TIME 009 – A Perfect World Grown Small | The Time Machine

(Verse 1) The Traveller walked slowly through the calm and ordered land, And formed a darker theory from the things he now had scanned. Perhaps mankind had mastered every hunger, storm and field, And won so much from nature there was nothing left to yield. (Verse 2) No danger trained their courage and no hardship shaped the brain, No struggle drove invention and no labour tempered pain. With every ancient challenge gone, ambition lost its call, And ease had made their triumph into something weak and small. (Chorus) A perfect world had conquered every enemy of man, Then shrank beneath the comfort of its own completed plan. The strength that built the future faded softly from them all, And paradise stood silent as a perfect world grown small. (Verse 3) He thought of generations raised where nothing must be won, Where every need was answered by the warmth of endless sun. Without the spur of struggle, thought had little need to climb, And brilliance slowly withered in the luxury of time. (Verse 4) Their beauty still enchanted him, their gentleness remained, Yet now he saw the price by which their peaceful world was gained. The fire of aspiration had been softened into rest, And what had seemed perfection failed the Traveller's deeper test. (Chorus) A perfect world had conquered every enemy of man, Then shrank beneath the comfort of its own completed plan. The strength that built the future faded softly from them all, And paradise stood silent as a perfect world grown small. (Bridge) He wondered if achievement bore destruction in its seed, If triumph over hardship also conquered human need. For once the world demanded neither courage, thought nor toil, The roots of human greatness had grown shallow in the soil. (Outro) The gardens still were lovely and the evenings still were mild, But mankind seemed diminished to the innocence of a child. The future had not risen to some vast transcendent hall, It rested in a paradise made comfortable and small.