Chapter XI

HERE BEGINS THE MODERN HISTORY OF HESPEROS.

How the two hemispheres were amalgamated—Concerning the Sympathetic
Telegraph; and how the great astonishment of the Hesperians at the
first sight of the Doctor was fully explained.

On the morning after the return of the ship the parliament met, and immediately passed a vote for the construction of a large fleet of submarine vessels, to be built on the pattern of the original whose voyage had proved so successful. It was evident that intercourse on a very large scale would take place between the two hemispheres. The southerly journey, as was now well known, might be effected in quite a different way; for an energetic blow on the head provided the intending traveller with a swift and gratuitous passage to the South Pole. But there were many objections to this mode of transit; and, at all events, the return journey was strictly confined to the submarine route.

So the new fleet was at once put on the stocks, and all the Hesperian dockyards were provided with work in abundance for several years. Meanwhile the original ship was kept on hard duty. On each voyage, and in both directions, she was crowded with passengers, some eager to see the new discovered world, others longing to revisit the scenes of their former life. Presently, as one of the results of the discovery, there arose an important question in international law. Whether those persons, now residing in the southern hemisphere, and subjects of its government, but whose evanescence had taken place subsequently to the establishment of the universal empire of the north, were still bound by their northern allegiance, or, had the fact of evanescence discharged them of that allegiance, thus leaving them lawful citizens of the south.

The question involved some nice points; but fortunately there never was any occasion to bring it to an issue. For, the advantages arising from the amalgamation of all the northern governments into one universal empire were so manifest, and were so thoroughly appreciated even in the south, that the union of the two hemispheres in one universal planet empire very speedily took place. In fact it took place immediately after the important preliminary question was settled, In which hemisphere should the seat of the central government be fixed? Many circumstances seemed to suggest that it should be in the south, and at the pole.

The explanation of the real significance of evanescence which ultimately revolutionized Hesperian life, was not the only piece of astounding intelligence imported into Lasondre by the submarine ship, on her first return voyage. Even in the midst of the general stupefaction occasioned by the return of the dead, the announcement of another extraordinary discovery excited the attention of the citizens. This was no less than a method whereby instantaneous communication might take place between two persons no matter how widely separated they might be on the surface of the planet.

The discovery was made in this way. About one thousand years earlier, a man who was an earnest student of chemical science, was engaged in trying some experiments at Lucetta. These experiments were of a highly dangerous character; and one day, notwithstanding all precautions, a terrific explosion took place. So violent was it, and so minute were the fragments to which the experimentalist’s body was thereby reduced, that there was scarcely need for the first law of evanescence to operate in removing the remains from the land of the living. However, of course, it _did_ operate, and the chemist was duly reintegrated at the South Pole. He was, as usual, received by the vigilance committee, who explained to him, as they were in duty bound to do, the circumstances of his new life.

The chemist, nothing daunted, proposed continuing his experiments; and the southern authorities, hearing the nature of them, and suspecting that a considerable series of sudden disintegrations and reintegrations of his body were likely to result, kindly assigned him a laboratory quite close to the pole—a fact which materially facilitated the memorable discovery which soon rewarded his labours.

At a distance of a few miles to the east there is a hill which is mainly composed of a singular-looking mineral which has not, as yet, been found anywhere else in the planet. This mineral occurs at a very small depth below the surface, in separate masses, none of them exceeding ten pounds in weight, is of a bright green colour, and possesses the remarkable property of very easily splitting into exceedingly fine rods, no thicker than an ordinary needle.

Desiring to make an analysis of this mineral, which the southerners called molygdon, the chemist procured a great quantity of these rods, cut them into lengths of a few inches, and tied them up tightly in bundles which he left for some days on a shelf in his laboratory till he was ready to examine them. When he was at leisure, he took one of these bundles, untied it, and threw the little rods into a flat vessel full of water, in which they floated, their specific gravity being small. To his great surprise the rods speedily assumed positions parallel to each other. He twisted one of them a little out of its direction, whereupon all the others turned through the same angle, so that the parallelism remained.

At last, after a long and careful series of experiments he succeeded in establishing the following momentous law:—Two needles of molygdon which have been kept in close contact for not less than thirty-six hours at any spot not exceeding three hundred yards’ distance from the South Pole, possess the property of always remaining parallel to each other, whenever they are freely suspended in parallel planes, no matter how they are situated with respect to each other on the surface of the planet.

This discovery afforded an easy mode of immediate communication between any two places in the southern hemisphere. All that was needful was to suspend two needles, rendered sympathetic by the above process, on pivots in the centres of two circular cards. A code of signals was easily devised, sufficient for ordinary purposes; and, by placing the letters of the alphabet round the edges of the cards, verbal conversation could be carried on.

