The Fixed Period

  CHAPTER VI.

  THE COLLEGE.

  I was surprised to see that Jack, who was so bold in playing hismatch, and who had been so well able to hold his own against theEnglishmen,--who had been made a hero, and had carried off hisheroism so well,--should have been so shamefaced and bashful inregard to Eva. He was like a silly boy, hardly daring to look herin the face, instead of the gallant captain of the band who hadtriumphed over all obstacles. But I perceived, though it seemed thathe did not, that she was quite prepared to give herself to him, andthat there was no real obstacle between him and all the flocks andherds of Little Christchurch. Not much had been seen or heard ofGrundle during the match, and as far as Eva was concerned, he hadsuccumbed as soon as Sir Kennington Oval had appeared upon the scene.He had thought so much of the English baronet as to have been cowedand quenched by his grandeur. And Sir Kennington himself had, Ithink, been in earnest before the days of the cricket-match. ButI could see now that Eva had merely played him off against Jack,thinking thereby to induce the younger swain to speak his mind. Thishad made Jack more than ever intent on beating Sir Kennington, buthad not as yet had the effect which Eva had intended. "It will allcome right," I said to myself, "as soon as these Englishmen have leftthe island." But then my mind reverted to the Fixed Period, and tothe fast-approaching time for Crasweller's deposition. We were nownearly through March, and the thirtieth of June was the day on whichhe ought to be led to the college. It was my first anxiety to get ridof these Englishmen before the subject should be again ventilated.I own I was anxious that they should not return to their countrywith their prejudices strengthened by what they might hear atGladstonopolis. If I could only get them to go before the matter wasagain debated, it might be that no strong public feeling would beexcited in England till it was too late. That was my first desire;but then I was also anxious to get rid of Jack for a short time. Themore I thought of Eva and the flocks, the more determined was I notto allow the personal interests of my boy,--and therefore my own,--toclash in any way with the performance of my public duties.

  I heard that the Englishmen were not to go till another week hadelapsed. A week was necessary to recruit their strength and to enablethem to pack up their bats and bicycles. Neither, however, werepacked up till the day before they started; for the track down toLittle Christchurch was crowded with them, and they were stillpractising as though another match were contemplated. I was very gladto have Lord Marylebone as an inmate in our house, but I acknowledgethat I was anxious for him to say something as to his departure. "Wehave been very proud to have you here, my lord," I remarked.

  "I cannot say that we are very proud," he replied, "because we havebeen so awfully licked. Barring that, I never spent a pleasanter twomonths in my life, and should not be at all unwilling to stay foranother. Your mode of life here seems to me to be quite delightful,and we have been thinking so much of our cricket, that I have hardlyas yet had a moment to look at your institutions. What is all thisabout the Fixed Period?" Jack, who was present, put on a seriousface, and assumed that air of determination which I was beginningto fear. Mrs Neverbend pursed up her lips, and said nothing; butI knew what was passing through her mind. I managed to turn theconversation, but I was aware that I did it very lamely.

  "Jack," I said to my son, "I got a post-card from New Zealandyesterday." The boats had just begun to run between the two islandssix days a-week, and as their regular contract pace was twenty-fivemiles an hour, it was just an easy day's journey.

  "What said the post-card?"

  "There's plenty of time for Mount Earnshawe yet. They all say theautumn is the best. The snow is now disappearing in greatquantities."

  But an old bird is not to be caught with chaff. Jack was determinednot to go to the Eastern Alps this year; and indeed, as I found, notto go till this question of the Fixed Period should be settled. Itold him that he was a fool. Although he would have been wrong toassist in depositing his father-in-law for the sake of getting theherd and flocks himself, as Grundle would have done, nevertheless hewas hardly bound by any feelings of honour or conscience to keep oldCrasweller at Little Christchurch in direct opposition to the laws ofthe land. But all this I could not explain to him, and was obligedsimply to take it as a fact that he would not join an Alpine partyfor Mount Earnshawe this year. As I thought of all this, I almostfeared Jack's presence in Gladstonopolis more than that of the youngEnglishmen.

