"Julian May - Diamond Mask" - читать интересную книгу автора (May Julian)

labors were exciting, satisfyingтАФjoyous, evenтАФbecause Elizabeth shared them with me and helped me
to fully understand my own heart. Before we came together, my self was unintegrated; I had no true
notion of what love meant.
"I don't agree," the old man said stubbornly. "Neither would Jack."
The Ghost was not to be sidetracked. It continued:
When the Duat work was done, Elizabeth was weary and ready to pass on. She begged me to
follow her into the peace and light of the Cosmic All ... but I could not.
Instead, I felt compelled to return here. Alone, cut off from every mind that had loved me
and from the consoling Unity I had known in Duat, I undertook what I judged was my true penance:
to assist the maturation of our own Galactic Mind.
Through years that seemed without end I guided one promising planet after another, cajoling
civilization from barbarism, altruism from savagery. Of course I could not truly coerce the


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developing races of the Milky Way. I only assisted the inevitable complexification of the World
Mind that accompanies life's evolution.
I made many ghastly mistakes.
Can you conceive of the doubts that assailed me, Rogi, the fear that I might have succumbed
to a hubris even more immense than that which originally obsessed me? No ... I see that you can't
understand. Never mind, mon oncle. Only believe me. It was a terrible time. Le bon dieu is as
silent and invisible to the likes of me as he is to any other material being. I could not help but
ask myself if I was committing a fresh sin of pride in thinking that my assistance was needed.
Was I helping the Galactic Mind, or merely meddling with evolution again, as I had been when
I tried to engender Mental Man?
Our galaxy has so many planets with thinking creatures! Yet so fewтАФso pathetically few!тАФever
achieved any sort of social or mental maturity under my guidance, much less the coadunation of the
higher mindpowers that leads to Unity. But finally, perhaps in spite of my efforts rather than as
a result of them, I found success. The Lylmik were the first minds to Unify, and I adopted their
peculiar race as my own. Then, aeons later, the Krondaku also achieved coadunation.
After that came a great hiatus, and I feared that my infant Galactic Milieu was doomed to
eventual stagnation and death. But le divin humoriste elevated the preposterous Gi race to
metapsychic operancy against all odds (the Krondaku were deeply scandalized) and not long after
that the Mind of the engaging little Poltroyans matured as well. The Simbiari were accepted into
the Milieu next, even though they were imperfectly Unified. And suddenly there seemed almost to be
an evolutionary explosion of intelligent beings, burgeoning on planet after planetтАФnot yet ready
for induction into our confederation, but nevertheless making great progress.
One of the less likely worlds in this group was Earth.
Knowing what I do, I overruled the consensus that rejected the human race as a candidate for
Intervention. The result was the Metapsychic Rebellion, a towering disaster that metamorphosed
into triumph. And now the Mind of this galaxy stands poised at the brink of a great expansion you
cannot begin to imagine ...
"Are you going to tell me about that?" Rogi asked.
I cannot. My own role in the drama is nearly complete and my proleptic vision fails as my
life approaches its end. Assisting you to write the cautionary family history will be my last bit
of personal intervention. Others will oversee the destiny of this Galactic Mind henceforth and
guide it to the fullness of Unity that is so very, very close.