Last and First Men · Chapter
III: The Third Dark Age explained
After the devastating Martian bacterium nearly exterminates humanity, a small remnant of the Second Men survives, but falls into a prolonged spiritual and cultural stagnation.
What happens
After the devastating Martian bacterium nearly exterminates humanity, a small remnant of the Second Men survives, but falls into a prolonged spiritual and cultural stagnation. Over millions of years, they regress to a simple, indolent existence, losing civilization, speech, and ambition, while the planet undergoes geological and biological changes, including the symbiotic integration of Martian subvital units into terrestrial life.
Themes in this chapter
Suffering and Redemption
The chapter explores the prolonged suffering of the Second Men and their inability to recover, highlighting a lack of redemption.
The Limits of Knowledge
The Second Men lose all lore and knowledge, yet their intelligence remains, showing the limits of knowledge without will.
Humanity and the Other
The Martian bacterium and subvital units interact with terrestrial life, eventually forming a symbiosis, blurring the line between human and other.
Characters to notice
- The Last Men
The surviving remnants of the Second Men, who fall into a trance-like state of racial sleep, unable to rebuild civilization.
- The Martians
Their lethal bacterium nearly wipes out humanity, and their subvital units later become symbiotic with terrestrial animals.
- The First Men
Referenced as having fallen into racial senility through vulgar errors, contrasting with the Second Men's prolonged impotence.
- The Patagonians
Their upheaval is mentioned as a geological force that remodels the planet's surface during this epoch.
Key passages
“So contagious and so lethal was the new bacterium, that its authors expected the human race to be wiped out as completely as the Martian colony.”
The bacterium was so deadly that its creators thought it would exterminate all humans, just like the Martian colony.
Highlights the severity of the plague and the near-extinction of humanity.
“Again and again, some thirty million times, the seasons were repeated; and throughout this period man remained as fixed in bodily and mental character as, formerly, the platypus.”
For thirty million years, the seasons cycled, but humans stayed unchanged in body and mind, like a platypus.
Emphasizes the immense duration of stagnation.
“The soul was calloused against every goad.”
The human spirit had become hardened and unresponsive to any motivation.
Describes the profound apathy of the Second Men.
“Like a shipwrecked sailor, he lay exhausted and asleep on his raft, long after the storm had abated.”
Humanity was like a sailor asleep on a raft, even after the danger had passed.
Metaphor for the prolonged unconsciousness of the race.