  It was clear, however, that nothing could be done till the Englishmenwere gone, and as I had a day at my disposal I determined to walk upto the college and meditate there on the conduct which it would be myduty to follow during the next two months. The college was about fivemiles from the town, at the side opposite to you as you enter thetown from Little Christchurch, and I had some time since made up mymind how, in the bright genial days of our pleasant winter, I wouldmyself accompany Mr Crasweller through the city in an open baroucheas I took him to be deposited, through admiring crowds of hisfellow-citizens. I had not then thought that he would be a recreant,or that he would be deterred by the fear of departure from enjoyingthe honours which would be paid to him. But how different now washis frame of mind from that glorious condition to which I had lookedforward in my sanguine hopes! Had it been I, I myself, how proudshould I have been of my country and its wisdom, had I been led alongas a first hero, to anticipate the euthanasia prepared for me! Asit was, I hired an inside cab, and hiding myself in the corner, wascarried away to the college unseen by any.

  The place was called Necropolis. The name had always been distastefulto me, as I had never wished to join with it the feeling of death.Various names had been proposed for the site. Young Grundle hadsuggested Cremation Hall, because such was the ultimate end to whichthe mere husks and hulls of the citizens were destined. But there wassomething undignified in the sound,--as though we were talking of adancing saloon or a music hall,--and I would have none of it. My ideawas to give to the mind some notion of an approach to good things tocome, and I proposed to call the place "Aditus." But men said thatit was unmeaning, and declared that Britannulists should never beashamed to own the truth. Necropolis sounded well, they said, andargued that though no actual remains of the body might be left there,still the tablets would remain. Therefore Necropolis it was called. Ihad hoped that a smiling hamlet might grow up at the gate, inhabitedby those who would administer to the wants of the deposited; but Ihad forgot that the deposited must come first. The hamlet had notyet built itself, and round the handsome gates there was nothing atpresent but a desert. While land in Britannula was plenty, no one hadcared to select ground so near to those awful furnaces by which themortal clay should be transported into the air. From the gates up tothe temple which stood in the middle of the grounds,--that templein which the last scene of life was to be encountered,--there ran abroad gravel path, which was intended to become a beautiful avenue.It was at present planted alternately with eucalypti and ilexes--thegum-trees for the present generation, and the green-oaks for thoseto come; but even the gum-trees had not as yet done much to give afurnished appearance to the place. Some had demanded that cedars andyew-trees should be placed there, and I had been at great pains toexplain to them that our object should be to make the spot cheerful,rather than sad. Round the temple, at the back of it, were the setsof chambers in which were to live the deposited during their year ofprobation. Some of these were very handsome, and were made so, nodoubt, with a view of alluring the first comers. In preparing wisdomfor babes, it is necessary to wrap up its precepts in candied sweets.But, though handsome, they were at present anything but pleasantabodes. Not one of them had as yet been inhabited. As I looked atthem, knowing Crasweller as well as I did, I almost ceased to wonderat his timidity. A hero was wanted; but Crasweller was no hero. Thenfurther off, but still in the circle round the temple, there weresmaller abodes, less luxurious, but still comfortable, all of whichwould in a few short years be inhabited,--if the Fixed Period couldbe carried out in accordance with my project. And foundations hadbeen made for others stil
l smaller,--for a whole township of old menand women, as in the course of the next thirty years they might comehurrying on to find their last abode in the college. I had alreadyselected one, not by any means the finest or the largest, for myselfand my wife, in which we might prepare ourselves for the granddeparture. But as for Mrs Neverbend, nothing would bring her toset foot within the precincts of the college ground. "Before thosenext ten years are gone," she would say, "common-sense will haveinterfered to let folks live out their lives properly." It had beenquite useless for me to attempt to make her understand how unfittingwas such a speech for the wife of the President of the Republic. Mywife's opposition had been an annoyance to me from the first, but Ihad consoled myself by thinking how impossible it always is to imbuea woman's mind with a logical idea. And though, in all respects ofdomestic life, Mrs Neverbend is the best of women, even among womenshe is the most illogical.

