[Music] the world of the future is a concept that has always evolved with the present over the years many different Visions have been put forward from predictions of personal airships around 1900 to nuclear powered cars and space flight by the middle of the century most of these Visions were made in the wake of the rapid industrial and scientific progress of the 19th century and focus on how technology will continue to reshape the world but even before this period in time there were some who speculated about how the future could be different from the present one of them was the French writer and dramatist Louis Sebastian Mercier in 1771 he published a novel called the year 2440 a dream if ever there was one in which he presents a very different kind of future than we're used to written from the perspective of an 18th century man who falls asleep one night and dreams that he wakes up almost 700 years into the future it shows a world where some technological progress has been made but the Industrial Revolution never happened it's a world where an agrarian society has invented something resembling hologram technology where Pennsylvania is ruled by an atic emperor and drinking coffee is a criminal offense most of all the book is interested in how philosophy and reason has changed the world world and describes how France has been transformed into an aarian Society through a peaceful Revolution led by its king essentially a piece of utopian fiction the book was unusual and that it placed its Utopia not in the present day on some Far Away Island but in the distant future and in the familiar setting of [Music] Paris released just 18 years before the outbreak of the French Revolution it can be seen as a veiled call to action and was promptly banned in its country of origin it was also forbidden in Spain where it was condemned by the Inquisition and reputedly burned by the king himself nonetheless the book became an underground hit and one of the most popular and controversial novels of the 18th century it was translated into numerous languages went through over 20 editions in mercier's lifetime and ended up in the libraries of both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson in this video we'll take a closer look at this century old vision of the [Music] [Music] future upon waking up the unnamed protagonist of the story notices that his body feels much heavier than usual his hands tremble his face is pale and he can only walk with the help of a cane in other words he had grown old and fr Trail in his sleep making his way out to the street the man finds a newly erected Monument with the year 2440 inscribed in Roman numerals looking around he can barely recognize the city he once lived in and is so captivated by its order and cleanliness that he at first doesn't notice when a crowd of people start gathering around to look at this strange figure wearing old-fashioned clothes after a while one man approached him and asked what was the purpose of this guys hearing that the protagonists was from the age of Louis the 15th he exclaimed that we should be astonished at nothing perhaps this gentleman has found the immortal Elixir or the philosopher stone he then offered to show him around becoming the first of a number of guides that appear in the story and help explain the world to us first of all the protagonist was led to a clothing shop where he could find something more upto-date to wear his 18th century attire was not in line with a practical and comfortable fashion of the future and clearly Drew too much attention on the way there he was informed that he wouldn't be needing his sword anymore the government had banned all duels and in a well-regulated city like Paris it was considered completely unnecessary and even indecent to wear a Lethal Weapon wherever you went having decided on a new set of clothes he paid with a gold coin from his own time which the shopkeeper promised to keep as an antique the man then stepped back back out on the street and began exploring the city Paris in the year 2440 has been completely reorganized the chaotic medieval fabric has made way for Grand and beautiful streets built in straight lines similar to what actually happened during housman's renovation a bit under a century after the book was published the buildings which are all in good condition no longer grow old with those that built them their rooftops are ornamented with fragrant trees and pots of flowers and since they're all of a similar height they connect forming one vast Roof Garden covering the city in Greenery as the main character started walking down one of the orderly streets he was immediately impressed by the traffic what caught his attention was not flying cars or any other exotic means of transportation but the simple observation that all who went took the right hand and all who came left in other words in 2440 Paris has rightand traffic this was a big deal because in the 18th century parisians had no rule to decide whether they would drive on the left or on the right side of the road and coaches would often get entangled with one another clogging up traffic for hours this of course also made the roads very dangerous for pedestrians and as if that wasn't enough some drivers especially noblemen could be completely Reckless in the footnotes Mercy informs us that he has quote seen a superb Carriage drawn by six horses sumptuously harnessed through two rows of wandering Artisans this is no longer a problem in the year 2440 those kinds of coaches have been banned through sumay law that is a law designed to prevent extravagance or luxury and the noblemen of the Future walk with their own two legs in this way they have more money and less gout we also learn of some more specific changes to the city just like in real life the bastile has been torn down although not by a revolution but by a king on the