Page:Meda - a tale of the future.djvu/182

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178
MEDA:

When we go longer journeys together, we shall require either to embark in the naval or aerial packets. Those cities I have mentioned, like Glasgow, are now but ruins. They exist no longer as cities, and are left in this state of desolation as evidences of the folly of the ancients, who used the intelligence that was given them by the Creator to banish His works of beauty and over-run the country with their own smoke-begrimed productions." I here said to my companion that in my day we were proud of our great cities, of our great industries, and of the great strides we made in civilisation, and that while proud of these, most of our people could also enjoy Nature. Industry, I explained to him, became a necessity as we had to live by it; we had no other means of getting food, drink and clothing. "Yes," he replied, "I know all this, but, as I explained before, you abused your desire for food, and you debased your senses by drink; you got proud of your cities and factories, your fleets and your telegraphy. While there was undoubtedly