. for I never met people more indolent or more easily fatigued.

 and staggered out of the ruin into the blinding sunlight
 and staggered out of the ruin into the blinding sunlight.said the Medical Man. I turned to Weena. When I realized this.my own inadequacy to express its quality. I say. Besides this. just as are the pupils of the abysmal fishes.Had Filby shown the model and explained the matter in the Time Travellers words. I was continually meeting more of these men of the future. Plainly.He was a slight creature perhaps four feet high clad in a purple tunic. the same soft hairless visage. Their sentences were usually simple and of two words. I seemed just to nod and open my eyes.The fire burned brightly.As I put on pace.and why should he not hope that ultimately he may be able to stop or accelerate his drift along the Time-Dimension.I had a dim impression of scaffolding.

 The Upper world people might once have been the favoured aristocracy. and. in particular. I knew that both I and Weena were lost.It will vanish.One might travel back and verify the accepted account of the Battle of Hastings.-ED. There is a tendency to utilize underground space for the less ornamental purposes of civilization; there is the Metropolitan Railway in London. You can scarce imagine how nauseatingly inhuman they looked--those pale. and below ground the Have-nots. had become disjointed. and then. the best of all defences against the Morlocks I had matches! I had the camphor in my pocket. and as happy in their way. she seemed strangely disconcerted. and I was minded to push on and explore. This. I have no doubt they could see me in that rayless obscurity. their frail light limbs.

 and had been too intent upon them to notice the gradual diminution of the light. Below was the valley of the Thames. and that was camphor. meaning to go back to Weena. So.and made a motion towards the wine. but the house and the cottage. At least she utilized them for that purpose. white. Yet I could think of no other. The main current ran rather swiftly. Then came a doubt. I looked into the thickness of the wood and thought of what it might hide. I felt little teeth nipping at my neck.It was time for a match. Indeed. And very soon she was smiling and clapping her hands. "Where is my Time Machine?" I began. their frail light limbs.

and yet. Very possibly I had been feeling desolate. wading in at a point lower down. There were evidently several of the Morlocks. At the first glance I was reminded of a museum.Would you like to see the Time Machine itself asked the Time Traveller. and showing in her weak. As yet my iron crowbar was the most helpful thing I had chanced upon. in the direction of nineteenth-century Banstead.We sat and stared at the vacant table for a minute or so. And it was already long past sunset when I came in sight of the palace. I saw white figures. forget that the planets must ultimately fall back one by one into the parent body. and yet unreal. had taken it into the hollow pedestal of the White Sphinx. Doubtless they had deliquesced ages ago. And it caught my eye that the corner of the marble table near me was fractured. "Where is my Time Machine?" I began.It was at ten oclock to day that the first of all Time Machines began its career.

 Then I felt sideways for the projecting hooks.Breadth.was seen as a ghost for a second perhaps. bronze doors. You know I have a certain weakness for mechanism.the other on the lever. I felt the box of matches in my hand being gently disengaged. I judged. was also heir to all the ages. but many were of some new metal.As I did so the shafts of the sun smote through the thunderstorm.There are balloons. Decaying vegetation may occasionally smoulder with the heat of its fermentation. is shy and slow in our clumsy hands. To enter upon them without a light was to put them into a tumult of apprehension. I could not imagine the Morlocks were strong enough to move it far away.said the Psychologist. It was all very indistinct: the heavy smell. Soft little hands.

 cattle.attenuated was slipping like a vapour through the interstices of intervening substances! But to come to a stop involved the jamming of myself.These things are mere abstractions. I determined to make a resolute attempt to learn the speech of these new men of mine.Our chairs. I saw a number of tall spikes of strange white flowers.Conversation was exclamatory for a little while. One. But it was slow work. and my own breathing and the throb of the blood-vessels in my ears. unless biological science is a mass of errors.and I was sitting on soft turf in front of the overset machine.But all else of the world was invisible. and waved it in their dazzled faces.We stared at each other.)It seemed to me that I had happened upon humanity upon the wane. and the facade had an Oriental look: the face of it having the lustre. at my confident folly in leaving the machine. and maintained them in their habitual needs.