  I now inspected the buildings in a sad frame of mind, asking myselfwhether it would ever come to pass that they should be inhabited fortheir intended purpose. When the Assembly, in compliance with myadvice, had first enacted the law of the Fixed Period, a large sumhad been voted for these buildings. As the enthusiasm had worn off,men had asked themselves whether the money had not been wasted, andhad said that for so small a community the college had been plannedon an absurdly grand scale. Still I had gone on, and had watchedthem as they grew from day to day, and had allowed no shilling tobe spared in perfecting them. In my earlier years I had been verysuccessful in the wool trade, and had amassed what men called a largefortune. During the last two or three years I had devoted a greatportion of this to the external adornment of the college, not withoutmany words on the matter from Mrs Neverbend. "Jack is to be ruined,"she had said, "in order that all the old men and women may be killedartistically." This and other remarks of the kind I was doomed tobear. It was a part of the difficulty which, as a great reformer, Imust endure. But now, as I walked mournfully among the disconsolateand half-finished buildings, I could not but ask myself as to thepurpose to which my money had been devoted. And I could not buttell myself that if in coming years these tenements should be lefttenantless, my country would look back upon me as one who had wastedthe produce of her young energies. But again I bethought me ofColumbus and Galileo, and swore that I would go on or perish in theattempt.

  As these painful thoughts were agitating my mind, a slow decrepit oldgentleman came up to me and greeted me as Mr President. He linked hisarm familiarly through mine, and remarked that the time seemed to bevery long before the college received any of its inhabitants. Thiswas Mr Graybody, the curator, who had been specially appointed tooccupy a certain residence, to look after the grounds, and to keepthe books of the establishment. Graybody and I had come as young mento Britannula together, and whereas I had succeeded in all my ownindividual attempts, he had unfortunately failed. He was exactly ofmy age, as was also his wife. But under the stress of misfortune theyhad both become unnaturally old, and had at last been left ruinedand hopeless, without a shilling on which to depend. I had alwaysbeen a sincere friend to Graybody, though he was, indeed, a man verydifficult to befriend. On most subjects he thought as I did, if hecan be said to have thought at all. At any rate he had agreed with meas to the Fixed Period, saying how good it would be if he could bedeposited at fifty-eight, and had always declared how blessed mustbe the time when it should have come for himself and his old wife.I do not think that he ever looked much to the principle which I hadin view. He had no great ideas as to the imbecility and weakness ofhuman life when protracted beyond its fitting limits. He only feltthat it would be good to give up; and that if he did so, others mightbe made to do so too. As soon as a residence at the college wascompleted, I asked him to fill it; and now he had been living there,he and his wife together, with an attendant, and drawing his salaryas curator for the last three years. I thought that it would be thevery place for him. He was usually melancholy, disheartened, andimpoverished; but he was always glad to see me, and I was accustomedto go frequently to the college, in order to find a sympathetic soulwith whom to converse about the future of the establishment. "Well,Graybody," I said, "I suppose we are nearly ready for the firstcomer."

  "Oh yes; we're always ready; but then the first comer is not." Ihad not said much to him during the latter months as to Crasweller,in particular. His name used formerly to be very ready in all myconversations with Graybody, but of late I had talked to him ina more general tone. "You can't tell me yet when it's to be, MrPresident? We do find it a little dull here."

  Now he knew as well as I did the day and the year of Crasweller'sbirth. I had intended to speak to him about Crasweller, but I wishedour friend's name to come first from him. "I suppose it will be sometime about mid-winter," I said.

  "Oh, I didn't know whether it might not have been postponed."

  "How can it be postponed? As years creep on, you cannot postponetheir step. If there might be postponement such as that, I doubtwhether we should ever find the time for our inhabitants to come. No,Graybody; there can be no postponement for the Fixed Period."

