Explore "Hephestus" by E.E. Fournier d'Albe on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Forerun thy peers, thy time, and let / Thy feet, millenniums hence be set / In midst of knowledge, dreamt not yet.
The empire of Hephestus is expanding before our eyes. His bellows blow through our blast furnaces. His anvils ring in thousands of factories. His engines career over the land, and his steamers over the sea. His internal-combustion cars are strung out along the roadways, and his avions run their furrows through the clouds. Wherever he goes, he lightens the burdens of humanity and gladdens all hearts with his gifts. He brings warmth and light into dark places. He draws mankind closer and closer together. He draws them together without diminishing the distance between them. He simply makes that distance impotent to hold them apart. He enables the city children to leave their slums and gather fresh health in the open country. He gives the grimed city worker fresh clear air wherein to sleep. His lorries, thundering along the highways, tighten the bonds between the farmer who gathers the fruit and the town dweller who consumes it.