between the Capitalist and the Labourer, was the key to
the whole position. No doubt it will seem grotesque The Time Machine
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enough to you—and wildly incredible!—and yet even
now there are existing circumstances to point that way.
There is a tendency to utilize underground space for the
less ornamental purposes of civilization; there is the
Metropolitan Railway in London, for instance, there are
new electric railways, there are subways, there are
underground workrooms and restaurants, and they
increase and multiply. Evidently, I thought, this tendency
had increased till Industry had gradually lost its birthright
in the sky. I mean that it had gone deeper and deeper into
larger and ever larger underground factories, spending a
still-increasing amount of its time therein, till, in the
end—! Even now, does not an East-end worker live in
such artificial conditions as practically to be cut off from
the natural surface of the earth?
‘Again, the exclusive tendency of richer people—due,
no doubt, to the increasing refinement of their education,
and the widening gulf between them and the rude
violence of the poor— is already leading to the closing, in
their interest, of considerable portions of the surface of the
land. About London, for instance, perhaps half the prettier
country is shut in against intrusion. And this same
widening gulf—which is due to the length and expense of
the higher educational process and the increased facilities The Time Machine
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for and temptations towards refined habits on the part of
the rich—will make that exchange between class and class,
that promotion by intermarriage which at present retards
the splitting of our species along lines of social
stratification, less and less frequent. So, in the end, above
ground you must have the Haves, pursuing pleasure and
comfort and beauty, and below ground the Have-nots, the
Workers getting continually adapted to the conditions of
their labour. Once they were there, they would no doubt
have to pay rent, and not a little of it, for the ventilation of
their caverns; and if they refused, they would starve or be
suffocated for arrears. Such of them as were so constituted
as to be miserable and rebellious would die; and, in the
end, the balance being permanent, the survivors would
become as well adapted to the conditions of underground
life, and as happy in their way, as the Upper-world people
were to theirs. As it seemed to me, the refined beauty and
the etiolated pallor followed naturally enough.
‘The great triumph of Humanity I had dreamed of took
a different shape in my mind. It had been no such triumph
of moral education and general co-operation as I had
imagined. Instead, I saw a real aristocracy, armed with a
perfected science and working to a logical conclusion the
industrial system of to-day. Its triumph had not been The Time Machine
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simply a triumph over Nature, but a triumph over Nature
and the fellow-man. This, I must warn you, was my
theory at the time. I had no convenient cicerone in the
pattern of the Utopian books. My explanation may be
absolutely wrong. I still think it is the most plausible one.
But even on this supposition the balanced civilization that
was at last attained must have long since passed its zenith,
and was now far fallen into decay. The too-perfect
security of the Upper-worlders had led them to a slow
movement of degeneration, to a general dwindling in size,
strength, and intelligence. That I could see clearly enough
already. What had happened to the Under-grounders I did
not yet suspect; but from what I had seen of the
Morlocks—that, by the by, was the name by which these
creatures were called—I could imagine that the
modification of the human type was even far more
profound than among the ‘Eloi,’ the beautiful race that I
already knew.
‘Then came troublesome doubts. Why had the
Morlocks taken my Time Machine? For I felt sure it was
they who had taken it. Why, too, if the Eloi were masters,
could they not restore the machine to me? And why were
they so terribly afraid of the dark? I proceeded, as I have
said, to question Weena about this Under-world, but here The Time Machine
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again I was disappointed. At first she would not
understand my questions, and presently she refused to
answer them. She shivered as though the topic was
unendurable. And when I pressed her, perhaps a little
harshly, she burst into tears. They were the only tears,
except my own, I ever saw in that Golden Age. When I
saw them I ceased abruptly to trouble about the Morlocks,
and was only concerned in banishing these signs of the
human inheritance from Weena’s eyes. And very soon she
was smiling and clapping her hands, while I solemnly
burned a match. The Time Machine
82 of 148
VI
‘It may seem odd to you, but it was two days before I
could follow up the new-found clue in what was
manifestly the proper way. I felt a peculiar shrinking from
those pallid bodies. They were just the half-bleached
colour of the worms and things one sees preserved in spirit
in a zoological museum. And they were filthily cold to the
touch. Probably my shrinking was largely due to the
sympathetic influence of the Eloi, whose disgust of the
Morlocks I now began to appreciate.
‘The next night I did not sleep well. Probably my
health was a little disordered. I was oppressed with
perplexity and doubt. Once or twice I had a feeling of
intense fear for which I could perceive no definite reason.
I remember creeping noiselessly into the great hall where
the little people were sleeping in the moonlight—that
night Weena was among them—and feeling reassured by
their presence. It occurred to me even then, that in the
course of a few days the moon must pass through its last
quarter, and the nights grow dark, when the appearances
of these unpleasant creatures from below, these whitened
Lemurs, this new vermin that had replaced the old, might The Time Machine
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be more abundant. And on both these days I had the
restless feeling of one who shirks an inevitable duty. I felt
assured that the Time Machine was only to be recovered
by boldly penetrating these underground mysteries. Yet I
could not face the mystery. If only I had had a companion
it would have been different. But I was so horribly alone,
and even to clamber down into the darkness of the well
appalled me. I don’t know if you will understand my
feeling, but I never felt quite safe at my back.