  "It might have been made sixty-nine or seventy," said he.

  "Originally, no doubt. But the wisdom of the Assembly has settled allthat. The Assembly has declared that they in Britannula who are leftalive at sixty-seven shall on that day be brought into the college.You yourself have, I think, ten years to run, and you will not bemuch longer left to pass them in solitude."

  "It is weary being here all alone, I must confess. Mrs G. says thatshe could not bear it for another twelve months. The girl we have hasgiven us notice, and she is the ninth within a year. No followerswill come after them here, because they say they'll smell the deadbodies."

  "Rubbish!" I exclaimed, angrily; "positive rubbish! The actual claywill evaporate into the air, without leaving a trace either for theeye to see or the nose to smell."

  "They all say that when you tried the furnaces there was a savour ofburnt pork." Now great trouble was taken in that matter of cremation;and having obtained from Europe and the States all the best machineryfor the purpose, I had supplied four immense hogs, in order thatthe system might be fairly tested, and I had fattened them for thepurpose, as old men are not unusually very stout. These we consumedin the furnaces all at the same time, and the four bodies had beendissolved into their original atoms without leaving a trace behindthem by which their former condition of life might be recognised.But a trap-door in certain of the chimneys had been left open byaccident,--either that or by an enemy on purpose,--and undoubtedlysome slight flavour of the pig had been allowed to escape. I had beenthere on the spot, knowing that I could trust only my own senses,and was able to declare that the scent which had escaped was veryslight, and by no means disagreeable. And I was able to show thatthe trap-door had been left open either by chance or by design,--thevery trap-door which was intended to prevent any such escape duringthe moments of full cremation,--so that there need be no fear of arepetition of the accident. I ought, indeed, to have supplied fourother hogs, and to have tried the experiment again. But the theme wasdisagreeable, and I thought that the trial had been so far successfulas to make it unnecessary that the expense should be again incurred."They say that men and women would not have quite the same smell,"said he.

  "How do they know that?" I exclaimed, in my anger. "How do they knowwhat men and women will smell like? They haven't tried. There won'tbe any smell at all--not the least; and the smoke will all consumeitself, so that even you, living just where you are, will not knowwhen cremation is going on. We might consume all Gladstonopolis, asI hope we shall some day, and not a living soul would know anythingabout it. But the prejudices of the citizens are ever thestumbling-blocks of civilisation."

  "At any rate, Mrs G. tells me that Jemima is going, because none ofthe young men will come up and see her."

  This was another difficulty, but a small one, and I made up my mindthat it should be overcome. "The shrubs seem to grow very well," Isaid, resolved to appear as cheerful as possible. r />
  "They're pretty nearly all alive," said Graybody; "and they do givethe place just an appearance like the cemetery at Old Christchurch."He meant the capital in the province of Canterbury.

  "In the course of a few years you will be quite--cheerful here."

  "I don't know much about that, Mr President. I'm not sure that formyself I want to be cheerful anywhere. If I've only got somebody justto speak to sometimes, that will be quite enough for me. I supposeold Crasweller will be the first?"

  "I suppose so."

  "It will be a gruesome time when I have to go to bed early, so as notto see the smoke come out of his chimney."

  "I tell you there will be nothing of the kind. I don't suppose youwill even know when they're going to cremate him."

  "He will be the first, Mr President; and no doubt he will be lookedclosely after. Old Barnes will be here by that time, won't he, sir?"

  "Barnes is the second, and he will come just three months beforeCrasweller's departure. But Tallowax, the grocer in High Street, willbe up here by that time. And then they will come so quickly, thatwe must soon see to get other lodgings finished. Exors, the lawyer,will be the fourth; but he will not come in till a day or two afterCrasweller's departure."

  "They all will come; won't they, sir?" asked Graybody.

  "Will come! Why, they must. It is the law."

