Philip Van Doren Stern (ed) (13 page)

"I
am
afraid
I
cannot
convey
the
peculiar
sensations
of
time travelling.
They
are
excessively
unpleasant.
There
is
a
feeling
exactly like
that
one
has
upon
a
switchback—of
a
helpless
headlong
motion! I
felt
the
same
horrible
anticipation,
too,
of
an
imminent
smash.
As I
put
on
pace,
night
followed
day
like
the
flapping
of
a
black
wing. The
dim
suggestion
of
the
laboratory
seemed
presently
to
fall
away from
me,
and
I
saw
the
sun
hopping
swiftly
across
the
sky,
leaping it
every
minute,
and
every
minute
marking
a
day.
I
supposed
the laboratory
had
been
destroyed
and
I
had
come
into
the
open
air. I
had
a
dim
impression
of
scaffolding,
but
I
was
already
going
too fast
to
be
conscious
of
any
moving
things.
The
slowest
snail
that
ever crawled
dashed
by
too
fast
for
me.
The
twinkling
succession
of
darkness
and
light
was
excessively
painful
to
the
eye.
Then,
in
the
intermittent
darknesses,
I
saw
the
moon
spinning
swiftly
through
her quarters
from
new
to
full,
and
had
a
faint
glimpse
of
the
circling stars.
Presently,
as
I
went
on,
still
gaining
velocity,
the
palpitation of
night
and
day
merged
into
one
continuous
greyness;
the
sky
took on
a
wonderful
deepness
of
blue,
a
splendid
luminous
colour
like
that of
early
twilight;
the
jerking
sun
became
a
streak
of
fire,
a
brilliant
arch, in
space;
the
moon
a
fainter
fluctuating
band;
and
I
could
see
nothing of
the
stars,
save
now
and
then
a
brighter
circle
flickering
in
the
blue.

"The
landscape
was
misty
and
vague.
I
was
still
on
the
hillside upon
which
this
house
now
stands,
and
the
shoulder
rose
above
me grey
and
dim.
I
saw
trees
growing
and
changing
like
puffs
of
vapour, now
brown,
now
green;
they
grew,
spread,
shivered,
and
passed
away. I
saw
huge
buildings
rise
up
faint
and
fair,
and
pass
like
dreams.
The whole
surface
of
the
earth
seemed
changed—melting
and
flowing under
my
eyes.
The
little
hands
upon
the
dials
that
registered
my speed
raced
round
faster
and
faster.
Presently
I
noted
that
the
sun belt
swayed
up
and
down,
from
solstice
to
solstice,
in
a
minute
or less,
and
that
consequently
my
pace
was
over
a
year
a
minute;
and minute
by
minute
the
white
snow
flashed
across
the
world,
and vanished,
and
was
followed
by
the
bright,
brief
green
of
spring.

"The
unpleasant
sensations
of
the
start
were
less
poignant
now. They
merged
at
last
into
a
kind
of
hysterical
exhilaration.
I
remarked indeed
a
clumsy
swaying
of
the
machine
for
which
I
was
unable
to account.
But
my
mind
was
too
confused
to
attend
to
it,
so
with
a
kind of
madness
growing
upon
me,
I
flung
myself
into
futurity.
At
first I
scarce
thought
of
stopping,
scarce
thought
of
anything
but
these new
sensations.
But
presently
a
fresh
series
of
impressions
grew
up
in my
mind—a
certain
curiosity
and
therewith
a
certain
dread—until at
last
they
took
complete
possession
of
me.
What
strange
developments
of
humanity,
what
wonderful
advances
upon
our
rudimentary civilisation,
I
thought,
might
not
appear
when
I
came
to
look
nearly into
the
dim
elusive
world
that
raced
and
fluctuated
before
my
eyes! I
saw
great
and
splendid
architecture
rising
about
me,
more
massive than
any
buildings
of
our
own
time,
and
yet,
as
it
seemed,
built
of glimmer
and
mist.
I
saw
a
richer
green
flow
up
the
hillside,
and
remain there
without
any
wintery
intermission.
Even
through
the
veil
of
my confusion
the
earth
seemed
very
fair.
And
so
my
mind
came
round
to the
business
of
stopping.