‘It was this restlessness, this insecurity, perhaps, that
drove me further and further afield in my exploring
expeditions. Going to the south-westward towards the
rising country that is now called Combe Wood, I
observed far off, in the direction of nineteenth-century
Banstead, a vast green structure, different in character from
any I had hitherto seen. It was larger than the largest of the
palaces or ruins I knew, and the facade had an Oriental
look: the face of it having the lustre, as well as the pale-
green tint, a kind of bluish-green, of a certain type of
Chinese porcelain. This difference in aspect suggested a
difference in use, and I was minded to push on and
explore. But the day was growing late, and I had come
upon the sight of the place after a long and tiring circuit;
so I resolved to hold over the adventure for the following The Time Machine
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day, and I returned to the welcome and the caresses of
little Weena. But next morning I perceived clearly enough
that my curiosity regarding the Palace of Green Porcelain
was a piece of self-deception, to enable me to shirk, by
another day, an experience I dreaded. I resolved I would
make the descent without further waste of time, and
started out in the early morning towards a well near the
ruins of granite and aluminium.
‘Little Weena ran with me. She danced beside me to
the well, but when she saw me lean over the mouth and
look downward, she seemed strangely disconcerted.
‘Good-bye, Little Weena,’ I said, kissing her; and then
putting her down, I began to feel over the parapet for the
climbing hooks. Rather hastily, I may as well confess, for I
feared my courage might leak away! At first she watched
me in amazement. Then she gave a most piteous cry, and
running to me, she began to pull at me with her little
hands. I think her opposition nerved me rather to
proceed. I shook her off, perhaps a little roughly, and in
another moment I was in the throat of the well. I saw her
agonized face over the parapet, and smiled to reassure her.
Then I had to look down at the unstable hooks to which I
clung. The Time Machine
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‘I had to clamber down a shaft of perhaps two hundred
yards. The descent was effected by means of metallic bars
projecting from the sides of the well, and these being
adapted to the needs of a creature much smaller and
lighter than myself, I was speedily cramped and fatigued by
the descent. And not simply fatigued! One of the bars bent
suddenly under my weight, and almost swung me off into
the blackness beneath. For a moment I hung by one hand,
and after that experience I did not dare to rest again.
Though my arms and back were presently acutely painful,
I went on clambering down the sheer descent with as
quick a motion as possible. Glancing upward, I saw the
aperture, a small blue disk, in which a star was visible,
while little Weena’s head showed as a round black
projection. The thudding sound of a machine below grew
louder and more oppressive. Everything save that little
disk above was profoundly dark, and when I looked up
again Weena had disappeared.
‘I was in an agony of discomfort. I had some thought of
trying to go up the shaft again, and leave the Under-world
alone. But even while I turned this over in my mind I
continued to descend. At last, with intense relief, I saw
dimly coming up, a foot to the right of me, a slender
loophole in the wall. Swinging myself in, I found it was The Time Machine
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the aperture of a narrow horizontal tunnel in which I
could lie down and rest. It was not too soon. My arms
ached, my back was cramped, and I was trembling with
the prolonged terror of a fall. Besides this, the unbroken
darkness had had a distressing effect upon my eyes. The air
was full of the throb and hum of machinery pumping air
down the shaft.
‘I do not know how long I lay. I was roused by a soft
hand touching my face. Starting up in the darkness I
snatched at my matches and, hastily striking one, I saw
three stooping white creatures similar to the one I had
seen above ground in the ruin, hastily retreating before the
light. Living, as they did, in what appeared to me
impenetrable darkness, their eyes were abnormally large
and sensitive, just as are the pupils of the abysmal fishes,
and they reflected the light in the same way. I have no
doubt they could see me in that rayless obscurity, and they
did not seem to have any fear of me apart from the light.
But, so soon as I struck a match in order to see them, they
fled incontinently, vanishing into dark gutters and tunnels,
from which their eyes glared at me in the strangest fashion.
‘I tried to call to them, but the language they had was
apparently different from that of the Over-world people;
so that I was needs left to my own unaided efforts, and the The Time Machine
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thought of flight before exploration was even then in my
mind. But I said to myself, ‘You are in for it now,’ and,
feeling my way along the tunnel, I found the noise of
machinery grow louder. Presently the walls fell away from
me, and I came to a large open space, and striking another
match, saw that I had entered a vast arched cavern, which
stretched into utter darkness beyond the range of my light.
The view I had of it was as much as one could see in the
burning of a match.
‘Necessarily my memory is vague. Great shapes like big
machines rose out of the dimness, and cast grotesque black
shadows, in which dim spectral Morlocks sheltered from
the glare. The place, by the by, was very stuffy and
oppressive, and the faint halitus of freshly shed blood was
in the air. Some way down the central vista was a little
table of white metal, laid with what seemed a meal. The
Morlocks at any rate were carnivorous! Even at the time, I
remember wondering what large animal could have
survived to furnish the red joint I saw. It was all very
indistinct: the heavy smell, the big unmeaning shapes, the
obscene figures lurking in the shadows, and only waiting
for the darkness to come at me again! Then the match
burned down, and stung my fingers, and fell, a wriggling
red spot in the blackness. The Time Machine
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‘I have thought since how particularly ill-equipped I
was for such an experience. When I had started with the
Time Machine, I had started with the absurd assumption
that the men of the Future would certainly be infinitely
ahead of ourselves in all their appliances. I had come
without arms, without medicine, without anything to
smoke—at times I missed tobacco frightfully—even
without enough matches. If only I had thought of a
Kodak! I could have flashed that glimpse of the
Underworld in a second, and examined it at leisure. But,
as it was, I stood there with only the weapons and the
powers that Nature had endowed me with—hands, feet,
and teeth; these, and four safety-matches that still
remained to me.
‘I was afraid to push my way in among all this
machinery in the dark, and it was only with my last
glimpse of light I discovered that my store of matches had
run low. It had never occurred to me until that moment
that there was any need to economize them, and I had
wasted almost half the box in astonishing the Upper-
