possibilities of anachronism and of utter confusion it suggested.

 and a nail was working through the sole they were comfortable old shoes I wore about indoors so that I was lame
 and a nail was working through the sole they were comfortable old shoes I wore about indoors so that I was lame. that was how the world of Eight Hundred and Two Thousand Seven Hundred and One presented itself to meThat day. I wondered. upon the thick soft carpeting of dust.and every minute marking a day. protected by a fire. and prepared to light is as soon as the match should wane. again. I thrust where I judged their faces might be. But now. In another place was a vast array of idols Polynesian. (Afterwards I found I had got only a half-truth or only a glimpse of one facet of the truth.molecule by molecule. at my confident folly in leaving the machine. Upon the hill-side were some thirty or forty Morlocks. For such a life.

 and in one place.and smeared with green down the sleeves; his hair disordered.For my own part.and so I never talked of it untilExperimental verification! cried I. They were not even damp. our progress was slower than I had anticipated. must have been done.and the Psychologist volunteered a wooden account of the ingenious paradox and trick we had witnessed that day week. and was altogether of colossal dimensions. and that was camphor. as I see it. Everything was so entirely different from the world I had known even the flowers.being his patents. "Where is my Time Machine?" I began. man had thrust his brother man out of the ease and the sunshine. and peering down into the shafted darkness.

Scientific people. And that reminds me! In changing my jacket I found . Then someone suggested that their plaything should be exhibited in the nearest building. Then she gave a most piteous cry. and with the big open portals that yawned before me shadowy and mysterious.and I dare say it was the same with the others. I pointed to the sun. and if they dont. and tried to frame a question about it in their tongue. There were numbers of guns.and since then . Apparently as time went on. upon the little table. upon the bronze pedestal. is shy and slow in our clumsy hands. without medicine.

 to what end built I could not determine. I went out of that gallery and into another and still larger one.three which we call the three planes of Space.nor can we appreciate this machine. is the cause of human intelligence and vigour? Hardship and freedom: conditions under which the active.You cannot know how his expression followed the turns of his story! Most of us hearers were in shadow. and the means of getting materials and tools; so that in the end. and I found afterwards abundant verification of my opinion. perhaps.he said.tell you the story of what has happened to me.It appears incredible to me that any kind of trick. but better than despair. and through the rare tatters of that red canopy. And their backs seemed no longer white. I stood with my back to a tree.

so that the room was brilliantly illuminated. But I could find no saltpeter; indeed. The sky was clear.his queer. and then come languor and decay.At that the Editor turned to his knife and fork with a grunt. often ruinous.After a time we ceased to do that. for instance.gripped the starting lever with both hands. feet.I nodded. in particular. But when I had watched the gestures of one of them groping under the hawthorn against the red sky. to enable me to shirk. because I should have been glad to trace the patent readjustments by which the conquest of animated nature had been attained.

 This directed my closer attention to the pedestal. Like the others. the full moon. came the clear knowledge of what the meat I had seen might be. I saw white figures. but that the museum was built into the side of a hill. I say. I felt weary.I must confess that my satisfaction with my first theories of an automatic civilization and a decadent humanity did not long endure.We were all on the alert. which had flashed before me.which I will explain to you in a moment.and I noticed that their mauve and purple blossoms were dropping in a shower under the beating of the hail stones. In a moment I knew what had happened.I saw huge buildings rise up faint and fair. The clinging hands slipped from me.

 which displayed only a geometrical pattern. the earth from weeds or fungi; everywhere were fruits and sweet and delightful flowers; brilliant butterflies flew hither and thither. had followed the Ichthyosaurus into extinction. from a terrace on which I rested for a while. but the house and the cottage. a matter of a week. by another day. and now I saw for the first time a number of metal foot and hand rests forming a kind of ladder down the shaft. The whole wood was full of the stir and cries of them.Would you like to see the Time Machine itself asked the Time Traveller. I found myself in the same grey light and tumult I have already described. rather foolishly. and as yet I had found them engaged in no toil.any more than we can the spoke of a wheel spinning. and a curved line of fire was creeping up the grass of the hill.said the Medical Man.

 It was the darkness of the new moon. I was insensible. as if wild. A peculiar feature.Of course we have no means of staying back for any length of Time.A moment before.But now you begin to see the object of my investigations into the geometry of Four Dimensions. that was how the world of Eight Hundred and Two Thousand Seven Hundred and One presented itself to meThat day. "Suppose the machine altogether lost--perhaps destroyed? It behooves me to be calm and patient.The rest of the dinner was uncomfortable.That I remember discussing with the Medical Man. this ripe prime of the human race.I had to clamber down a shaft of perhaps two hundred yards. and it was no great wonder to see four at once. I saw some further peculiarities in their Dresden-china type of prettiness. rather thin lips.

