"Edgar Pangborn - A Mirror for Observers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pangborn Edgar)

forty-two now, almost full grown. So you see I even have a father's interest in hoping to
witness the end of Homo quasi-sapiens. . . . . Might I ask your current population
figures?"

"About two thousand, Namir."

"In all the тАФ er тАФ four Cities?"

"Yes."

"H'm. Bigger, of course, than our few dozen of the enlightened. But that's deceptive,
since you are all dreamers."

"Men vanish, and you repopulate from a few dozen?"

"I don't suppose they'll vanish completely. Too damn many of 'em."

"You have plans for the survivors?"
"Well, I don't feel free to give you blueprints, old man."

"The law of 27,140 тАФ "

"Is a routine expression of Salvayan piety. You couldn't use it against us. After all, we
have a weapon. Suppose men, with a little help, were to locate the тАФ remaining cities?"

"You couldn't betray your own kind!" Namir did not answer. . . ."You consider the
Abdicators peculiarly enlightened?"

"Through suffering, boredom, observation, disappointment, realistic contact тАФ yes. What
could be more educational than loss and loneliness and hope deferred? Why, ask even
Angelo Pontevecchio at twelve. He adored his dead father, there's no one he can talk
with, childhood keeps him in a cage with life outside тАФ result, he begins to be quite
educated. Of course he's a directionless kitten still, a kitten in a jungle of wolves. And the
wolves will give his education another lift."

"Love, if you'll excuse the expression, is more educational."

"Now I could never make that mistake. I've watched human beings fool around with
love. Love of self mostly, but also love of place, work, ideas; love of friends, of male and
female, parent and child. I can't think of any human illusions more comic than those of
love."

"May I know more about what you do, outside?"

Namir looked away. "Still an Observer, in my fashion."

"How can you observe through a sickness of hatred?"

"I observe sharply, Drozma."