Journey Through the Impossible (13 page)

Ox: Liberty? Inside a prison?

George: That may be liberty for a misanthropist or a savage, but not
for a civilized man.

Volsius: I reject that title, gentlemen. No, I am not what you call a
civilized man. I have severed all ties with your society. I have left
your earthly habitat forever. And I was in rather good company as
I went into exile. God had just been banished from earth at that
very moment-the "so-called God," as people say now.10

Ox (sarcastically): I see that Captain Nemo is a devout believer.

Volsius: Very devout," and firmer in his beliefs than those whom I
see displaying an atheism born of pride or fear.

Ox: Pride or fear, did you say?

Volsius: Yes, certainly. Most of those who claim to be atheists are
either arrogant or afraid. If there were a God, say the arrogant
ones, would a superior man like me, a man of genius, stagnate
here unrecognized? The others, speaking out of fear, say there is
no God.

All: Out of fear?

Volsius: Yes, gentlemen, fear. Examine the lives of these men. Dig
into their past. Study their consciences. You will always find some
dreary and mysterious reason, some dark memory, that makes
them fear a supreme tribunal. They are afraid, I tell you. And why
do they go around shouting and proclaiming everywhere that
God does not exist? The reason is not so much a desire to convince others as the vain hope of convincing themselves.

Ox (laughs): Ha ha! From the depths of the ocean, Captain Nemo
wants to reawaken faith and reform our civilization.

Volsius: Ah, what a wonderful civilization it is! And on what an unshakable foundation this modern society rests, a society that steals from
the disinherited of this world the hope of a better world to come.
But if there is no life anywhere but on earth, if we have no expectation of any future punishment or reward, virtue is a fraud. Crime
has only to find a way of skillfully evading the law. And should you
happen to have a government headed by a few worthy and honest
leaders who practice a gentle, bourgeois philosophy and are pleased
to commute the sentences handed down by Justice, you will see the
ranks of hardened criminals increase without letup. Since murder
will be no more severely punished than theft, thieves will become
murderers, and the murderers will say to themselves, "We can kill
without fear; they won't kill us. We can cut throats without
remorse; remorse is an empty word, since God does not exist."

George: What do you intend to do with us?

Eva: Please, sir, don't keep us here. None of us will betray your secret.

Volsius: Well, I'm a magnanimous person, and I'm willing to let my
ship take you ... wherever you want to go.

George: But we're on our way to conquer the impossible, through
fire, through space.

Volsius: And through water, too, no doubt. Pour me a few drops of
your precious potion, and I'll go with you, Dr. Ox.

Ox: Ah! You know ... ?

Volsius: Your conversation reached me just now through the walls of
the Nautilus. Yes, I know your name, learned doctor, and I know
all about your wonderful discovery, just as I know who you are,
George Hatteras.

George: George Hatteras, the son of a man who never retreated
before any obstacle, and who went....

Volsius: Who went to his death,i" where you are in danger of going
yourself.

George: Enough of your lessons, sir. I am not about to take lessons
from you, even on board your ship.

Volsius (sadly): You will take lessons, unfortunately, and more
dreadful ones than I can teach you. You want to leave the Nautilus
to run around at the bottom of the ocean. Very well, then, I'll go
with you, as I said I would.

Ox: Even if I don't provide you with the means to live where the elements of life are not to be found?

Volsius: Even without that.

George: All right, then. Whenever you like, sir.

Volsius: Right now.

he Nautilus closes up and moves away through the water)

The open part of the Nautilus gradually closes, then moves ahead so as to
show the shape of the stern with its spinning propeller The Nautilus goes off
stage obliquely.

The bottom of the sea. Enter Valdemar stage right. Schools offish swim
around under his feet and disappear through the water.

Valdemar: This is really and truly the bottom of the sea. I'm living,
walking, and breathing under water, just like an ordinary herring.
What a strange country! The roads are badly maintained, but certainly well watered. Not too much sun, either. (Looking around.)
And my friends, what has become of them? I thought Tartelet
dived in at the same time as I did. He must have been carried away
by the current. (Schools offish swim by over his head.) Ah! Fish! Frrr
... Frrr ... They're flying away, like birds. Good! There are
some jellyfish. They look like colored parasols. But there are no
ladies under them who can give me directions. (While he is speaking, a large crab makes its way obliquely toward him. Suddenly he
notices it) A crab! A crab! What an ugly creature. But it's coming
after me! (He tries to run away, dodging from side to side) But I don't
know you. I don't know you. It will catch me sooner or later, the
beast! Go lie down! (At that moment an enormous shark appears in
the water above him and swims down closer and closer to the bottom.)
And that fish! What a mouth! What teeth! A shark! It's a shark!
Help! Help! Save me! (in desperation, he goes in one direction, then
another, but the crab is at his heels and the shark comes closer, opening its formidable jaws.) Help! (He starts to run, with the crab and shark
in pursuit)

he scene changes)