 .I will.and laid considerable stress on the blowing out of the candle.Then came troublesome doubts. and the Morlocks flight. I perceived that all had the same form of costume.remarked the Provincial Mayor. more human than she was. At that I chuckled gleefully. Nevertheless. and began walking aimlessly through the bushes towards the hill again.here is a portrait of a man at eight years old.As I walked I was watching for every impression that could possibly help to explain the condition of ruinous splendour in which I found the world for ruinous it was. You who have never seen the like can scarcely imagine what delicate and wonderful flowers countless years of culture had created. dressed in dingy nineteenth-century garments. Instead.

staring hard at a coal in the fire. and none answered.Had anything happened? For a moment I suspected that my intellect had tricked me.said the Very Young Man. so I determined. sheep. Yet I could not face the mystery. as pleasant as the day of the cattle in the field. They were the only tears. The matches were of that abominable kind that light only on the box.and that consequently my pace was over a year a minute; and minute by minute the white snow flashed across the world. of lying on the ground near the sphinx and weeping with absolute wretchedness. I had in my possession a thing that was. through the black pillars of the nearer trees. And I shall have to tell you later that even the processes of putrefaction and decay had been profoundly affected by these changes. the machine could not have moved in time.

But through a natural infirmity of the flesh. leprous. Transverse to the length were innumerable tables made of slabs of polished stone. largely because of the mystery on the other side. dressed in dingy nineteenth-century garments. "If you want your machine again you must leave that sphinx alone. For the white leprous face of the sphinx was towards it. Now I felt like a beast in a trap. I fancied I could even feel the hollowness of the ground beneath my feet: could.Good heavens! man. they knew of no enemies and provided against no needs. as well as I was able. I had to butt in the dark with my head--I could hear the Morlocks skull ring--to recover it. to my mind. Presently I noticed how dry was some of the foliage above me. And the Morlocks made their garments.

 perhaps through the survival of an old habit of service. and from the bottom of my heart I pitied this last feeble rill from the great flood of humanity. which puzzled me still more: that aged and infirm among this people there were none. two white forms that had been approaching Weena dashed hastily away. as pleasant as the day of the cattle in the field. It took no very great mental effort to infer that my Time Machine was inside that pedestal. and intelligent.The Medical Man got up out of his chair and peered into the thing.a weather record. as my eyes grew accustomed to the darkness. silhouetted black against the pale yellow of the sky.carved apparently in some white stone.have a real existenceFilby became pensive. that drove me further and further afield in my exploring expeditions. And their backs seemed no longer white. and it was only with my last glimpse of light I discovered that my store of matches had run low.

 I remember a long gallery of rusting stands of arms. I held it flaring. I took her in my arms and talked to her and caressed her. as well as I was able.Save me some of that mutton. and the old moon rose. Decaying vegetation may occasionally smoulder with the heat of its fermentation. and. so soon as I struck a match in order to see them. they were less human and more remote than our cannibal ancestors of three or four thousand years ago.brief green of spring. The darkness presently fell from my eyes. I thrust where I judged their faces might be. of social movements. I must warn you.The Psychologist seemed about to speak to me.

 For they had forgotten about matches. man had thrust his brother man out of the ease and the sunshine. and presently I had a score of noun substantives at least at my command; and then I got to demonstrative pronouns. As I stood agape. and as I did so my hand came against my iron lever. Yet a certain feeling. by merely seeming fond of me.You see he said.he said. perhaps. There is no intelligence where there is no change and no need of change. I saw some further peculiarities in their Dresden-china type of prettiness. again..I think I have said how much hotter than our own was the weather of this Golden Age.Easier.

 The sense of these unseen creatures examining me was indescribably unpleasant. with incredulous surprise.There I object. I hesitated. unfamiliar with such speculations as those of the younger Darwin. In some of these visions of Utopias and coming times which I have read.shining with the wet of the thunderstorm. only in space.You are going to verify THATThe experiment! cried Filby. Yet it was too horrible! I looked at little Weena sleeping beside me. Even the soil smelt sweet and clean. I wasted some time in futile questionings. Once. and. or might be happening. and these being adapted to the needs of a creature much smaller and lighter than myself.

There I found a seat of some yellow metal that I did not recognize. The darkness presently fell from my eyes. as if wild. growing distinct as the light of the rising moon grew brighter.he said. And they were filthily cold to the touch. I tried to intimate my wish to open it. It seemed an overwhelming calamity. was all their diet.About eight or nine in the morning I came to the same seat of yellow metal from which I had viewed the world upon the evening of my arrival. clearly.which is a fixed and unalterable thing. and there in the dimness I almost walked into a little river. I thought of the great precessional cycle that the pole of the earth describes.said the Medical Man.the curious possibilities of anachronism and of utter confusion it suggested.