ruins of this place of Royal Vengeance has been built a temple to clemency heralding a new age where no citizen can be imprisoned without due process the Lou whose transformation from a medieval castle into a classical Palace had begun already in 1528 has finally been finished and is home to all the greatest artists of the Kingdom together with the twery palace which in our timeline was destroyed in 1871 and no longer exists it forms an immense Square where public celebrations are held furthermore for the sake of safety gunpowder magazines are no longer located within the city as Mercier points out they can easily be ignited by lightning which in fact happened as recently as 1769 when an explosion in the Italian city of breia killed hundreds if not thousands the hotel du for a long time the only Hospital in Paris has also been moved and divided into 12 smaller departments placed at the edges of the city this was done to prevent overcrowding and the spread of disease merci writes that the hospital in his time could convert a simple indisposition into a cruel disease and recalls that he has personally walked through the wards of the hospital and quote seen the dying crowded closer together than they ought to be in the grave precipitate the death of their miserable companions I've seen their pangs and their tears regarded with General unconcern the sword of death struck on the right and on the left and not a sigh was heard one would have thought that they were killing beasts in a starter house in the future by contrast well educated and Humane Physicians closely examine each patient and people no longer go to the hospital already struck with the idea of death and mey to secure an interment [Music] in Mercy's future Paris has been transformed into a beautiful and efficient City but it's barely grown at all while the population of the Kingdom at large has doubled from around 25 to 50 million most of them live in the countryside the Industrial Revolution simply never took off and if anything France is more agrarian than in the past life of the average farmer is described in idilic terms the fields ReSound with songs of Joy work takes up just a few hours of the day and is frequently interrupted by sports or folk dances this relaxed life style is possible not because of automation but simply because everyone is productive there are no more monks nor are there valleys domestic servants or people employed in other luxuries some still have more money than others but they spend their wealth on useful and respectable projects like scientific experiments the Kings also take great interest in increasing human knowledge instead of counting victories in battles or lands conquered it is said of monarchs that he made such a discovery in the ocean of beings or he accomplished such a project for the good of mankind so despite not having ushered in a new age of industry and urbanization scientific progress has taken place and the main character gets to witness some of the new technology they will be available in the future at one point in the story he enters a vast building known as the king's cabinet containing a seemingly endless collection of natural specimens and human inventions it was meant as an abridgment of the entire universe and served a similar function to actual cabinets of physics in which lecturers demonstrated scientific principles to 18th century audiences Within its four wings you could find every plant from the meal flower to the great Cedar Taxidermy animals from the lion to the whale and even samples from the deep interior of the Earth all systematically arranged and categorized among the inventions kept here one in particular caught the eye of the protagonist namely a device that could manipulate lights to create the illusion of different views similar to a projector of images or perhaps even of holograms he writes but what most of all surprised me was an optical cabinet where they had assembled all the properties of light it was a Perpetual scene of magic they caused to pass before my eyes Landscapes prospects palaces rainbows meteors luminous ciphers imaginary seas and which were more striking than even the realities it was the region of Enchantment the prospect of creation rising out of inanity could not have given me a sensation more Exquisite and astonishing scientists had not only succeeded in manipulating light the narrator was also shown a device that could mimic various sounds quote what related to Acoustics was no less miraculous they had acquired the art of imitating all the articulations of the human voice of the cries of animals and the various notes of birds by touching certain Springs we seem to be instantly transported to some wild forest where we heard the roarings of the lion the tiger and the Bear this invention was not only used for entertainment it could also teach valuable lessons whenever a prince would develop a warlike disposition he was led into a special room called the hell there this device would be activated showing him all the horrible sounds of battle the quote cries of rage and of grief the Lamentations of the dying the sounds of Terror the bellowing of That Hideous Thunder which is the signal of Destruction embarrass the execrable sound of death if nature did not then Prevail on his mind if he did not send forth A Cry of horror if his countenance remained unmoved and Placid he was confined to that room for the remainder of his days in another part of the building dedicated to mathematics the narrator was shown some of the Practical fruits of this science quote I saw machines of every kind that were proper to assist the arm of man and such as contained much greater Powers than are known to us they were adapted to all sorts of motions and by the aid of these the heaviest weights were managed with facility impressive as these inventions were we are never shown