our brothers.
We
know not what this power is nor whence it comes. But we know its nature,
we have watched it and worked with it. We saw it first two years ago. One
night, we were cutting open the body of a dead frog when we saw its leg
jerking. It was dead, yet it moved. Some power unknown to men was making
it move. We could not understand it. Then, after many tests, we found the
answer. The frog had been hanging on a wire of copper; and it had been the
metal of our knife which had sent a strange power to the copper through
the brine of the frog's body. We put a piece of copper and a piece of zinc
into a jar of brine, we touched a wire to them, and there, under our
fingers, was a miracle which had never occurred before, a new miracle and
a new power. This
discovery haunted us. We followed it in preference to all our studies. We
worked with it, we tested in more ways than we can describe, and each step
was another miracle unveiling before us. 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 needle move and turn on the compass which we stole from the Home
of the Scholars; but we had been taught, when still a child, that the
loadstone points to the north and this is a law which nothing can change;
yet our new power defies all laws. We found that it causes lightning, and
never have men known what causes lightning. In thunderstorms, we raised a
tall rod of iron by the side of our hole, and we watched it from below. We
have seen the lightning strike it again and again. And now we know that
metal draws the power of the sky, and that metal can be made to give it
forth. We
have built strange things with this discovery of ours. We used for it the
copper wires which we found here under the ground. We have walked the
length of our tunnel, with a candle lighting the way. We could go no
farther than half a mile, for earth and rock had fallen at both ends. But
we gathered all the things we found and we brought them to our work place.
We found strange boxes with bars of metal inside, with many cords and
strands and coils of metal. We found wires that led to strange little
globes of glass on the walls; they contained threads of metal thinner than
a spider's web. These
things help us in our work. We do not understand them, but we think that
the men of the Unmentionable Times had known our power of the sky, and
these things had some relation to it. We do not know, but we shall learn.
We cannot stop now, even though it frightens us that we are alone in our
knowledge. No
single one can possess greater wisdom than the many Scholars who are
elected by all men for their wisdom. Yet we can. We do. We have fought
against saying it, but now it is said. We do not care. We forget all men,
all laws and all things save our metals and our wires. So much is still to
be learned! So long a road lies before us, and what care we if we must
travel it alone! |
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