  "Tallowax swears he'll have himself strapped to his own kitchentable, and defend himself to the last gasp with a carving-knife.Exors says that the law is bad, and you can't touch him. As forBarnes, he has gone out of what little wits he ever had with thefright of it, and people seem to think that you couldn't touch alunatic."

  "Barnes is no more a lunatic than I am."

  "I only tell you what folk tell me. I suppose you'll try it on byforce, if necessary. You never expected that people would come anddeposit themselves of their own accord."

  "The National Assembly expects that the citizens of Britannula willobey the law."

  "But there was one question I was going to ask, Mr President. Ofcourse I am altogether on your side, and do not wish to raisedifficulties. But what shall I do suppose they take to running awayafter they have been deposited? If old Crasweller goes off in hissteam-carriage, how am I to go after him, and whom am I to ask tohelp to bring him back again?"

  I was puzzled, but I did not care to show it. No doubt a hundredlittle arrangements would be necessary before the affairs of theinstitution could be got into a groove so as to run steadily. But ourfirst object must be to deposit Crasweller and Barnes and Tallowax,so that the citizens should be accustomed to the fashion ofdepositing the aged. There were, as I knew, two or three old womenliving in various parts of the island, who would, in due course, comein towards the end of Crasweller's year. But it had been rumouredthat they had already begun to invent falsehoods as to their age,and I was aware that we might be led astray by them. This I had beenprepared to accept as being unavoidable; but now, as the time grewnearer, I could not but see how difficult it would be to enforce thelaw against well-known men, and how easy to allow the women to escapeby the help of falsehood. Exors, the lawyer, would say at once thatwe did not even attempt to carry out the law; and Barnes, lunatic ashe pretended to be, would be very hard to manage. My mind misgave meas I thought of all these obstructions, and I felt that I could sowillingly deposit myself at once, and then depart without waitingfor my year of probation. But it was necessary that I should show adetermined front to old Graybody, and make him feel that I at anyrate was determined to remain firm to my purpose. "Mr Crasweller willgive you no such trouble as you suggest," said I.

  "Perhaps he has come round."

  "He is a gentleman whom we have both known intimately for many years,and he has always been a friend to the Fixed Period. I believe thathe is so still, although there is some little hitch as to the exacttime at which he should be deposited."

  "Just twelve months, he says."

  "Of course," I replied, "the difference would be sure to be that ofone year. He seems to think that there are only nine years betweenhim and me."

  "Ten, Mr President; ten. I know the time well."

  "I had always thought so; but I should be willing to abandon a yearif I could make things run smooth by doing so. But all that is adetail with which up here we need not, perhaps, concern ourselves."

  "Only the time is getting very short, Mr President, and my old womanwill break down altogether if she's told that she's to live anotheryear all alone. Crasweller won't be a bit readier next year than heis this; and of course if he is let off, you must let off Barnes andTallowax. And there are a lot of old women about who are beginningto tell terrible lies about their ages. Do think of it all, MrPresident."