the most advanced technology available in the future quote they whispered moreover that many remarkable and even wonderful secrets were confided to the care of a small number of their sages for there are matters good in themselves that may be abused in their application the human mind in their opinion was not yet sufficiently strong to make use of the most rare and most powerful discoveries without [Music] danger the people of the future are deeply religious in fact you can hardly find a single atheist in the whole Kingdom but religion has changed over the course of the centuries in 2440 people believe in an intelligent creator of the universe and in the immortality of the soul but prefer not to speculate much on specifics it said that it is with religion as with laws the most simple are the best adore God love thy neighbor hearken to conscience all the rest is imposture fraud and falsehood no one writes about theology anymore and all existing works on this subject have been locked behind large iron bars in a Subterranean chamber one of the people the main character meets explains that if we should have a war with any neighboring Nation instead of attacking them with our Cannon we shall send these pestiferous Works among them we preserve these volcanoes of inflammable matter merely for the destruction of our enemies which they will certainly affect by means of their subtle poisons that sees at once The Head and the [Music] Heart every morning people are called by the sound of trumpets to public prayer in a temple and the narrator visits one of these buildings in Paris he describes it as circular and crowned with a magnificent Dome of glass displaying to the people the author of the universe in all its different aspects through weather and the seasons the interior centers around the Altar and is completely unadorned only the name of God repeated a thousand times in different languages is spread across the walls when wor ship lasts for about an hour and evolves a simple sermon accompanied by hymns and organ music only a few religious ceremonies are practiced in the future one of them corresponds to the first communion whenever a young man is judged to be ready he's brought to an observatory on a clear starry night to be initiated into the mysteries of the universe by means of a telescope he shown Saturn Jupiter Mars and the countless stars of the Milky Way while a venerable Pastor tells him with an awful Majestic voice to adore that Creator whose resplendant Majesty is impressed on the front of these stars that obey his laws then a microscope is brought and a new universe more astonishing more wonderful than the former opens up before his eyes after this ceremony he's supposed to be cured of his terrestrial ambition and of the little hatreds that it engenders he respects all man has animated with the same breath of life he is the brother of all that the creator has formed the stars and the planets also play an important role at the end of life it is believed that these heavenly bodies are all inhabited and that you can be reincarnated on them after death but while the generous Soul ascends to ever higher worlds as by gradual ladder leading ultimately to Perfection the wicked are plunged Back Into Darkness quote a monarch at his decease becomes a mole a minister a venomous serpent inhabiting some filthy Marsh while the writer he disdained or rather could not comprehend hath obtained a glorious rank among intelligent beings the Friends of Humanity but before leaving this life behind it is customary to collect what you've learned for future Generations all of your wisdom and your greatest insights are written down in a book which is collected with reverence and meditated on by your descendants quote these are our funeral earns and seem to us more valuable than your Sumptuous madams your tombs covered with wretched inscriptions dictated by pride and executed by baseness portraits and statues preserve the body semblance only why not represent the soul and The Virtuous sentiments by which it was affected not all books are treated with as much reverence at one point the narrator visits the Royal Library and finds to a surprise that its Grand Halls stand almost empty only a small room to the side contained a number of books none of which were particularly large asking the librarian what had happened he explained that the vast majority of books had been destroyed in a great configration one he adds which was done on purpose quote by an unanimous consent we brought together on a vast plane all those books which we judged either frivolous useless or dangerous of these we formed a pyramid that resembled in height and bulk an enormous Tower it was certainly another Babel journals crowned this strange edifice and it was covered on all sides with ordinances of Bishops remonstrances of parliaments petitions and funeral orations it was composed of 5 or 600,000 commentators of 800,000 volumes of law of 50,000 dictionaries of 100,000 poems of 1,600,000 voyages and travels and of a milliard of romances this massive book burning ceremony was part of an attempt to rebuild human knowledge from the ground up works that were perceived as harmful were forever destroyed whereas those that had some substance hidden beneath a quote monstrous heap of words or phrases were summarized before being put on the fire among the books lost in those Flames were not just newer works but also some of the ancient Classics like oid Herodotus safo ciceros non-philosophical works and those of the quote vile Aristophanes Plato and a number of ancients were as spared although the largest section of the library belongs to English authors the only thing regulating new works however is public opinion authors in theory enjoy freedom of the press and can write anything they want but if enough readers find that someone's work is immoral or contains