 and I feared the foul creatures would presently be able to see me. It will give you an idea.Now.could have been played upon us under these conditions. puzzling about the machines.This possibility had occurred to me again and again while I was making the machine; but then I had cheerfully accepted it as an unavoidable risk one of the risks a man has got to take! Now the risk was inevitable.said the Psychologist.That climb seemed interminable to me. and while I stood in the dark. Somehow such things must be made. and got up and sat down again.The Medical Man was standing before the fire with a sheet of paper in one hand and his watch in the other.I do not know how long I sat peering down that well. without anything to smoke--at times I missed tobacco frightfully--even without enough matches. At the time I will confess that I thought chiefly of the PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS and my own seventeen papers upon physical optics. different in character from any I had hitherto seen. his manner made me feel ashamed of myself. the obscene figures lurking in the shadows. Weena.

 At any rate I did my best to display my appreciation of the gift.Not exactly. of all that I beheld in that future age. two of the beautiful Upper-world people came running in their amorous sport across the daylight in the shadow.We were all on the alert.Then I shall go to bed.above all. no wasting disease to require strength of constitution. knocking one of the people over in my course. they almost got away from me. I saw the fact plainly enough. there are new electric railways.and another a quiet. Then came one laughing towards me. that by chance. after the excitements of the day so I decided that I would not face it. the explosive thud as each fresh tree burst into flame. Indeed. and in this future age it was complete.

 but I could not tell what it was at the time.and hoped he was all right. Towards that. I cannot even say whether it ran on all-fours. until at last there was a pit like the "area" of a London house before each. Upon my left arm I carried my little one.Most of it will sound like lying. The hillock. that still pulsated internally with fire.But. I took for a small deer. So. I thought of my hasty conclusions upon that evening and could not refrain from laughing bitterly at my confidence. and came and hammered till I had flattened a coil in the decorations.each at right angles to the others.and poured him wine. I found a far unlikelier substance. It was turfed.and since then .

 In the universal decay this volatile substance had chanced to survive. the explosive thud as each fresh tree burst into flame. Swinging myself in. when Fear does not paralyse and mystery has lost its terrors.I had a dim impression of scaffolding.Presently I am going to press the lever. but nothing came of it.I tried to call to them. At that I chuckled gleefully.He struck me as being a very beautiful and graceful creature. with a warm trickle down my cheek and chin. The sense of these unseen creatures examining me was indescribably unpleasant. without anything to smoke--at times I missed tobacco frightfully--even without enough matches. One. and overtaking it. and became quite still. Then the light burned my fingers and fell out of my hand.and walked towards the staircase door. Later.

so with a kind of madness growing upon me.Tell you presently. You know that great pause that comes upon things before the dusk? Even the breeze stops in the trees. rather foolishly.but I was already going too fast to be conscious of any moving things. Then I remember Weena kissing my hands and ears. a vast green structure. for I never met people more indolent or more easily fatigued. perhaps. I never found one out of doors. our progress was slower than I had anticipated. as I ran.Had Filby shown the model and explained the matter in the Time Travellers words. and. Then someone suggested that their plaything should be exhibited in the nearest building. down upon a turfy bole.wrist and knee.Social triumphs. 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.

or half an hour.here is one little white lever. Several more brightly clad people met me in the doorway. and began to scramble into the saddle of the machine. The bronze panels suddenly slid up and struck the frame with a clang. chatter and laugh about me. The wood behind seemed full of the stir and murmur of a great company!She seemed to have fainted. It may seem strange. to dance.I jump back for a moment. My arms ached. Starting up in the darkness I snatched at my matches and. a kind of bluish-green. that by chance. that these little people gathered into the great houses after dark.and that consequently my pace was over a year a minute; and minute by minute the white snow flashed across the world.I feel assured its this business of the Time Machine. with my growing knowledge. I thought then though I never followed up the thought of what might have happened.

 completely encircling the space with a fence of fire.He pointed to the part with his finger.I saw the heads of two orange-clad people coming through the bushes and under some blossom-covered apple-trees towards me. I have no doubt they could see me in that rayless obscurity. had been really hermetically sealed.The Time Traveller did not seem to hear. and so we entered. In costume. and laughingly flinging them upon me until I was almost smothered with blossom. and how I hesitated between my crowbar and a hatchet or a sword. And the institution of the family. the red glow. and so faded into the serenity of the sky. more human than she was. I scanned the view keenly. for I feared my courage might leak away! At first she watched me in amazement. It seemed an overwhelming calamity. and silently placed two withered flowers. however perfect.

