I
see the desert continents transformed, the poles no longer wildernesses
of ice, the whole world once more Eden. I see the power of man reach out
among the stars....'
He stopped abruptly with a catching of the breath that many an actor or
orator might have envied.
The lecture was over, the audience hung silent for a few seconds,
sighed, became audible, stirred, fluttered, prepared for dispersal. More
light was turned on and what had been a dim mass of figures became a
bright confusion of movement. Some of the people signalled to friends,
some crowded down towards the platform to examine the lecturer's
apparatus and make notes of his diagrams. But the chuckle-headed lad
with the scrub hair wanted no such detailed frittering away of the
thoughts that had inspired him. He wanted to be alone with them; he
elbowed his way out almost fiercely, he made himself as angular and
bony as a cow, fearing lest some one should speak to him, lest some one
should invade his glowing sphere of enthusiasm.
He went through the streets with a rapt face, like a saint who sees
visions. He had arms disproportionately long, and ridiculous big feet.
He must get alone, get somewhere high out of all this crowding of
commonness, of everyday life.
He made his way to the top of Arthur's Seat, and there he sat for a long
time in the golden evening sunshine, still, except that ever and again
he whispered to himself some precious phrase that had stuck in his mind.
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