I soon noticed something strange about my little hosts: nothing interested them for long. Like children, they soon stopped looking at me and went off after some other toy. When dinner was over, I went out into the evening sunshine. The Thames was still there in its wide valley, but it had moved about a mile. I decided to climb a hill to see more of our planet in the year eight hundred and two thousand, seven hundred and one. That was the date on the little dials of my machine.
As I walked, I saw that the world was full of beautiful ruins. There were no small houses anywhere, only great buildings like palaces here and there among the trees. I noticed, too, that all the little people who followed me wore the same clothes and had the same soft faces and round arms and legs. Men and women looked alike. I thought this was natural. Where there is no danger, the old differences between men and women are no longer needed. That, I must remind you, was what I thought at the time.
On the way I passed a little structure like a well, with a small roof over it. I thought it was strange that there were still wells, but I did not think more about it.
At the top of the hill I found a seat of yellow metal, covered in soft moss. I sat down and looked at our old world in the sunset. It was one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. The sky in the west was gold. Below lay the Thames, shining like steel. There were no fences, no fields and no farms. The whole earth had become a garden.
As I watched, I began to explain to myself what I had seen. (Later I found that I had only half of the truth.)
It seemed to me that humanity was growing weaker. The red sunset made me think of the sunset of mankind. For thousands of years people had worked hard to make life better and safer. Now there were no weeds and no insects, and diseases had gone. There was no work, no fighting, no money. Life had become perfectly easy and safe.
But what makes us clever and strong? Hard times and danger. These people had no dangers: no wars, no wild animals, no illness, no need to work. In such a life, strength and intelligence were no longer useful, and so they had slowly disappeared. All that was left was this: the people put flowers in their hair, and they danced and sang in the sunshine.
As I stood there in the growing darkness, I believed that I had understood the whole secret of these lovely people. My explanation was very simple, and it seemed right, as most wrong theories do!