Beginnings of Civilization
The Round Table soon heard of the challenge, and of course it was a good deal discussed, for such things interested the boys. The kingⒶalteration in the MS thought I ought now to set forth in quest of adventures, so that I might gain renown and be the more worthy to meet Sir SagramourⒶemendation Ⓐalteration in the MS when the severalⒶalteration in the MS years should have rolled away.Ⓐalteration in the MS I excused myself for the present; I said it would take me three or four years, yet, to get things well fixed up and going smoothly; then I should be ready; all the chances were that at the end of that time Sir SagramourⒶemendation would still be out grailingⒶemendation, so no valuable time would be lost by the postponement; I should then have been in office six or seven years, and I believed my system and machinery would be so well developed that I could take a holiday without itsⒶemendation working any harm.
I was pretty well satisfied with what I had already accomplished. In various quiet nooks and corners I [begin page 127] had the beginnings of all sorts of industries under way—nuclei of future vast factories, the iron and steel missionaries of my future civilization. In these were gathered together the brightest young minds I could find, and I kept agents out raking the country forⒶalteration in the MS more, all the time. I was training a crowd of ignorant folkⒶrejected substantive into experts—experts in every sort of handiwork and scientific calling. These nurseries of mine went smoothly and privately alongⒶrejected substantive undisturbed in their obscure country retreats, for nobody was allowed to come into their precincts without a special permit—for I was afraid of the Church.
I had started a teacher-factory and a lot of Sunday schoolsⒶalteration in the MS the first thing; as a result, I now had an admirable system of graded schools in full blast in those places, and also a complete variety of Protestant congregationsⒶalteration in the MS all in a prosperous and growing condition. Everybody couldⒶrejected substantive be any kind of a ChristianⒶemendation he wanted to; there was perfect freedom in that matter. But I confined public religious teaching to the churches and the Sunday schools, permitting nothing of it in my other educational buildings. I could have given my own sect the preference andⒶemendation made everybody a Presbyterian without any trouble, but that would have been to affrontⒶemendation a law of human nature: spiritual wants and instincts are as various in the human family as are physical appetites, complexions and features, and a man is only at his best, morally, when he is equipped with the religious garment whose color and shape and size most nicely accommodate themselves to the spiritualⒶalteration in the MS complexion, angularities and stature of the individual who wears it; and besides, I was afraid of a united church; it makes a mighty power, the mightiest conceivable, and then when it by and by gets into selfish hands, as it is always bound to do, it means death to human liberty, and paralysis to human thought.
All mines were royal property, and there were a good many of them. They had formerly been worked as savages always work mines—holes grubbed in the earth and the mineral brought up in sacks of hide by hand, at the rate of a ton a day; but I had begun to put the mining on a scientific basis as early as I could.
Yes, I had made pretty handsome progress when Sir Sagramour’sⒶemendation challenge struck me.Ⓐalteration in the MS
Four years rolledⒶrejected substantive by—and then! Well, you would never imagine it in the world. Unlimited power is the ideal thing—when it is in safe [begin page 128] hands. The despotism of heaven is the one absolutely perfect government. An earthly despotism would be the absolutely perfect earthly government, if the conditions were the same, namely, the despot the perfectest individual of the human race, and his lease of life perpetual. But as a perishableⒶalteration in the MS perfect man must die, and leaveⒶalteration in the MS his despotism in the hands of an imperfect successor, an earthly despotism is not merely a bad form of government, it is the worst form that is possible.Ⓐalteration in the MS Ⓐalteration in the MS
My works showed what a despot could do, with the resources of a kingdom at his command. Unsuspected by this dark land, I had the civilization of the nineteenth century booming under its very nose! It was fenced away from the public view, but there it was, a gigantic and unassailable fact—and to be heard from, yet, if I lived and had luck. There it was, as sure a fact, and as substantial a fact as any serene volcano, standing innocent with its smokeless summit in the blue sky and giving no sign of the rising hell in its bowels. My schools and churches were childrenⒶalteration in the MS four years before; they were grown-up, now; [begin page 129] my littleⒶemendation Ⓐrejected substantive shops of that day were vastⒶalteration in the MS factories, now; where I had a dozen trained men then, I had a thousand now; where I had one brilliant expert then, I had fifty now. I stoodⒶalteration in the MS with my fingerⒶemendation Ⓐrejected substantive on the buttonⒶemendation Ⓐrejected substantive, so to speak, ready to press itⒶemendation Ⓐrejected substantive Ⓐtextual note and flood the midnight world with intolerableⒶemendation Ⓐrejected substantive light at any moment.Ⓐalteration in the MS But I was not going to do the thing in that sudden way. It was not my policy. The people could not have stood it; and moreover I should have had the Established Roman Catholic Church on my back in a minuteⒶrejected substantive.
