"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 01 - The Winds of Gath" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

"Maybe they'd like to enjoy your joke. Maybe they'd like to hear
it."

"Tell us, mother," urged Megan. Immediately she flew into a
rage.

"Don't you call me that! Do it again and I'll stab out your
eyes!"

Megan recoiled from the long needle in her hand. "No offense,
My Lady, but why did you say what you did?"

"About this?" She kicked at the box. "About this coffin?" She
leered at Sime. "He's got his dead wife in there, dearie. You can't
hurt the dead."
***

The monks had set up their church in the camp leaving
Brother Angelo in charge. He sat in the close confines of the
booth feeling the turgid heat from outside penetrate his rough,
homespun habit, prickling his skin with a thousand tiny
discomforts. He dismissed them as of no importance, thinking
instead of the never-ending task of his order, the continual
striving to turn men from what they were into what they should
be.

He was, he realized, verging into the sin of pride and jerked
himself back to the immediate present. Through the mesh he
could see a pale face, wide-eyed, trembling with released
emotion. The litany of sin was all too familiar, the human animal
being capable only of certain emotions, certain acts which dull
by constant repetition. But sin was too heavy a burden for any
man to carry.

"тАж and, Brother, one time I stole a ration of food. I went to the
pot twice and lied when questioned. It was fish stew, I ate what
should have gone to anotherтАФ but I was so hungry."
 Hunger of the spirit more than that of the bodyтАФyet could a
man be blamed for wanting to survive? Brother Angelo
considered the question as the list of petty sins grew. If man was
animal, as he basically was, then survival was all-important and
yet if he was more than animal, which he undoubtedly was, then
he should not yield to his base appetites.

And yet, if he died because of consideration to his higher self,
what then?

Was the Universal Brotherhood only to be achieved in the
communal negation of death?