Reading #1

The speaker describes their sensations as they observe a white figure in the midst of a hailstorm. The figure is large, made of white marble, and resembles a winged fink. The pedestal appears to be bronze and weather-worn. The figure's face is towards the speaker and gives off an unpleasant suggestion of disease. As the hailstorm clears, the speaker becomes fearful of what might lie beyond the figure. They worry that cruelty and inhumanity may have taken over society. The speaker quickly tries to readjust their time machine in a panicked fear. My sensations would be hard to describe. As the columns of hail grew thinner, I saw the white figure more distinctly. It was very large, for a silver birch tree touched its shoulder. It was of white marble, in shape something like a winged fink, but the wings, instead of being carried vertically at the sides, were spread so that it seemed to hover. The pedestal, it appeared to me, was of bronze and was thick with verdigris. It chanced that the face was towards me. The sightless eye seemed to watch me. There was the faint shadow of a smile on the lips. It was greatly weather-worn, and that imparted an unpleasant suggestion of disease. I stood looking at it for a little space, half a minute perhaps, or half an hour. It seemed to advance and to recede as the hail drove before it, denser or thinner. At least I tore my eyes from it for a moment and saw that the hail-curtain had worn threadbare, and that the sky was lightening with the promise of the sun. I looked up again at the crouching white shape, and the full temerity of my voyage came suddenly upon me. What might appear when the hazy curtain was altogether withdrawn? What might not have happened to men? What if cruelty had grown into a common passion? What if in this interval the race had lost its manliness and had developed into something inhumane, unsympathetic, and overwhelmingly powerful? I might seem some old-world savage animal, only the more dreadful and disgusting for our common likeliness, a foul creature to be incontently slain. Already I saw other vast shapes, huge buildings with intricate parapets and tall columns, with a wooded hillside dimly creeping in upon me through the lessening storm. I was seized with a panicked fear. I turned frantically to the time machine and strove hard to readjust it.