Page:Meda - a tale of the future.djvu/194

190 me if you think I meant to say all were bad. Did I not tell you that while to a common observer all might appear bad, many good people were left. Had this not been the case we would not now be in existence. I know that all this change, all the desolation of these great cities, the total disappearance of what you considered the great works of your engineers, must to you appear sad, but if you had had the means of following up the events of this world, as I have followed them, and as all of this generation have followed them, by a long life of study, you would not be either astonished or grieved, you would rejoice as we now rejoice that things are so much better than they were in your day. But, my Specimen, if you but think of the temptations that surrounded the people of your time, you will see the tremendous difficulties a good man had to contend with, if he wished to remain good. You have mentioned merchants. When you think that they had to gain a living by watching some opportunity of taking advantage of their fellow