dangerous principles then he's forced to wear a mask of Shame and is visited daily by two re- Educators until it takes back what he's written similarly practitioners of the other Arts are provided for by the state and thereby in theory free to express their genius however they want instead of appeasing some rich client but they won't win any competition without the approval of the public this has conveniently led to profusion of works that are moral and instructive Painters have abandoned mythological themes which although ingenious in the infancy of the art had been repeated a thousand times and was now become disgustful modern Works show examples of virtue and heroism and have become so lifelike that they appear almost like mirrors thanks to improvements in the art of Engraving highly accurate color copies of these paintings things can be mass-produced and are found decorating the walls of almost every home we get a closer look inside a typical home where the narrator is invited for dinner with a family one evening the rooms are large and decorated with restraint you no longer find quote 20 brittle tasteless bobles there was no gilding varnishing porcelain or wretched figures the manners of his hosts also great they impressed the main character these people talked from principle he writes and did not contradict themselves 20 times in a quarter of an hour the eldest son did not give me a specimen of his wit by ridiculing his father neither his mother nor his grandmother would have been Charmed with such witticisms the women he continues were not continually wrangling about metaphysics and if they spoke about poetry of Dramas or authors they constantly acknowledged themselves notwithstanding their great ability unequal to the [Music] subject women play a very small part in merc's vision of the future and are still confined to traditional gender roles marriage is based on love and divorce is legal but the ideal woman of the 25th Century is an amiable companion to her husband no longer expected to perform backbreaking physical work they learn to manage the economy of the household and take care of child rearing it education in the future does not involve learning ancient Greek and Latin both dead languages instead children are simply taught to read and write in French further instruction differs depending on what station they're expected to hold in society each art is unfathomable it is said and to excel in it requires our whole attention it was the ridicule of your age to Endeavor to be Universal we regard it as a Madness before the clock at struck 7 it was time for supper which was noteworthy for its Simplicity none of the meats had any particular seasoning apart from Salt while the herbs and fruits were all of the season for they knew not the secret of producing wretched cherries in the midst of winter for entertainment they turned to drafts chess or recreational mathematics something that even the children are acquainted with there was also music the narrator heard a woman sing a beautiful song accompanied by flute although most enchanting of all was the sound of the improved harmonica which quote breathed the most pure lull and melodious sounds that can charm the year it was a ravishing and Celestial music what he's talking about here is not the harmonica we usually think of since it was only invented in the 19th century instead he probably refers to the glass harmonica a new and exciting instrument which had only been invented 11 years before the book was published by none less than Benjamin Franklin played with wetted fingers it consisted of a set of graduated tuned glass bowls and briefly achieved great popularity before falling out of fashion in the early 19th century Marie antoanet is known to have taken lessons and Mozart wrote this very piece specifically for the [Applause] harmonica [Laughter] [Applause] Mercier successfully predicted that France would undergo a revolution though in his version it was enacted by one man a great philosopher king being more interested in the happiness of his people than in power he abolished absolute monarchy and decentralized the kingdom into a sort of Confederation where each province governs itself in this new system power is divided between the king whose role has become largely ceremonial the Senate which takes care of day-to-day Administration and the Estates General which meets every 2 years to enact new laws and fill vacant posts everything is decided there by a majority of votes corruption has been Stamped Out of the legal system and the laws have been reformed into regular and just body punishments are less severe and have become proportional to the crime in question no one is above the law and everyone enjoys the right to plead one's case arbitrary arrests have long been a thing of the past even in Mercy's Utopia however you are expected to pay your taxes thankfully the rate is no higher than 2% and if your income is under a certain threshold or if you don't own any property then you don't have to pay at all that being said the people of the future often pay more than what's required of them in every quarter of Paris and in every city in the provinces you'll find two chests one large where the mandatory tax is deposited and one smaller for voluntary gifts to the state people flock to contribute to this smaller one whenever the king proposes a useful project for the public good and as a consequence it often contains more money than the other the collection of all of these chests from around the country is done once a year and has become a public celebration as they are brought on carriages to the Royal Palace people turn out wearing garlands of flowers and cry long live the king cannons are fired and toasts are made to the health of the Monarch who personally walks out into the joyful crowd to present himself the king is always near to the