And lo, in my dream, I found myself on the shores of a country, where things were done ona large scale, But what struck my sight was a mighty Crane. Now its horizontal Arm at the top was absurdly long, and what was worse, the further it t onnenea from the body of the Crane the heavier it seemed to got, being more ponderous at the extremity of the Arm than at the angle where it left the main trunk. I trembled to be where I was, for I thought the heavy projecting Arm would certainly tear up the Crane by the root, and that I too should be destroyed by the giving way of the solid earth beneath my feet. Then I began to meditate on the folly of making a Crane with an Arm out of all proportion to its base, And why need it be so made? If the Arm must be long, surely the body and the base should be proportionately strong. I understood, of course, that the Arm was made long, because it was intended to lift all kinds of goods that could be got' from a long distance, without saying to whom they might belong, or how they might be obtained. But then the base of the Crane, though a good one, and well buttressed for' ordinary purposes, did not allow for that. It was no doubt an excellent Crane, but for the under proportion of its Arm. I hurried away as fast as I could, for I was sure a fearful catastrophe must happen. I was right, for the crash came, What a Joss to the owners in time, in men, and in money, and what a loss of reputation for the Crane-maker. It meant a loss of excellent material: too, which might have been used for other purposes. Afterwards it became an ugly sight for the passers to and fro to gaze at, to laugh at, and to criticise. How observers ridiculed the engineers of that country, with the Arm of a Crane projecting beyond bounds in that inelegant fashion! When the crash came, what a loss of life to the men at both ends! It created great excitement, rane correspondents hurried from all quarters to the scene of the crash. There was distress at the base of the Crane, and there was terrible suffér-! ing at the extremity of the Arm. Homes were desolated. Wives were made widows. Children became fatherless; and lovers rudely deprived of those who formed the mainstay of their earthly hopes. But the loss was not limited to the families of those killed. All persons who had property, or interests of any kind in the neighbourhood of the Crane, or within the circumference of its swing, suffered loss, in some cases of all that they had, and so had a right to complain, All this and more than can be told happened through the folly of making a Crane with too long an Arm. Then it seemed to me that the government of the country, which allowed a Crane with an Arm like that to proceed with its operations, was criminally responsible and deserved censure. Further, that an International Commission should be appointed to enquire into Cranes in general, and fix the limits of the Arm of @ Cran; or to insist that the Arms of Cranes should be more in proportion to their bases. It] p seemed, too, that the Engineers of this Crane, which had done so much damage, should be tried by an International Court of Crane-makers, and punished as they deserved. And that the designer of the Arm of this Crane, whoever he might be, deserved to be held up to universal execration, and to be so disposed of, with all his supporters, helpers, and partners, so that they should never be entrusted with the making, or working of Cranes of any kind whatsoever again. That they should be banished for ever from any and every undertaking, where human life, and property and national or other interests could be by them in any way endangered. I hoped, too, that their punishment might be a warning for all nations, for the time that was to come. So I awoke.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.