Soon after the discovery of this important law of nature, the southern parliament resolved to utilise it on a vast scale by founding an institution which would enable any two persons, even without being in possession of two directly sympathizing needles, to communicate with each other. It was estimated that the population of the south was not much under twenty-five millions. Accordingly, twenty-five million pairs of these sympathetic needles were manufactured, and each needle was mounted in a suitable circular box. This was done at the national expense; the intention being that one box should be given to each inhabitant of the south, the corresponding box being deposited in a building to be erected in the metropolis for the special purpose of the safe custody of the duplicates. As each box was a small cylinder, not exceeding three inches in diameter and one inch in height, no very large space was required for their accommodation. These duplicates were all arranged in order and numbered; the corresponding number being stamped on each sympathetic box.

The process of conversation thus became very simple. For example, No. 23,482,657 wishes to say a few words to No. 10,334, who is somewhere, but where he knows not, in the southern hemisphere. He sends his message to the central depôt. The stirring of the needle there rings a small bell, and displays a white mark on the front of the box. The clerk on duty takes it down, reads the message; then taking box No. 10,334, he repeats it to the required correspondent. Of course, any two particular friends who may have occasion for frequent conversation can have, in addition, two special needles with which they can communicate directly.

All the passengers in the submarine ship were provided with these boxes, and, on their arrival at Lasondre, the question, whether the sympathetic influence extended to the northern hemisphere, was at once decided in the affirmative. Communication with the South Pole was just as easy from the north as from the south side of the equator.

The South Pole being thus the most convenient centre for communication with the entire surface of the planet, had evidently strong claims for selection as the site of the universal metropolis. And before two years, dating from the return of the ship, were over, the whole planet was united in one vast empire, and the seat of government fixed at Australis, as we may style the city of the South Pole.

The united government at once extended to the whole world the signalling system which had been so successfully carried out in the south; this, of course, involved an enormous addition to the depôt in Australis. And now, for the first time, the exact number of the primeval creation of the rational inhabitants was definitely ascertained. It was found that, at the era of the ship, there were in the northern hemisphere 70,589,347 persons, and in the southern 29,410,653; thus the total population, which had never been increased, nor, as they had just learned, diminished, was, as before stated, exactly one hundred millions, and these were equally divided between the male and female sexes.

Several years elapsed after the return of the ship before the stupendous change which had been wrought in the condition of the Hesperians, by the knowledge they had acquired of the indestructibility of life, began to produce the effects which afterwards became conspicuous. They were essentially a travel-loving race, and the great stimulus given to this propensity by the discovery of a new hemisphere seems for a time to have absorbed a good deal of their energies. The epoch, moreover, was immediately marked by the complete cessation of voluntary evanescence—in other words, of suicide, which, under the influence of the widely-spread world-weariness, had become only too common during the last age. When it was clearly understood that evanescence only meant change of place, the ignoble custom came to an end.

It is well worth notice that, at the era of the union, the southern empire, though numerically far inferior to the northern, had reached a very much higher stage of both moral and political development. This superiority is easily explained. For thousands of years the southerners had been acquainted with the true conditions of life; that is to say, they had known that each individual is an indelible unit, in no way to be obliterated; and, therefore, that it is expedient for society to make the best of him. This same knowledge also reacted on the individual, however badly disposed he might have been by nature. He knew perfectly well that he could no more get rid of the society than the society could get rid of him; that, in fact, society was by far the stronger of the two, and, for this reason, it was plainly his interest to conduct himself at least in an inoffensive manner. It was invariably found that such a course of behaviour, steadily maintained for a lengthened period, reacted so strongly on even a malignant character, that, in a century or two, the subject became a worthy member of society.

In the northern empire, on the other hand, as it was believed, and indeed with truth, that an undesirable and troublesome neighbour could at any time be suppressed, either by the gallows or some equivalent method, criminal legislation seems to have rather aimed at the extirpation than the reformation of the offender. But after the era of the ship, and subsequent union of the whole planet, all this was very speedily changed.

Through the entire period of ten thousand years which, at the time of my arrival, had elapsed since the beginning of the modern history, no revolutionizing discovery had taken place. But, slowly and silently, a change took place in the characters of the Hesperians, which ultimately led to the complete remodelling of the greater part of their social institutions. Evanescence, except as the result of accident, wholly disappeared, for the age of violence was passed, capital punishment was an impossibility, and suicide a fruitless ebullition of temper. The enforced toleration of everyone by everyone else, worked, in the course of ages, as its inevitable result, a greatly increased kindliness of disposition and demeanour; and this was still further helped when progress of time, combined with the absolute fixity of the population, brought about the strange state of things, that each individual was personally acquainted with every other member of the Hesperian multitude. The number of his acquaintances was 99,999,999.

And now we have the explanation of the great intensity of the astonishment which my sudden appearance in Lucetta excited in that town. Though not differing very much either in person or dress from many of themselves, yet the mere fact of my being a stranger to them was sufficient evidence that I was either a new creation on the planet, or had come from another world. In either case my arrival gave them hope that some light was about to be thrown on the great question which had vexed them all so long—Who was the Maker of the Universe?