Looking Further Backward Annotated

Author : Arthur Vinton
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781544779195
Total Pages : 128 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (791 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Looking Further Backward written by Arthur Vinton and published by . This book was released on 2017-03-17 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 1890 Dystopian Science Fiction Thus far we have the testimony of Professor West as to the most apparent faults of what we now call the old order of society. He left behind him other writings than that from which I have just quoted, and these writings (among them, a diary of the events which he took part in) I shall have occasion to quote from later on. After his death at the battle of Lake Erie, his papers were taken possession of by the Chinese authorities, and upon my appointment to this professorship at Shawmut College, were delivered to me. Your previous studies will have told you what professor West mentions in his book, that the Nationalist idea of government prevailed at the opening of this century, in all of Europe, all of North America and in the greater part of South America, I do not think that he mentions that the Nationalistic notions also prevailed to an extent in India and Russian Asia; nor that the Nationalists of Great Britain had secured a quiet government only after the complete deportation of all the Irish to Australia - which since that day has been in a continued state of anarchy. China alone of all the principal nations upon the globe had retained her ancient civilization and form of government. It is fortunate for the world that she did so. So far, what I have had to say to you has been in the nature of an introduction. Let me now recite the events that brought about the fall of the Nationalistic system. Most of these events your previous studies have already made you acquainted with, but it is my purpose to so recite them that you can see the cause and effect of each and the relation which one bears to the others. We learn from our books of history that the French have always been a fickle nation, fond of change, eager in the pursuit of ideas. They were the first to follow the example of the United States and adopt the Nationalist idea of government. They were first also to depart from that idea. On the 6th of January, A. D. 2012, a riot broke out at Marseilles, the occasion being the public announcement of orders from the government to curtail the manufacture of toys. For many years France had been the toy-shop of the world and Paris had been the principal manufacturer and sales-agent of playthings; but in the preceding decade Marseilles had rivalled the industrial importance of Paris, and much jealousy and ill-feeling had in consequence been engendered between the two cities. When the orders from the central government were promulgated, it was at once believed by the Marseillais that the Parisians had secured their passage; and the occasion was used as a pretext to begin a revolution which we, in the light of subsequent events, and with the knowledge we now possess, have every reason to believe had been carefully arranged beforehand. I stood once on the slope of Tung-nan, one of the great mountain ranges of my mother country. I was well up toward the summit, and with my guides had halted for a little while to rest. Sitting on a projecting crag, far above the tree line, I, in an idle mood, cast upon the loose scoriae below a fragment of rock that had lain beside me. The missile did work that I had not contemplated. It struck the volcanic debris and rolled slowly downward ; and, as it went, other stones followed it, and they in turn dislodged other stones, until at length an avalanche roared down the mountain side beneath me. The idle casting of a stone had set huge fragments of rocks descending earthward. Trifles are sometimes pregnant ol great things. Great oaks from little acorns grow. The world is changed because a stone is thrown...