About

It was on a New Year’s Eve, but not just an ordinary New Year’s eve: It was December 31, 1899—the eve of a new century. A large group was gathered in front of the court-house in Coaltown, Illinois, waiting for the clock to strike. There was a mood of exaltation in the crowd, as though it expected the heavens to open. The twentieth century was to be the greatest century the world had ever know. Man would fly; tuberculosis, diphtheria, and cancer would be eradicated; there would be no more wars . . .

Breckenridge Lansing—always at his best in company, the perfect host, and, as managing director of the mines, the first citizen in town—spoke up for the company, ‘Dr. Gillies, what will the new century be like?’

Dr. Gillies made no deprecatory noises, but began:

‘Nature never sleeps. The process of life never stands still. The creation has not come to an end. The Bible says that God created man on the sixth day and rested, but each of those days was many millions of years long. That day of rest must have been a short one. Man is not an end but a beginning. We are at the beginning of the second week. We are children of the eighth day.’

Dr. Gillies was lying for all he was worth. He had no doubt that the coming century would be too direful to contemplate . . .

Thornton Wilder, The Eighth Day