Back to Methuselah

She-Ancient Children with anything wrong do not live here, my child. Life is not cheap with us. But you would not have felt anything. The Newly Born You mean that you would have murdered me! The She-Ancient That is one of the funny words the newly born bring with them out of the past. You will forget it tomorrow. Now listen. You have four years of childhood before you. You will not be very happy; but you will be interested and amused by the novelty of the world; and your companions here will teach you how to keep up an imitation of happiness during your four years by what they call arts and sports and pleasures. The worst of your troubles is already over. The Newly Born What! In five minutes? The She-Ancient No: you have been growing for two years in the egg. You began by being several sorts of creatures that no longer exist, though we have fossils of them. Then you became human; and you passed in fifteen months through a development that once cost human beings twenty years of awkward stumbling immaturity after they were born. They had to spend fifty years more in the sort of childhood you will complete in four years. And then they died of decay. But you need not die until your accident comes. The Newly Born What is my accident? The She-Ancient Sooner or later you will fall and break your neck; or a tree will fall on you; or you will be struck by lightning. Something or other must make an end of you some day. The Newly Born But why should any of these things happen to me? The She-Ancient There is no why. They do. Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough. And with us there is eternity. The Newly Born Nothing need happen. I never heard such nonsense in all my life. I shall know how to take care of myself. The She-Ancient So you think. The Newly Born I don’t think: I know. I shall enjoy life forever and ever. The She-Ancient If you should turn out to be a person of infinite capacity, you will no doubt find life infinitely interesting. However, all you have to do now is to play with your companions. They have many pretty toys, as you see: a playhouse, pictures, images, flowers, bright fabrics, music: above all, themselves; for the most amusing child’s toy is another child. At the end of four years, your mind will change: you will become wise; and then you will be entrusted with power. The Newly Born But I want power now. The She-Ancient No doubt you do; so that you could play with the world by tearing it to pieces. The Newly Born Only to see how it is made. I should put it all together again much better than before. The She-Ancient There was a time when children were given the world to play with because they promised to improve it. They did not improve it; and they would have wrecked it had their power been as great as that which you will wield when you are no longer a child. Until then your young companions will instruct you in whatever is necessary. You are not forbidden to speak to the ancients; but you had better not do so, as most of them have long ago exhausted all the interest there is in observing children and conversing with them. She turns to go. The Newly Born Wait. Tell me some things that I ought to do and ought not to do. I feel the need of education. They all laugh at her, except the She-Ancient. The She-Ancient You will have grown out of that by tomorrow. Do what you please. She goes away up the hill path. The officials take their paraphernalia and the fragments of the egg back into the temple. Acis Just fancy: that old girl has been going for seven hundred years and hasn’t had her fatal accident yet; and she is not a bit tired of it all. The Newly Born How could anyone ever get tired of life? Acis They do. That is, of the same life. They manage to change themselves in a wonderful way. You meet them sometimes with a lot of extra heads and arms and legs: they make you split laughing at them. Most of them have forgotten how to speak: the ones that attend to us have to brush up their knowledge of the language once a year or so. Nothing makes any difference to them that I can see. They never enjoy themselves. I don’t know how they can stand it. They don’t even come to our festivals of the arts. That old one who saw you out of your shell has gone off to moodle about doing nothing; though she knows that this is Festival Day? The Newly Born What is Festival Day? Acis Two of our greatest sculptors are bringing us their latest masterpieces; and we are going to crown them with flowers and sing dithyrambs to them and dance round them. The Newly Born How jolly! What is a sculptor? Acis Listen here, young one. You must find out things for yourself, and not ask questions. For the first day or two you must keep your eyes and ears open and your mouth shut. Children should be seen and not heard. The Newly Born Who are you calling a child? I am fully a quarter of an hour old. She sits down on the curved bench near Strephon with her maturest air. Voices In The Temple All expressing protest, disappointment, disgust. Oh! Oh! Scandalous. Shameful. Disgraceful. What filth! Is this a joke? Why, they’re ancients! Ss-s-s-sss! Are you mad, Arjillax? This is an outrage. An insult. Yah! etc. etc. etc. The malcontents appear on the steps, grumbling. Acis Hullo: what’s the matter? He goes to the steps of the temple. The two sculptors issue from the temple. One has a beard two feet long: the other is beardless. Between them comes