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The Time Machine
Chapter 13. The Trap of the White Sphinx
"About eight or nine in the morning I came to the same seat of yellow metal from which I had viewed the world on the evening of my arrival".
I thought of my hasty conclusions that evening and couldn't stop myself from laughing bitterly at my confidence.
Here was the same beautiful scene, the same abundant foliage, the same splendid palaces and magnificent ruins, the same silver river running between its fertile banks.
The bright robes of the beautiful people moved this way and that among the trees.
Some were bathing in exactly the place where I had saved Weena, and that suddenly gave me a sharp pain.
And like black marks on the landscape rose the domes above the ways to the Underworld.
I understood now what all the beauty of the Overworld people covered.
Their day was very pleasant, as pleasant as the day of cattle in a field.
Like the cattle, they knew of no enemies and planned for no needs, and their end was the same.
"I felt sad when I thought how short the dream of the human mind had been".
It had destroyed itself in the end, the work of its own hands.
It had aimed for comfort and ease, a balanced society with safety and permanence goals, reached its hopes, only to end.
At one time, life and property must have been almost completely safe.
The rich had been sure of his wealth and comfort, the worker sure of his life and his work.
No doubt in that perfect world there had been no unemployment problem, no social question left unsolved, and a great quiet had followed.
"It's a law of nature we forget, that intellectual flexibility is the reward for change, danger, and trouble".
An animal in perfect harmony with its surroundings is a perfect machine.
Nature never asks for intelligence until habit and instinct aren't enough.
There's no intelligence where there's no change and no need for change.
Only those animals have intelligence that must meet a large variety of needs and dangers.
"So, as I see it, the Upperworld man had moved towards his weak prettiness, and the Underworld towards simple mechanical work".
But even for mechanical perfection that state lacked one thing absolute permanency.
Apparently as time went on, the feeding of an Underworld, however it was done, had become broken.
Mother Necessity, who had been kept away for a few thousand years, came back again, and she began below.
The Underworld, being in close contact with machinery, probably kept by force rather more initiative than the Upper.
Machinery, however perfect, still needs some small thought beyond habit, so they had less of every other human quality.
And when other meat failed them, they turned to what old habit had so far forbidden.
So I say I saw it in my last view of the world of Eight Hundred and Two Thousand Seven Hundred and One.
It may be as wrong an explanation as human thought could make.
It's how the thing shaped itself to me, and as that I give it to you.
"After the tired days, the excitements, and the terrors of the past days, and despite my grief, this seat and the quiet view and the warm sunlight were very pleasant".
I was very tired and sleepy, and soon my theorizing passed into dozing.
Catching myself at that, I took my own hint, and lying out on the grass I had a long and refreshing sleep.
"I woke a little before sunset".
I now felt safe from being caught napping by the Morlocks, and, stretching, I came down the hill towards the White Sphinx.
I had my crowbar in one hand, and the other hand played with the matches in my pocket.
"And now came a most unexpected thing".
As I reached the pedestal of the sphinx I found the bronze valves were open, they had slid down into grooves.
"At that I stopped short before them, hesitating to go in".
"Inside was a small room, and on a raised place in the corner of this was the Time Machine".
I had the small levers in my pocket.
So here, after all my careful plans for the siege of the White Sphinx, was a quiet surrender.
I threw my iron bar away, almost sorry I hadn't used it.
"A sudden thought came into my head as I bent towards the entrance".
For once, at least, I understood the Morlocks' thinking.
Holding back a strong urge to laugh, I stepped through the bronze frame and up to the Time Machine.
I was surprised to find it had been carefully oiled and cleaned.
I have guessed since that the Morlocks had even partly taken it to pieces while trying in their dim way to understand its purpose.
"Now as I stood and examined it, taking pleasure in the simple touch of the machine, the thing I had expected happened".
The bronze panels suddenly slid up and hit the frame with a clang.
I was in the dark, trapped, so the Morlocks thought, At that I chuckled with joy.
"I could already hear their low laughter as they came towards me".
Very calmly I tried to light a match.
I only had to fix on the levers and leave then like a ghost.
But I had missed one small thing.
The matches were of that awful kind that light only on the box.
"You can imagine how all my calm went".
The little brutes were close to me, One touched me.
I made a sweeping blow in the dark at them with the levers, and began to climb into the saddle of the machine.
Then came one hand on me and then another.
Then I had simply to fight against their tight fingers for my levers, and at the same time feel for the studs over which these fitted.
One, indeed, they nearly took from me.
As it slipped from my hand, I butted in the dark with my head and heard Morlock's skull ring to get it back.
It was a nearer thing than the fight in the forest, I think, this last struggle.
"But at last the lever was fixed and pulled over".
The clinging hands slipped from me, the darkness soon fell from my eyes.
I found myself in the same grey light and noise I have already described.