A Clock and The Clockmaker
Robert Louis Stevenson, known for works such as The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Treasure Island, also brought us profound and satirical philosophical short stories. One of them is The Clockmaker, a short narrative that looks simple at first glance, but holds layers of meaning about human nature, our pursuit of knowledge and the limits of our understanding of the universe. Stevenson uses an apparently trivial story to question our beliefs, our science and our worldview, and how this is mirrored in society.
The complete PDF of this public domain edition is available for download at the end of this article.
Plot Summary of "The Clockmaker"
In a water jar forgotten on a table, a microscopic civilisation flourishes. Over generations, these tiny beings develop astronomy, philosophy and theology; all based on what they can observe from inside their glass universe. A great thinker emerges among them and formulates a bold theory about the nature of the cosmos, sparking a debate that will divide their society for ages. The centre of all the controversy is a mysterious and enigmatic object that regulates the world outside: the Clockmaker.
Spoilers Ahead!!!
Stevenson’s Allegory on Human Limitation
Stevenson uses the animalcules as a reflection of humanity, obviously. Just like us, they try to understand the universe from their limited perspective, creating theories and systems of knowledge based on phenomena they observe, but which might be far from the true reality. The irony is that, whilst the animalcules debate fervently about the Clockmaker, the reader knows that the clock is just a trivial object in a much larger world.
This narrative makes us ask: could it be that, just like the animalcules, we are interpreting the universe in a mistaken way, trapped in our own “jar” of limited perceptions?
What Stevenson does here is basically the perfect inversion of the design argument. The order that the animalcules identify in the universe, such as the pendulum, the hands, and the chimes, is real, but its origin is entirely mundane. The Clockmaker is neither omniscient nor intentional; he does not even know they exist. Creation happened by chance, providence is an illusion, and the end of the world is a hangover thirst.
Stevenson writes the short story in a prose of conciseness, without dialogues, almost without individualised characters; it is a story of a civilisation, not of an individual. The tone is that of a slightly ironic academic chronicle, which amplifies the comic effect: everything sounds serious and erudite.
Science vs. Religion: The Philosophical Dispute
One of the high points of the story is the satire on the conflict between science and religion. The animalcules split into two factions: the Clockmakerists, who believe in the existence of a creator responsible for the clock, and the sceptics, who reject this idea.
Stevenson lived between 1850 and 1894, a period of extraordinary turbulence in Western religious thought. The publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species in 1859 proposed a biological theory and reorganised the terms of the debate on creation, purpose and design in the universe. The so-called “watchmaker analogy” by William Paley (1802), which stated that the complexity of the world implies a creator, just as a watch implies a watchmaker, was at the centre of this controversy.
Stevenson answers Paley’s question with a comic inversion: what if the clock exists, and the clockmaker exists too, but all of this is just a coincidence absolutely indifferent to the life that formed in its shadow? The text is not an attack on religion; it is a meditation on the limits of what any mind can infer from its position in the cosmos.
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) is best known for Treasure Island (1883), The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), works that shaped entire genres. Born in Edinburgh to a Calvinist family, Stevenson spent his life between lung illnesses, travels in search of milder climates and a literary production remarkably diverse in form and tone.
What is less known about Stevenson is his speculative and philosophical side. Apart from the great adventure novels, he wrote essays, fables, poetry and short experimental prose that show a thought process much more restless and ironic than the popular image of an “adventure storyteller” implies.
My Thoughts
The Clockmaker is a philosophical fable; a genre that goes back to Voltaire and the Enlightenment tradition of using imaginary worlds as instruments of intellectual argument. It is also, curiously, a precursor to speculative science fiction: the idea of microscopic civilisations with their own cosmology would be explored many times in the following century.
Stevenson also explores the theological dilemma of the absent God. The animalcules question why the Clockmaker, if he exists, does not communicate clearly with them.
However, the author takes this idea to the absurd. When the Clockmaker finally appears, he is not a divine or benevolent figure, but simply a human being who, without meaning to, destroys the civilisation of the animalcules by drinking the water from the jar. This ending drives home the idea that our search for meaning can be futile in the face of the indifference of the universe.
What seems most beautiful to me in this text is that Stevenson does not ridicule the animalcules. They are admirable, they produce an extraordinary science, they sustain a sophisticated intellectual debate for generations, they have their martyrs and their brave ones. Their “problem” is the structural limitation of any mind confined to its own perspective.
Wrapping Up
The Clockmaker is a brilliant work that combines humour, irony and a philosophical identity. Stevenson invites us to question our certainties and to recognise the limitations of our understanding of the universe. If you like stories that mix fiction with reflections on science, religion and existence, this is a great short story.
In less than two thousand words, Stevenson builds and destroys a civilisation, satirises the intelligent design argument, meditates on the limits of knowledge and closes everything with a hungover man getting sick for three weeks. It is a text that belongs to a tradition of philosophical humour that demands from the reader the willingness to hold two simultaneous feelings.
Stevenson balances these two feelings with the dexterity of a clockmaker; which, considering the theme, seems the inevitable metaphor.
This work was originally published Posthumous and is in the public domain according to current legislation. However, the original authorship, magazine credits, and any associated illustrations remain the property of their respective creators, illustrators and publishers. This material is provided for informational and educational purposes only and may not be used for commercial sale.
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