"I pressed the lever, and the laboratory grew dim. Night came like the turning off of a lamp, and in another moment came tomorrow. The walls of my laboratory vanished. I saw the sun hopping swiftly across the sky, and trees growing and changing like puffs of vapour. At last I pushed the stopping lever, and the machine threw me through the air. I sat up. Rain was falling. Before me stood a huge white figure of stone, a kind of winged sphinx on a bronze pedestal. Beyond it were great buildings among the trees. Little people were coming towards me. The first was a slight creature about four feet high, dressed in a purple tunic. He was beautiful but very frail, and he laughed at me without any fear. Others came, and they touched me with soft little hands. They spoke in a sweet and liquid tongue. It was the year 802,701, and these were the people who had inherited the earth. They were as strong and clever as beautiful children, and no stronger."