Adventure Magazine Cover — page 83: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

t was as perhaps a bit discontented at first, because the realization of ambition had vanished like a bubble just as my hands had grasped it after years of toil and self- denial. But I would not change my lot today for all the fame and money of the old world. The peace, the simple contentment, the wonder. at the absence of “the madding crowd,” the freedom, the impossibility of any interference in my plans—all this gives me an emperor-like position, impossible in our vanished civilization. But best of all is Eve. Without her, living would have only been existence. There was lots of hard work, of course, and many problems to solve, but the most difficult problem was one I had never con- sidered until it forced itself upon me. I refer to the preservation of literature, musi- cal instruments and art. Should I take to my island a selection of the best books, music, pictures—the things which made life worth while in the old days—or should I leave them to fall, forgotten, into disso- lution? I felt a great responsibility in this matter and for some time we could make no decision. Then our first boy was born and my vision cleared. When I was young, there was a favorite puzzle-question concerning the Bible. Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel. Later on, Cain went into the Land of Nod and found a wife. Holding my tiny first- _ born in my arms, the answer flashed to me. Where had Cain found his wife, had been our old question, when the Bible had stated there were only four people in the world— Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel. I suddenly knew, with a surety that brooked no argument, that, somewhere, a small colony of people had been missed by the hypnotists and had been too isolated to become infected. Where those people were, I had no idea, but I was sure they were somewhere. History had repeated it- self and Eve and myself were not the only two saved. Just as in the ancient days the people in the land of Nod had eS so 24 that in after years Cain could find a cee among them, so I knew that the tiny morsel __ in my arms would one day adventure afield - and find his wife. Then I saw my respon- sibility concerning works of art. What should I save to pass down to the genera- tions yet to come? Now, where this colony, ahi which I feel so certain, will be found, I have no idea. Hardly on some distant island, for such would be too far afield for an indi- vidual wanderer, and I imagine the Hindus made sure of every island, perhaps after attending to the continents. place is not as important as is the degree of civilization of its inhabitants. So I came around to my problem. What should I try to preserve for posterity, be- fore the decay of the years-took the matter out of my hands? In the end I decided— rightly or wrongly, but we both believe rightly—to preserve nothing. To see to it that our children have good health and good morals, with no taint of superstition to harm, we consider sufficient. that to pass on to our descendants the arts of our old world would inoculate them with the germs of all of that old world’s evil, its degrading beliefs and tantalizing hopes. What they themselves may evolve from the conflict of their subconscious. memories. may be something similar to that from which I would protect them, but that is outside my_¢ control. Of course; there is much I could put in this memoir, much of interest and much of amusement, ‘but we think it better to let a simple statement suffice. That we are happy, I have said. That the race will start afresh from our son, I have no doubt, as I have no doubt he will find the small group of people from among whom he will choose his wife. I can only hope, both for his sake and for the sake of posterity, that she will be as good a woman as his mother. However, the’ We feel * ——— VP En, Se RN Te et ney wee ey ©