not that year by the hand of man.

"Let this last but twelve months," said Adrian; "and earth will become a

Paradise. The energies of man were before directed to the destruction of

his species: they now aim at its liberation and preservation. Man cannot

repose, and his restless aspirations will now bring forth good instead of

evil. The favoured countries of the south will throw off the iron yoke of

servitude; poverty will quit us, and with that, sickness. What may not the

forces, never before united, of liberty and peace achieve in this dwelling

of man?"

Dreaming, for ever dreaming, Windsor!" said Ryland, the old adversary of

Raymond, and candidate for the Protectorate at the ensuing election. "Be

assured that earth is not, nor ever can be heaven, while the seeds of hell

are natives of her soil. When the seasons have become equal, when the air

breeds no disorders, when its surface is no longer liable to blights and

droughts, then sickness will cease; when men's passions are dead, poverty

will depart. When love is no longer akin to hate, then brotherhood will

exist: we are very far from that state at present."

"Not so far as you may suppose," observed a little old astronomer, by name

Merrival, "the poles precede slowly, but securely; in an hundred thousand

years--"

We shall all be underground," said Ryland.

288

The Last Man