favourite plants and animals--and how few they are--gradually by

selective breeding; now a new and better peach, now a seedless

grape, now a sweeter and larger flower, now a more convenient breed

of cattle. We improve them gradually, because our ideals are vague

and tentative, and our knowledge is very limited; because Nature,

too, is shy and slow in our clumsy hands. Some day all this will

be better organized, and still better. That is the drift of the

current in spite of the eddies. The whole world will be intelligent,

educated, and co-operating; things will move faster and faster

towards the subjugation of Nature. In the end, wisely and carefully

we shall readjust the balance of animal and vegetable life to suit

our human needs.

'This adjustment, I say, must have been done, and done well; done

indeed for all Time, in the space of Time across which my machine

had leaped. The air was free from gnats, the earth from weeds or

fungi; everywhere were fruits and sweet and delightful flowers;

brilliant butterflies flew hither and thither. The ideal of

preventive medicine was attained. Diseases had been stamped out. I

saw no evidence of any contagious diseases during all my stay. And I

shall have to tell you later that even the processes of putrefaction

and decay had been profoundly affected by these changes.

'Social triumphs, too, had been effected. I saw mankind housed in

splendid shelters, gloriously clothed, and as yet I had found them

engaged in no toil. There were no signs of struggle, neither social

The Time Machine