I have said that Christine called the old man her grandfather. We have
long, long since agreed to forget old ties of blood. How can father
and son, mother and daughter, brother and sister continue for hundreds
of years, and when all remain fixed at the same age, to keep up the
old relationship? The maternal love dies out with us--it is now but
seldom called into existence--when the child can run about. Why not?
The animals, from whom we learn so much, desert their offspring when
they can feed themselves; our mothers cease to care for their children
when they are old enough to be the charge of the Community. Therefore
Christine's mother cheerfully suffered the child to leave her as soon
as she was old enough to sit in the Public Hall. Her grandfather--if
indeed he was her grandfather--obtained permission to have the child
with him. So she remained in the quiet Museum. We never imagined or
suspected, however, that the old man, who was eighty at the time of
the Great Discovery, remembered everything that took place when he was
young, and talked with the girl all day long about the Past.
I do not know who was Christine's father. It matters not now; and,
indeed, he never claimed his daughter. One smiles to think of the
importance formerly attached to fathers. We no longer work for their
support. We are no longer dependent upon their assistance; the father
does nothing for the son, nor the son for the father. Five hundred
years ago, say--or a thousand years ago--the father carried a baby in
his arms. What then? My own father--I believe he is my own father, but
on this point I may be mistaken--I saw yesterday taking his turn in
the hay-field. He seemed distressed with the heat and fatigue of it.
Why not? It makes no difference to me. He is, though not so young,
still as strong and as able-bodied as myself. Christine was called into
existence by the sanction of the College when one of the Community was
struck dead by lightning. It was my brother, I believe. The terrible
event filled us all with consternation. However, the population having
thus been diminished by one, it was resolved that the loss should be
repaired. There was precedent. A great many years previously, owing to
a man being killed by the fall of a hay-rick--all hay-ricks are now
made low--another birth had been allowed. That was a boy.
Let us now return to our Square. On the same side are the buildings
of the College. Here are the Anatomical collections, the storehouse
of Materia Medica, and the residences of the Arch Physician, the
Suffragan, the Fellows of the College or Associate Physicians, and the
Assistants or Experimenters. The buildings are plain and fire-proof.
The College has its own private gardens, which are large and filled
with trees. Here the Physicians walk and meditate, undisturbed by the
outer world. Here is also their Library.
On the North side of the Square stands the great and venerable House of
Life, the Glory of the City, the Pride of the whole Country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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