  I never thought of anything else, so full was my mind of the subject.When I woke in the morning, before I could face the light of day, itwas necessary that I should fortify myself with Columbus and Galileo.I began to fancy, as the danger became nearer and still nearer, thatneither of those great men had been surrounded by obstructions suchas encompassed me. To plough on across the waves, and either to bedrowned or succeed; to tell a new truth about the heavens, and eitherto perish or become great for ever!--either was within the compassof a man who had only his own life to risk. My life,--how willinglycould I run any risk, did but the question arise of risking it! Howoften I felt, in these days, that there is a fortitude needed byman much greater than that of jeopardising his life! Life! whatis it? Here was that poor Crasweller, belying himself and all hisconvictions just to gain one year more of it, and then when the yearwas gone he would still have his deposition before him! Is it not sowith us all? For me I feel,--have felt for years,--tempted to rushon, and pass through the gates of death. That man should shudder atthe thought of it does not appear amiss to me. The unknown futureis always awful; and the unknown future of another world, to beapproached by so great a change of circumstances,--by the loss of ourvery flesh and blood and body itself,--has in it something so fearfulto the imagination that the man who thinks of it cannot but be struckwith horror as he acknowledges that by himself too it has to beencountered. But it has to be encountered; and though the change beawful, it should not therefore, by the sane judgment, be taken as achange necessarily for the worst. Knowing the great goodness of theAlmighty, should we not be prepared to accept it as a change probablyfor the better; as an alteration of our circumstances, by which ourcondition may be immeasurably improved? Then one is driven back toconsider the circumstances by which such change may be effected.To me it seems rational to suppose that as we leave this body soshall we enter that new phase of life in which we are destined tolive;--but with all our higher resolves somewhat sharpened, and withour lower passions, alas! made stronger also. That theory by which ahuman being shall jump at once to a perfection of bliss, or fall toan eternity of evil and misery, has never found credence with me. Formyself, I have to say that, while acknowledging my many drawbacks,I have so lived as to endeavour to do good to others, rather thanevil, and that therefore I look to my departure from this world withawe indeed, but still with satisfaction. But I cannot look withsatisfaction to a condition of life in which, from my own imbecility,I must necessarily retrograde into selfishness. It may be that He whojudges of us with a wisdom which I cannot approach, shall take allthis into account, and that He shall so mould my future being asto fit it to the best at which I had arrived in this world; stillI cannot but fear that a taint of that selfishness which I havehitherto avoided, but which will come if I allow myself to becomeold, may remain, and that it will be better for me that I should gohence while as yet my own poor wants are not altogether uppermost inmy mind. But then, in arranging this matter, I am arranging it formy fellow-citizens, and not for myself. I have to endeavour to thinkhow Crasweller's mind may be affected rather than my own. He dreadshis departure with a trembling, currish fear; and I should hardly bedoing good to him were I to force him to depart in a frame of mindso poor and piteous. But then, again, neither is it altogetherof Crasweller that I must think,--not
of Crasweller or of myself.How will the coming ages of men be affected by such a change as Ipropose, should such a change become the normal condition of Death?Can it not be brought about that men should arrange for their owndeparture, so as to fall into no senile weakness, no slipperedselfishness, no ugly whinings of undefined want, before they shallgo hence, and be no more thought of? These are the ideas that haveactuated me, and to them I have been brought by seeing the conductof those around me. Not for Crasweller, or Barnes, or Tallowax, willthis thing be good,--nor for those old women who are already lyingabout their ages in their cottages,--nor for myself, who am, I know,too apt to boast of myself, that even though old age should come uponme, I may be able to avoid the worst of its effects; but for thoseuntold generations to come, whose lives may be modelled for themunder the knowledge that at a certain Fixed Period they shall departhence with all circumstances of honour and glory.

  I was, however, quite aware that it would be useless to spend myenergy in dilating on this to Mr Graybody. He simply was willing toshuffle off his mortal coil, because he found it uncomfortable inthe wearing. In all likelihood, had his time come as nigh as that ofCrasweller, he too, like Crasweller, would impotently implore thegrace of another year. He would ape madness like Barnes, or armhimself with a carving-knife like Tallowax, or swear that therewas a flaw in the law, as Exors was disposed to do. He too wouldclamorously swear that he was much younger, as did the old women.Was not the world peopled by Craswellers, Tallowaxes, Exorses, andold women? Had I a right to hope to alter the feelings which natureherself had implanted in the minds of men? But still it might be doneby practice,--by practice; if only we could arrive at the time inwhich practice should have become practice. Then, as I was about todepart from the door of Graybody's house, I whispered to myself againthe names of Galileo and Columbus.

  "You think that he will come on the thirtieth?" said Graybody, as hetook my hand at parting.

  "I think," replied I, "that you and I, as loyal citizens of theRepublic, are bound to suppose that he will do his duty as acitizen." Then I went, leaving him standing in doubt at his door.

  END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

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