majority of their brother
Scholars voted against them, they abandoned their ideas, as all men
must."

"This box is useless," said Alliance 6-7349.

"Should it be what they claim of it," said Harmony 9-2642, "then it
would bring ruin to the Department of Candles. The Candle is a great
boon to mankind, as approved by all men. Therefore it cannot be
destroyed by the whim of one."

"This would wreck the Plans of the World Council," said Unanimity
2-9913, "and without the Plans of the World Council the sun cannot rise.
It took fifty years to secure the approval of all the Councils for the
Candle, and to decide upon the number needed, and to re-fit the Plans so
as to make candles instead of torches. This touched upon thousands and
thousands of men working in scores of States. We cannot alter the Plans
again so soon."

"And if this should lighten the toil of men," said Similarity 5-0306,
"then it is a great evil, for men have no cause to exist save in toiling
for other men."

Then Collective 0-0009 rose and pointed at our box.

"This thing," they said, "must be destroyed."

And all the others cried as one:

"It must be destroyed!"

Then we leapt to the table.

We seized our box, we shoved them aside, and we ran to the window. We
turned and we looked at them for the last time, and a rage, such as is
not fit for humans to know, choked our voice in our throat.

"You fools!" we cried. "You fools! You thrice-damned fools!"

We swung our fist through the windowpane, and we leapt out in a ringing
rain of glass.

We fell, but we never let the box fall from our hands. Then we ran. We
ran blindly, and men and houses streaked past us in a torrent without
shape. And the road seemed not to be flat before us, but as if it were
leaping up to meet us, and we waited for the earth to rise and strike us
in the face. But we ran. We knew not where we were going. We knew only
that we must run, run to the end of the world, to the end of our days.

Then we knew suddenly that we were lying on a soft earth and that we had
stopped. Trees taller than we had ever seen before stood over us in a
great silence. Then we knew. We were in the Uncharted Forest. We had
not thought of coming here, but our legs had carried our wisdom, and our
legs had brought us to the Uncharted Forest against our will.

Our glass box lay beside us. We crawled to it, we fell upon it, our face
in our arms, and we lay still.

We lay thus for a long time. Then we