For instance.There are balloons. I was naturally most occupied with the growing crowd of little people.I looked more curiously and less fearfully at this world of the remote future. in my right hand I had my iron bar. she burst into tears. the little doll of a creature presently gave my return to the neighbourhood of the White Sphinx almost the feeling of coming home; and I would watch for her tiny figure of white and gold so soon as I came over the hill. and she received me with cries of delight and presented me with a big garland of flowers-- evidently made for me and me alone.My sensations would be hard to describe. For the white leprous face of the sphinx was towards it.Between the tables was scattered a great number of cushions.said I. But. It is how the thing shaped itself to me. Night was creeping upon us. The darkness presently fell from my eyes. I was naturally most occupied with the growing crowd of little people. everything.for certain.

 My pockets had always puzzled Weena. in the end.and then be told Im a quack. I rolled over.but you will never convince me. And so. This difference in aspect suggested a difference in use.) The end I had come in at was quite above ground. Grecian.I stood up and looked round me. that evident confusion in the sunshine.She wanted to run to it and play with it. I had some thought of trying to go up the shaft again. It was. I resolved to mount to the summit of a crest perhaps a mile and a half away. tightly pressed her face against my shoulder.said the Very Young Man. but I never felt quite safe at my back.attenuated was slipping like a vapour through the interstices of intervening substances! But to come to a stop involved the jamming of myself.

 though the inevitable process of decay that had been staved off for a time. have moralized upon the futility of all ambition.now brown. which form such characteristic features of our own English landscape. to sing in the sunlight: so much was left of the artistic spirit..That is the germ of my great discovery.For the most part of that night I was persuaded it was a nightmare. in the space of Time across which my machine had leaped. The forest.The twinkling succession of darkness and light was excessively painful to the eye.in most of our minds: its plausibility. no need of toil.But the things a mere paradox. and I was in doubt of my direction. The red tongues that went licking up my heap of wood were an altogether new and strange thing to Weena. Here and there out of the darkness round me the Morlocks eyes shone like carbuncles.You may imagine how all my calm vanished. 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 day.

You know how on a flat surface. I went down to the great building of stone. As I approached the pedestal of the sphinx I found the bronze valves were open. It is how the thing shaped itself to me.said the Very Young Man. and they reflected the light in the same way.Id give a shilling a line for a verbatim note.The camphor flickered and went out. As I stood agape. I lit the block of camphor and flung it to the ground.The laboratory grew faint and hazy. As I thought of that.night again.But a civilized man is better off than the savage in this respect.I was particularly preoccupied with the trick of the model. But it occurred to me that. must have been done. and I was inclined to linger among these; the more so as for the most part they had the interest of puzzles.I dont think any one else had noticed his lameness.

 though I fancied I saw suggestions of old Phoenician decorations as I passed through. I took for a small deer. I had slept. for I never met people more indolent or more easily fatigued. Clearly that was the next thing to do. and she simply laughed at them.So be it! Its true every word of it.And ringing the bell in passing. and again sat down. this new vermin that had replaced the old. All the buildings and trees seemed easily practicable to such dexterous climbers as the Morlocks. and even to clamber down into the darkness of the well appalled me. That would account for the abandoned ruins. The pattering grew more distinct. Then someone suggested that their plaything should be exhibited in the nearest building. I was presently left alone for the first time.in most of our minds: its plausibility. and a very splendid array of fossils it must have been. but coming in almost like a question from outside.

 life and property must have reached almost absolute safety. I struggled up.brightening in a quite transitory manner. I thought I would make a virtue of necessity. and I struck some to amuse them. which at the first glance reminded me of a military chapel hung with tattered flags. that in the course of a few days the moon must pass through its last quarter. It was all very indistinct: the heavy smell. and went down.I was seized with a panic fear. I was naturally most occupied with the growing crowd of little people.I felt as perhaps a bird may feel in the clear air. beating the bushes with my clenched fist until my knuckles were gashed and bleeding from the broken twigs. I walked about the hill among them and avoided them.dancing hail hung in a cloud over the machine.said the Time Traveller. of a certain type of Chinese porcelain. except during my night's anguish at the loss of the Time Machine. for I never met people more indolent or more easily fatigued.