No, I had been going cautiously, all the while. I had had confidential agents trickling through the country some time, whose office was to undermineⒶalteration in the MS knighthood by imperceptible degrees, and to gnaw a little at this and that and the other superstition, and so prepare the way gradually for a better order of things. I was turning on my light oneⒶalteration in the MS candle-power at a time, and meant to continue to do so.
I had scattered some branch schools secretly about the kingdom, and they were doing very well. I meant to work this racket more and more, as time wore on, if nothing occurred to frightenⒶrejected substantive Ⓐtextual note me. One of my deepest secrets was my West Point—my military academy. I kept that most jealously out of sight; and I did the same with my naval academy which I had established at a remote seaport. Both were prospering to my satisfactionⒶrejected substantive.
Clarence was twenty-two, now, and was myⒶalteration in the MS head executive, my right hand. He was a darling; he was equal to anything; there wasn’t [begin page 130] anything he couldn’t turn his hand to. Of late I had been training him for journalism, for the time seemed about right for a start in the newspaper line; nothing big, but just a small weekly for experimental circulation in my civilization-nurseries. He took to it like a duck; there was an editor concealed in him sure. Already he had doubled himself in one way: he talked sixth century, and wrote nineteenth. His journalisticⒶalteration in the MS style was climbing, steadily; it was already up to the back-settlement Alabama mark, and couldn’t be told from the editorial output of that region either byⒶrejected substantive matter or flavor.
We had another largeⒶalteration in the MS departure on hand, too. This was a telegraph and a telephoneⒶalteration in the MS; our first venture in thisⒶalteration in the MS lineⒶalteration in the MS. These wires wereⒶalteration in the MS for private service only, as yet, and must be kept private until a riper day should come. We had a gangⒶemendation Ⓐalteration in the MS of men on the road, working mainly by night. They were stringing ground wiresⒶalteration in the MS; we were afraid to put up poles, for they would attract too much inquiry. Ground wires were good enough, in both instances, for my wires were protected by an insulation of my own invention which was perfectⒶalteration in the MS. My men had orders to strike across country, avoidingⒶalteration in the MS roads, and establishing connection with any considerable towns whose lights betrayed their presence, and leaving experts in charge. Nobody could tell you how to find any place in the kingdom, for nobody ever went intentionally to any place, but only struck it by accident in his wanderings, and then generally left it without thinking to inquire what its name was. At one time and another we had sent out topographical expeditions to survey and map the kingdom, but the priests had always interfered and raised trouble. So we had given the thing up, for the present; it would be poor wisdom to antagonize the Church.
As for the general condition of the country, it was as it had been when I arrived in it, to all intents and purposes. I had made changes, but they were necessarily slight, and they were not noticeable. Thus far, I had not even meddled with taxationⒶalteration in the MS, outside of the taxesⒶalteration in the MS which provided the royal revenues. I had systematized those, and put the serviceⒶalteration in the MS on an effective and righteous basis. As a result, these revenues were already quadrupled, and yet the burden was so much more equably distributed than before, that all the kingdom felt a sense of relief, and the praises of my administration were hearty and general.
Personally, I struck an interruption, now, but I did not mind it, it could not have happened at a better time. Earlier it could have an- [begin page 131] noyed me, but now everything was in good hands and swimming right along. The king had reminded me several times, of late, that the postponement I had asked for four years before had about run out, now. It was a hint that I ought to be starting out to seek adventures and get up a reputation of a size to make me worthy of the honor of breaking a lance with Sir Sagramour, who was still out grailing, but was being hunted for by various relief expeditions, and might be found any year, now. So you see I was expecting this interruption; it did not take me by surprise.
