of things which having existed many thousand years, seemed eternal; such a

state of government, obedience, traffic, and domestic intercourse, as had

moulded our hearts and capacities, as far back as memory could reach. Then

to patriotic zeal, to the arts, to reputation, to enduring fame, to the

name of country, we had bidden farewell. We saw depart all hope of

retrieving our ancient state--all expectation, except the feeble one of

saving our individual lives from the wreck of the past. To preserve these

we had quitted England--England, no more; for without her children, what

name could that barren island claim? With tenacious grasp we clung to such

rule and order as could best save us; trusting that, if a little colony

could be preserved, that would suffice at some remoter period to restore

the lost community of mankind.

But the game is up! We must all die; nor leave survivor nor heir to the

wide inheritance of earth. We must all die! The species of man must perish;

his frame of exquisite workmanship; the wondrous mechanism of his senses;

the noble proportion of his godlike limbs; his mind, the throned king of

these; must perish. Will the earth still keep her place among the planets;

will she still journey with unmarked regularity round the sun; will the

seasons change, the trees adorn themselves with leaves, and flowers shed

their fragrance, in solitude? Will the mountains remain unmoved, and

streams still keep a downward course towards the vast abyss; will the tides

rise and fall, and the winds fan universal nature; will beasts pasture,

birds fly, and fishes swim, when man, the lord, possessor, perceiver, and

recorder of all these things, has passed away, as though he had never been?

O, what mockery is this! Surely death is not death, and humanity is not

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The Last Man