“Ah, you’re a fanatic for the small in size and in numbers.”
“I am loth to see all Norway polluted with factories and proletariat armies. Why the devil can’t we be left in peace?”
“The steel will not have it,” said Ferdinand Holm, as if speaking to the pillar of moonlight on the water.
“What? Who did you say?” Peer looked at him with wide eyes.
Ferdinand went on undisturbed: “The steel will not have peace. And the fire will not. And Prometheus will not. The human spirit has still too many steps to climb before it reaches the top. Peace? No, my friend—there are powers outside you and me that determine these things.”
Peer smiled, and lit a new cigar. Ferdinand Holm leaned back in his chair and went on, addressing himself apparently to the moon. “Tigris and Euphrates—Indus and Ganges—and all the rest of this planet—regulate and cultivate the whole, and what is it after all? It’s only a question of a few years. It is only a humble beginning. In a couple of centuries or so there will be nothing left to occupy us any more on this little globe of ours. And then we’ll have to set about colonising other worlds.”
There was silence for a moment. Then Peer spoke.
“And what do we gain by it all?” he asked.
“Gain? Do you imagine there will ever be any ‘thus far and no farther’ for the spirit of man? Half a million years hence, all the solar systems we know of now will be regulated and ordered by the human spirit. There will be difficulties, of course. Interplanetary wars will arise, planetary patriotism, groups of planetary powers in alliances and coalitions against other groups. Little worlds will be subjugated by the bigger ones, and so on. Is there anything in all this to grow dizzy over? Great heavens—can anyone doubt that man must go on conquering and to conquer for millions of years to come? The world-will goes its way. We cannot resist. Nobody asks whether we are happy. The will that works towards the infinite asks only whom it can use for its ends, and who is useless. Viola tout.”
“And when I die,” asked Peer—“what then?”