Last and First Men

Last and First Men

By Olaf Stapledon.

Table of Contents

1. Titlepage
2. Imprint
3. Preface
4. Last and First Men
   1. Introduction
   2. I: Balkan Europe
      1. I: The European War and After
      2. II: The Anglo-French War
      3. III: Europe After the Anglo-French War
      4. IV: The Russo-German War
   3. II: Europe’s Downfall
      1. I: Europe and America
      2. II: The Origins of a Mystery
      3. III: Europe Murdered
   4. III: America and China
      1. I: The Rivals
      2. II: The Conflict
      3. III: On an Island in the Pacific
   5. IV: An Americanized Planet
      1. I: The Foundation of the First World State
      2. II: The Dominance of Science
      3. III: Material Achievement
      4. IV: The Culture of the First World State
      5. V: Downfall
   6. V: The Fall of the First Men
      1. I: The First Dark Age
      2. II: The Rise of Patagonia
      3. III: The Cult of Youth
      4. IV: The Catastrophe
   7. VI: Transition
      1. I: The First Men at Bay
      2. II: The Second Dark Age
   8. VII: The Rise of the Second Men
      1. I: The Appearance of a New Species
      2. II: The Intercourse of Three Species
      3. III: The Zenith of the Second Men
   9. VIII: The Martians
      1. I: The First Martian Invasion
      2. II: Life on Mars
      3. III: The Martian Mind
      4. IV: Delusions of the Martians
   10. IX: Earth and Mars
       1. I: The Second Men at Bay
       2. II: The Ruin of Two Worlds
       3. III: The Third Dark Age
   11. X: The Third Men in the Wilderness
       1. I: The Third Human Species
       2. II: Digressions of the Third Men
       3. III: The Vital Art
       4. IV: Conflicting Policies
   12. XI: Man Remakes Himself
       1. I: The First of the Great Brains
       2. II: The Tragedy of the Fourth Men
       3. III: The Fifth Men
       4. IV: The Culture of the Fifth Men
   13. XII: The Last Terrestrials
       1. I: The Cult of Evanescence
       2. II: Exploration of Time
       3. III: Voyaging in Space
       4. IV: Preparing a New World
   14. XIII: Humanity on Venus
       1. I: Taking Root Again
       2. II: The Flying Men
       3. III: A Minor Astronomical Event
   15. XIV: Neptune
       1. I: Bird’s-Eye View
       2. II: Da Capo
       3. III: Slow Conquest
   16. XV: The Last Men
       1. I: Introduction to the Last Human Species
       2. II: Childhood and Maturity
       3. III: A Racial Awakening
       4. IV: Cosmology
   17. XVI: The Last of Man
       1. I: Sentence of Death
       2. II: Behaviour of the Condemned
       3. III: Epilogue
5. List of Illustrations
6. Colophon
7. Uncopyright

Imprint

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Preface

This is a work of fiction. I have tried to invent a story which may seem a possible, or at least not wholly impossible, account of the future of man; and I have tried to make that story relevant to the change that is taking place today in man’s outlook.

To romance of the future may seem to be indulgence in ungoverned speculation for the sake of the marvellous. Yet controlled imagination in this sphere can be a very valuable exercise for minds bewildered about the present and its potentialities. Today we should welcome, and even study, every serious attempt to envisage the future of our race; not merely in order to grasp the very diverse and often tragic possibilities that confront us, but also that we may familiarize ourselves with the certainty that many of our most cherished ideals would seem puerile to more developed minds. To romance of the far future, then, is to attempt to see the human race in its cosmic setting, and to mould our hearts to entertain new values.

But if such imaginative construction of possible futures is to be at all potent, our imagination must be strictly disciplined. We must endeavour not to go beyond the bounds of possibility set by the particular state of culture within which we live. The merely fantastic has only minor power. Not that we should seek actually to prophesy what will as a matter of fact occur; for in our present state such prophecy is certainly futile, save in the simplest matters. We are not set up as historians attempting to look ahead instead of backwards. We can only select a certain thread out of the tangle of many equally valid possibilities. But we must select with a purpose. The activity that we are undertaking is not science, but art; and the effect that it should have on the reader is the effect that art should have.

Yet our aim is not merely to create aesthetically admirable fiction. We must achieve neither mere history, nor mere fiction, but myth. A true myth is one which, within the universe of a certain culture (living or