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Project Gutenberg's The Time Machine, by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells |
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with |
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or |
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included |
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net |
Title: The Time Machine |
Author: H. G. (Herbert George) Wells |
Release Date: October 2, 2004 [EBook #35] |
[Last updated: October 3, 2014] |
Language: English |
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TIME MACHINE *** |
The Time Machine, by H. G. Wells [1898] |
I |
The Time Traveller (for so it will be convenient to speak of him) |
was expounding a recondite matter to us. His grey eyes shone and |
twinkled, and his usually pale face was flushed and animated. The |
fire burned brightly, and the soft radiance of the incandescent |
lights in the lilies of silver caught the bubbles that flashed and |
passed in our glasses. Our chairs, being his patents, embraced and |
caressed us rather than submitted to be sat upon, and there was that |
luxurious after-dinner atmosphere when thought roams gracefully |
free of the trammels of precision. And he put it to us in this |
way--marking the points with a lean forefinger--as we sat and lazily |
admired his earnestness over this new paradox (as we thought it) |
and his fecundity. |
'You must follow me carefully. I shall have to controvert one or two |
ideas that are almost universally accepted. The geometry, for |
instance, they taught you at school is founded on a misconception.' |
'Is not that rather a large thing to expect us to begin upon?' |
said Filby, an argumentative person with red hair. |
'I do not mean to ask you to accept anything without reasonable |
ground for it. You will soon admit as much as I need from you. You |
know of course that a mathematical line, a line of thickness _nil_, |
has no real existence. They taught you that? Neither has a |
mathematical plane. These things are mere abstractions.' |
'That is all right,' said the Psychologist. |
'Nor, having only length, breadth, and thickness, can a cube have a |
real existence.' |
'There I object,' said Filby. 'Of course a solid body may exist. All |
real things--' |
'So most people think. But wait a moment. Can an _instantaneous_ |
cube exist?' |
'Don't follow you,' said Filby. |
'Can a cube that does not last for any time at all, have a real |
existence?' |
Filby became pensive. 'Clearly,' the Time Traveller proceeded, 'any |
real body must have extension in _four_ directions: it must have |
Length, Breadth, Thickness, and--Duration. But through a natural |
infirmity of the flesh, which I will explain to you in a moment, we |
incline to overlook this fact. There are really four dimensions, |
three which we call the three planes of Space, and a fourth, Time. |
There is, however, a tendency to draw an unreal distinction between |
the former three dimensions and the latter, because it happens that |
our consciousness moves intermittently in one direction along the |
latter from the beginning to the end of our lives.' |
'That,' said a very young man, making spasmodic efforts to relight |
his cigar over the lamp; 'that ... very clear indeed.' |
'Now, it is very remarkable that this is so extensively overlooked,' |
continued the Time Traveller, with a slight accession of |
cheerfulness. 'Really this is what is meant by the Fourth Dimension, |
though some people who talk about the Fourth Dimension do not know |
they mean it. It is only another way of looking at Time. _There is |
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