people he now lives in Paris instead of Versailles and is no longer surrounded by that class of men who lived in idleness and fed their pride with old parchments before coming to power he's brought up far from the court clothed like an ordinary peasant he travels through all the provinces and learns about the lives of ordinary people he enters the Hut of the plowman eats at his table assists in his labors and learns to respect him even after ascending to the throne he observes a strict fast and sleeps on the floor for 3 Days every year lest he should forget what he owes the poor in times of public calamity any citizen can be admitted to the Royal Hall of audience and have his voice heard by the king if he provides Sound Advice he is thanked but if what he proposes is unjust or self-interested he's dismissed and booed out of the hall on his head the king wears a simple branch of olive as a crown he is Seated on a chair elevated merely to extend his voice and on the first step to the throne is written in large characters the word eternity this step is actually a tomb where the emomed body of the last Monarch rests until being replaced by a son the king is thereby reminded that the dream of royalty is soon over and that nothing will remain but his [Music] reputation one of the reasons why Texas can be kept low is that France has disbanded its military the sovereigns of the Earth have DED to hear the voice of philosophy they quote glory in good government preferring the pleasure of making a small number happy to the Frantic ambition of ruling over countries designated or filled with ulcerated hearts to whom the power of a conqueror must forever be odious these Kings by Common consent have fixed bounds to their dominions and such as nature itself seems to have finded in separating them by Seas by forests or mountains they have learned that a kingdom of but small extent is susceptible to the best form of government furthermore France has lost its colonies which is explained in the following way we should be highly ridiculous to send our dear fellow citizens 2,000 leagues from us why should we thus estrange ourselves from our Brethren our climate is at least as good as that of America every necessary production is here common and by Nature excellent the colonies were to France what a country house is to a private person the house in the country sooner or later ruins that in town the book argues that the Greed for gold and useless luxuries brought about by international trade was the cause of inequality at home and of countless atrocities abroad quote you violated the most sacred ties of blood and nature on the coast of Guinea you armed the father against the son while you pretended to the name of Christians and of men blind barbarians a whole race of men bought and sold treated as the vest animals Kings became Merchants covering the Seas with blood since then the East and West India companies have been abolished and almost all trade is now internal consisting mostly of agricultural products luxuries like snuff tea and coffee have all been banned so what then happened to the former [Music] colonies we get a first hint where the narrator finds a newly erected Monument outside of the church or Temple that he visited a statue of sacred humanity is surrounded by female personifications of various Nations kneeling and begging for pardon for the crimes they've committed for religious persecution for tyranny slavery and colonialism here writes Spain still more criminal than her sisters groaned at the thought of having covered the new continent with 35 millions of carcasses with having pursued the deplorable remains of a thousand Nations into the depths of forests and into the caverns of rocks Spain May sigh and supplicate her Phil but never ought to hope for pardon the punishment of so many retes condemned to the minds ought forever to be urged against [Music] her not far from this Monument he served a pedestal supporting a statue of a black man with Fierce eyes and a noble and commanding attitude around him were spread the broken relics of 20 scepter and at his feet were written the words to the Avenger of the new world this man a black Spartacus had broken asunder the chains of all the slaves and quot at the same instant they poured forth the blood of all their tyrants French Spanish English Dutch and Portuguese all became pray to the sword the fire and poison and so the Europeans were chased out of the new world while the slaves gained their freedom and the natives resumed their unalienable rights we find out more exactly what had happened when the narrator reads a pile of gazettes one evening they say that when the Avenger of the new world had driven away the tyrants he laid down his sword and contented himself with being a legislator the continents were divided in to two empires that of North and South America each in turn consists of numerous smaller States United under a general Sovereign similar to the whole Roman Empire in the north a descendant of monuma has been reinstated to the throne and rules over his vast and prosperous realm from a palace in Mexico City stretching from the Antilles all the way to Canada it contains the state of Pennsylvania this seems to be the only of the 13 colonies to have survived and was likely spared by the Avenger because of the Quakers who opposed slavery The Gazette informs us that this province where Humanity Faith Liberty Concord and equality have taken refuge for more than 800 years is covered with the most elegant and flourishing cities we also learn about other parts of the world China and Japan have opened their borders and have friendly contacts with the West books are translated and plays and dramas are exchanged for the past 200 years French has been widely spoken in Beijing and Chinese characters have been replaced by a simpler writing system a land there