We, Equality 7–2521, have discovered a new power of nature. And we have discovered it alone, and we are to know it.
It is said. Now let us be lashed for it, if we must. The Council of Scholars has said that we all know the things which
exist and therefore all the things which are not known by all do not exist. But we think that the Council of Scholars is
blind. The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who will seek them. We know, for we have
found a secret unknown to all our brothers.
We know not what this power is nor whence it comes. But we know its nature, we have watched it and worked with it.
We saw it first two years ago. One night, we were cutting open the body of a dead frog when we saw its leg jerking. It
was dead, yet it moved. Some power unknown to men was making it move. We could not understand it. Then, after many
tests, we found the answer. The frog had been hanging on a wire of copper; and it had been the metal of our knife which
had sent a strange power to the copper through the brine of the frog’s body. We put a piece of copper and a piece of
zinc into a jar of brine, we touched a wire to them, and there, under our fingers, was a miracle which had never occurred
before, a new miracle and a new power.
This discovery haunted us. We followed it in preference to all our studies. We worked with it, we tested in more ways
than we can describe, and each step was another miracle unveiling before us. We came to know that we had found the
greatest power on earth. For it defies all the laws known to men. It makes the needle move and turn on the compass
which we stole from the Home of the Scholars; but we had been taught, when still a child, that the loadstone points to the
north and this is a law which nothing can change; yet our new power defies all laws. We found that it causes lightning,
and never have men known what causes lightning. In thunderstorms, we raised a tall rod of iron by the side of our hole,
and we watched it from below. We have seen the lightning strike it again and again. And now we know that metal draws
the power of the sky, and that metal can be made to give it forth.
We have built strange things with this discovery of ours. We used for it the copper wires which we found here under the
ground. We have walked the length of our tunnel, with a candle lighting the way. We could go no farther than half a mile,
for earth and rock had fallen at both ends. But we gathered all the things we found and we brought them to our work
place. We found strange boxes with bars of metal inside, with many cords and strands and coils of metal. We found wires
that led to strange little globes of glass on the walls; they contained threads of metal thinner than a spider’s web.
These things help us in our work. We do not understand them, but we think that the men of the Unmentionable Times
had known our power of the sky, and these things had some relation to it. We do not know, but we shall learn. We
cannot stop now, even though it frightens us that we are alone in our knowledge.
No single one can possess greater wisdom than the many Scholars who are elected by all men for their wisdom. Yet
we can. We do. We have fought against saying it, but now it is said. We do not care. We forget all men, all laws and all
things save our metals and our wires. So much is still to be learned! So long a road lies before us, and what care we if
we must travel it alone!