The steam-engine gives bread to many times more people than all the beasts of the field. The electric spirit does a thousand times more tricks in man’s service than the horse or the dog.
In the evening, when Two-Legs sits outside his house, the voices speak to him as before:
“Two-Legs ... the vanquisher of the animals ... the lord of the ox and the horse and the dog ... the strongest of all creatures.”
“Two-Legs ... who conquered the wind and took him into his service.... He made him turn the mill ... made him carry the ship over the sea.”
“Two-Legs ... the lord of Steam.... He forced him into his engine and told him to do the tasks which men put him to.”
“Two-Legs, the wisest, the strongest.... He explored the lightning and bound it.... He compelled it to draw the greatest weights and to shine calmly and gently in men’s small rooms and to carry their messages from one end of the world to the other.”
Two-Legs listened to the voices, but only for a moment. He was examining a piece of metal which he held in his hand and into which he had been long and secretly enquiring:
“Look,” he said to the young man who was now his pupil. “I wish I knew what the queer rays are that come out of this substance. It shall be called Radium; that means the thing that beams. I will search until I know its nature. Who knows what secret forces it conceals and what benefits it can perform for mankind?”