Fantastics and other Fancies/A Legend
A LEGEND[1]
And it came to pass in those days that a plague fell upon mankind, slaying only the males and sparing the females for some mysterious reason.
So that there was only one man left alive upon the face of the earth; and he was remarkably fair to behold and comely and vigorous as an elephant.
And feeling the difficulties of his position, the man fled away to the mountains, armed with a Winchester rifle, and lived among the wild beasts of the forest. . . .
And the women pursued after him and surrounded the mountain; and prevailed upon the man, with subtle arguments and pleasant words, that he should deliver himself up into their hands.
And they made a treaty with him, that he should be defended from ill-usage and protected from fury and guarded about night and day with a guard.
And the guard was officered by women who were philosophers, and who cared for nothing in this world beyond that which is strictly scientific and matter of fact, so that they were above all the temptations of this world.
And the man was lodged in a palace, and nourished with all the dainties of the world, but was not suffered to go forth, or to show himself in the streets; forasmuch as he was guarded even as a queen bee is guarded in the hive.
Neither was he suffered to occupy his mind with grave questions or to read serious books or discourse of serious things or to peruse aught that had not been previously approved by the committee of scientific women.
For that which wearieth the brain affecteth the well-being of the body.
And all the day long he heard the pleasant plash of fountain waters and inhaled delicious perfumes, and the fairest women in the world stood before him under the supervision of the philosophers.
And a great army was organized to guard him; and great wars were fought with the women of other nations on his account, so that nine millions and more of strong young women were killed.
But he was not permitted to know any of these things, lest it might trouble his mind; nor was he suffered to hear or behold aught that can be unpleasant to mortal ears. He was permitted only to gaze upon beautiful things—beautiful flowers and fair women, and matchless statues and marvelous pictures, and graven gems and magical vases, and cunningly devised work of goldsmiths and silversmiths. He was only suffered the music created by the fingers of the greatest musicians and by the throats of the most bewitching of singers.
And once a year out of every ten thousand women in the world the fairest one and the most complete in all things was chosen; and of those chosen ones the fairest and most perfect were again chosen; and out of these again the committee of philosophers selected one thousand; and out of these thousand the man chose three hundred.
For he was the only man in the whole world; and the committee of philosophers ordained that he should be permitted to remain entirely alone for sixty-five days in the year, lest he might be, as it were, talked to death.
At first the man fell occasionally in love and felt unhappy; but as the committee of philosophers always sent unto him women more beautiful and more adorable than any he had seen before, he soon became reconciled to his lot.
And instead of committing the folly of loving one woman in particular, he learned to love all women in general.
And during fifty years he lived such a life as even the angels might envy.
And before he died he had 15,273 children, and 91,638 grandchildren.
And the children were brought up by the nation, and permitted to do nothing except to perfect their minds and bodies.
And in the third generation the descendants of the man had increased even to two millions of males, not including females, who were indeed few, so great was the universal desire for males.
And in the tenth generation there were even as many males as females.
And the world was regenerated.
- ↑ Item, July 21, 1881. Hearn's own title.