has more recently ended its isolation is Tahiti The Gazette mentions that this happy Island where rain the manners of the Golden Age had been discovered in the 18th century by the French explorer Lou Anan Dean he claimed it for the French crown and brought the tahan back with him who in 1770 attracted the Curiosity of Paris for a week the name of the man was aut toru and his visit would have been fresh in the memory of Mercier when he wrote the book perhaps he even personally saw him but little was it known then the cassette continues that a member of buan ville's crew had stayed behind on the island after the ship had left he presented himself to the the people and warned them of the Europeans quot these strangers you have entertained and who seemed so polite whom you have loaded with civilities and presence will soon return and bring with them all those plagues that affect other countries they will load you with Fetters and by their cruel arguments they will prove it to be for your advantage he then convinced the people that the only way to protect themselves was to kill every stranger that landed on the island in this way the tahitians refused any interaction with the outside world and managed to avoid colonization however it says that this law has lately been abolished because by repeated informations they've learned that Europe is no longer the enemy of the other four parts of the globe that it is ambitious of forming friends and not making slaves that is vessels go in search of examples of simple and refined manners and not of contempt riches closer to home we find that the Turks had already been driven out of Europe by the end of the 18th century Constantinople is once again in the hands of the Greeks who have formed a prospering republic where philosophy flourishes the Calio the former Palace of the saltans is now used for masquerades and a theater has been constructed on the ruins of the famous Hagia Sophia Church the fall of the Ottoman ccess was brought about by people from the north in real life the Russian Empress Katherine the Great had plans to create a Greek state in the European part of the Ottoman Empire so perhaps something similar actually happened in Mercy's world in the future Katherine is still remembered though not for her conquests and triumphs but as an enlightened ruler there is no mention of the partitions of Poland the first of which took place just a year after the book was released instead it speaks of how Catherine had a wonderful influence over this Kingdom and that the poles are still grateful to her for ending Anarchy in their land and for increasing the liberty of the peasants she's also remembered for abolishing serfdom in Russia and since her days absolute monarchy has also been abandoned thanks to centuries of wise government the Empire's population has grown from 14 million to a staggering 45 million and has thereby become equal to its extent which is greater than that of Augustus or Alexander the Papal States are no more the pope has been demoted to Bishop of Rome and his former lands are ruled by the Emperor of Italy meanwhile in Spain the spirit of industry is everyday more manifest the Arts are reaching new levels of refinement and new discoveries are being made on the nature of electricity in Vienna the austrians are marrying off their princesses to those princes of the earth that have given the Fest proofs of tenderness for their people and in London which is now three times as large as in the 18th century a new Statue of Cromwell has recently been erected he is acknowledged as the real author of their political system which is still maintained because it enriches not the Monarch but the people furthermore the Scots and Irish have recently presented a petition to Parliament that quote the names of Scotland and Ireland may be abolished and that they may make but one body spirit and name with the English as they are one by that patriotic spirit with which they are [Music] animated in the last chapter of the book The narrator leaves Paris to see what has become of the famous Palace of versailes upon arriving he finds nothing but quote ruins gaping walls and mutilated statues some porticos half demolished afforded a confusing idea of its ancient magnificence as I walked over these ruins I saw an old man sitting upon the capital of a column alas I said to him what has become of this vast Palace it is Fallen it was crushed by its own weight a man in his impatient Pride would have here forced nature he hastily heaped buildings upon buildings greedy of gratifying his capricious will he harassed his subjects all the wealth of the nation was here swallowed up here flowed a stream of tears to compose those reservoirs of which there are now no traces behold All That Remains of that Colossus which a million of hands erected with so much painful labor the foundations of this Palace were laid in iniquity it was an image of The Wretched greatness of him that built it the Kings his successors were obliged to fly from it lest they should be crushed by its fall oh May these ruins cry aloud to all sovereigns that they who abuse a momentary power only discover their weakness to Future Generations at these words he shed a flood of tears and turned his eyes to heaven with a mournful repenting look why do You Weep I said all the world is happy and these ruins by no means declare any public Calamity he raised his voice and said oh how wretched is my fate know that I am LS I 14th who built this ruthful Palace the Divine justice has again illumined the torch of my days to make me contemplate more nearly my deplorable Enterprise how transient are the moments of Pride I must now and forever weep oh that I had but known I was going to ask him a question when one of the adders with which this place swarmed darted from a broken column stung me on on the neck and I [Music] wake
