Lost Horizon

"Chang: Age is a limit we impose upon ourselves. You know, each time you Westerners celebrate your birthday, you build another fence around your minds."

"High Lama: Good evening, Mr. Conway. Please come in. Sit here, near me. I am an old man and can do no one any harm. Robert Conway: Are you the High Lama? High Lama: Yes. I trust you have been comfortable at Shangri-La, since your arrival. Robert Conway: Personally, I've enjoyed your community very much. But my friends do not care for this mystery. They are determined to leave as soon as - [looks down at the Lama's amputated leg, amazed] Robert Conway: It's astonishing - and incredible, but... High Lama: What is it, my son? Robert Conway: You're the man Chang told me about! You're the first - who - two hundred years ago - [reverently] Robert Conway: you're still alive, Father Perrault! High Lama: Sit down, my son. You may not know it, but I've been an admirer of yours for a great many years. Oh, not of Conway the empire-builder and public hero. I wanted to meet the Conway who in one of his books, said, "There are moments in every man's life when he glimpses the eternal." That Conway seemed to belong here. In fact, it was suggested that someone be sent to bring him here. Robert Conway: That I be brought here? Who had that brilliant idea? High Lama: Sondra Bizet. Robert Conway: [secretly pleased] Oh, the girl at the piano? High Lama: Yes. She has read your books and has a profound admiration for you, as have we all. Robert Conway: Of course I have suspected that our being here is no accident. Furthermore, I have a feeling that we're never supposed to leave. But that, for the moment, doesn't concern me greatly. I'll meet that when it comes. What particularly interests me at present is, why was I brought here? What possible use can I be to an already thriving community? High Lama: We need men like you here, to be sure that our community will continue to thrive. In return for which, Shangri-La has much to give you. You are still, by the world's standards, a youngish man. Yet in the normal course of existence, you can expect twenty or thirty years of gradually diminishing activity. Here, however, in Shangri- La, by our standards your life has just begun, and may go on and on. Robert Conway: But to be candid, Father, a prolonged future doesn't excite me. It would have to have a point. I've sometimes doubted whether life itself has any. And if that is so, then long life must be even more pointless. No, I'd need a much more definite reason for going on and on. High Lama: We have reason. It is the entire meaning and purpose of Shangri-La. It came to me in a vision, long, long ago. I saw all the nations strengthening, not in wisdom, but in the vulgar passions and the will to destroy. I saw the machine power multiplying, until a single weaponed man might match a whole army. I foresaw a time when man, exalting in the technique of murder, would rage so hotly over the world, that every book, every treasure, would be doomed to destruction. This vision was so vivid and so moving, that I determined to gather together all things of beauty and of culture that I could, and preserve them here, against the doom toward which the world is rushing. Look at the world today. Is there anything more pitiful? What madness there is! What blindness! What unintelligent leadership! A scurrying mass of bewildered humanity, crashing headlong against each other, propelled by an orgy of greed and brutality. A time must come my friend, when this orgy will spend itself. When brutality and the lust for power must perish by its own sword. Against that time, is why I avoided death, and am here. And why you were brought here. For when that day comes, the world must begin to look for a new life. And it is our hope that they may find it here. For here, we shall be with their books and their music, and a way of life based on one simple rule: Be Kind! When that day comes, it is our hope that the brotherly love of Shangri-La will spread throughout the world. Yes, my son; When the strong have devoured each other, the Christian ethic may at last be fulfilled and the meek shall inherit the earth. Robert Conway: I understand you, Father. High Lama: You must come again, my son. Good night."