The Time Machine - International World History Project

The Time Machineenough to you—and wildly incredible!—and yet evennow there are existing circumstances to point that way.There is a tendency to utilize underground space for theless ornamental purposes of civilization; there is theMetropolitan Railway in London, for instance, there arenew electric railways, there are subways, there areunderground workrooms and restaurants, and theyincrease and multiply. Evidently, I thought, this tendencyhad increased till Industry had gradually lost its birthrightin the sky. I mean that it had gone deeper and deeper intolarger and ever larger underground factories, spending astill-increasing amount of its time therein, till, in theend—! Even now, does not an East-end worker live insuch artificial conditions as practically to be cut off fromthe natural surface of the earth?‘Again, the exclusive tendency of richer people—due,no doubt, to the increasing refinement of their education,and the widening gulf between them and the rudeviolence of the poor— is already leading to the closing, intheir interest, of considerable portions of the surface of theland. About London, for instance, perhaps half the prettiercountry is shut in against intrusion. And this samewidening gulf—which is due to the length and expense ofthe higher educational process and the increased facilities78 of 148