"Janet Morris - Crusaders In Hell" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morris Janet E)

technique of finding paired, contradictory conclusions in other men's
premises, had never imagined himself on first-name terms with the Devil.
He could only mutter, "Yessir, Nick, sir."
At the mention of the Devil's name, the furred and winged beast in his lap
fixed Zeno with a baleful stare, then growled on an ascending note.
"Michael," chided the Devil, offering a finger to the beast who immediately
took the appendage in his jaws and began contentedly to munch on it.
"Michael's my eternal companion. Pet. Friend. You get the picture. Have you
some milk around?" As he spoke, the Devil grimaced intermittently as the beast
gnawed.
Zeno could hear the sound of fang scraping bone.
"Yes, sir-Nick. Around here someplace." And went to fetch the pot of newts
milk cooling outside his single window in the snow of Sinai's peak.
When he returned with it and a bowl to pour it in, the beast deserted the
Devil's lap with a bound. And its master said, "Now, then, Zeno, I'm here
because you're the man who argued that every magnitude is divisible into an
infinite number of magnitudes, and yet self-same and indivisible. Do I have it
right: 'both like and unlike, at rest and in motion, ease and many'?"
"Ah, well, that's a good paraphrase. Sir Nick."
"Just a paraphrase, then? You don't consider yourself responsible for the
human concepts of infinity, continuity, and unity?" said the Devil with
deceptive casualness.
But Zeno was not fooled. This might be the beginning of infinite punishment;
so far, he'd avoided the worst that Hell had to offer. He said carefully,
drawing on all his philosophical skill, "Surely no human is responsible for
the concepts of infinity, continuity, or unity. Unity is a precondition for
all existence ... something must be, indivisibly and wholly, to differentiate
itself from nothingness. Once 'being' is established, one has two states,
being and non-being. As-"
"I'm not saying you created the concepts - just that you re guilty of first
explicating them," Nick interrupted impatiently. Now cut to the chase, you
long-winded pedant"
"Yes, s-s-sir" Zeno quavered, trying to stifle a pained look. The 'chase' had
been his life's work; was his eternal vocation; he could not 'cut' to it, he
was eternally and entirely engaged in it. And continued: "As soon as there are
two states, there is also duration, from which follow all relations of space
and time: forward and back, up and down, to and fro, before and after.
Thus the assumption of being and non-being' create a primary divisibility
which, in and of itself; generates the concepts of infinity, continuity, and
unity, since none of the aforementioned can exist without its opposite.
Therefore, differentiation is the Initial State, First Moment, the Root
Casuality ... and the culprit you seek." Zeno smiled, having gotten himself
irrefutably off the hook.
The Devil did not smile. The Devil stared at Zeno unblinkingly and then leaned
forward, elbows on his knees, his white, curly wig swaying gently against
powerful shoulders. Regardless of your pettifogging, you, you alone, first
rubbed Mankind's nose in this particular brand of philosophical bullshit...
What would you say if I told you that something is disturbing the very fabric
of your assumptions, here in Hell? That forward and back, to and fro, before
and after are threatened at their very center? That the forward-moving arrow