not have to have feather gills to be a Humbler. From his time on, this lesson having been absorbed with due repentance and guilt, Humbleism had been preached even to the diverse assortments of gentiles, so to speak, available in the galaxy. There were many Humbler martyrs.
“We are not supposed to make judgments,” said Brenner. “We are not supposed to prescribe, but to describe . It is not the business of science to change things, or to reform the galaxy, but to explain things, to give accounts of them.”
“Did you have any difficulty telling the facts from the values?” asked Rodriguez.
“Of course not,” said Brenner, irritatedly.
“It is possible to understand something,” said Rodriguez, “and still not like it.”
“Perhaps,” said Brenner.
“Indeed,” said Rodriguez, “it is sometimes difficult to understand things without finding oneself feeling one way or another about them, without coming to like them or dislike them, so to speak.”
“Perhaps,” said Brenner.
“And what better grounds on which to form a liking or a disliking than on an understanding?”
“But anyone could do that sort of thing,” said Brenner.
“Of course,” said Rodriguez.
“Where is your frame of reference?” asked Brenner.
“I carry it with me,” said Rodriguez.
“And so, too, does every Narnian and crocodile in the galaxy.”
“Not mine,” said Rodriguez.
“It is your own gauge,” said Brenner.
“Why then should I throw it away?” asked Rodriguez.
“At best it is relativized to a species,” said Brenner.
“To my species,” said Rodriguez. “That is important.”
“Galactically, that is unimportant,” said Brenner.
“But then I am not a galaxy,” he said.
“I am a modernist, and a lifest,” said Brenner.
“You are a traitor to your species,” said Rodriguez, “or are trying to be, but I suspect you will not manage it.”
Brenner smoldered in fury.
“Others, too, may have suspected it,” said Rodriguez.
“What?” said Brenner.
“That may be why you have been sent to Abydos,” said Rodriguez.
“Nonsense,” said Brenner.
“We are more alike than you know,” said Rodriguez. “But others know it.”
“I am not like you,” said Brenner.
“No species chauvinist?” smiled Rodriguez.
“No,” said Brenner.
“Yet you have come to Abydos,” mused Rodriguez.
“The assignment seemed interesting,” said Brenner. “I did not challenge it.”
“I see,” said Rodriguez.
“What do you think to find on Abydos?” asked Brenner.
“I do not know what I will find,” said Rodriguez. “But I know for what I am searching.”
“What is that?” asked Brenner.
“The beginning,” said Rodriguez.
For those of you to whom this might not be clear Rodriguez and Brenner are anthropologists. To be sure, this designation had become something of an anachronistic misnomer, suggesting, as it does, in its root, that it had to do with a particular species. At present, of course, its meaning was no longer limited in such a provincial and circumscribed fashion. Earlier its scope, in virtue of certain interdisciplinary connections, had been extended to certain organisms on a given home world which were not always of the same species as that of Rodriguez and Brenner. After this, of course, there was not the least difficulty in extending it to numerous life forms in various systems, life forms which had little in common but the possession of some form of what we might think of as a cultural complexus. To be certain, the boundaries of the discipline were quite unclear, and the relationships with numerous kindred sciences, collateral or contained, as might be argued, such as sociology, political science, ethology, ecology, and genetics, were still a matter of disputed demarcations. Some individuals preferred to think not so much of separate countries of inquiry, each jealousy guarding its own borders, so to speak, as of inquiries themselves into which light might be shed from
“We are not supposed to make judgments,” said Brenner. “We are not supposed to prescribe, but to describe . It is not the business of science to change things, or to reform the galaxy, but to explain things, to give accounts of them.”
“Did you have any difficulty telling the facts from the values?” asked Rodriguez.
“Of course not,” said Brenner, irritatedly.
“It is possible to understand something,” said Rodriguez, “and still not like it.”
“Perhaps,” said Brenner.
“Indeed,” said Rodriguez, “it is sometimes difficult to understand things without finding oneself feeling one way or another about them, without coming to like them or dislike them, so to speak.”
“Perhaps,” said Brenner.
“And what better grounds on which to form a liking or a disliking than on an understanding?”
“But anyone could do that sort of thing,” said Brenner.
“Of course,” said Rodriguez.
“Where is your frame of reference?” asked Brenner.
“I carry it with me,” said Rodriguez.
“And so, too, does every Narnian and crocodile in the galaxy.”
“Not mine,” said Rodriguez.
“It is your own gauge,” said Brenner.
“Why then should I throw it away?” asked Rodriguez.
“At best it is relativized to a species,” said Brenner.
“To my species,” said Rodriguez. “That is important.”
“Galactically, that is unimportant,” said Brenner.
“But then I am not a galaxy,” he said.
“I am a modernist, and a lifest,” said Brenner.
“You are a traitor to your species,” said Rodriguez, “or are trying to be, but I suspect you will not manage it.”
Brenner smoldered in fury.
“Others, too, may have suspected it,” said Rodriguez.
“What?” said Brenner.
“That may be why you have been sent to Abydos,” said Rodriguez.
“Nonsense,” said Brenner.
“We are more alike than you know,” said Rodriguez. “But others know it.”
“I am not like you,” said Brenner.
“No species chauvinist?” smiled Rodriguez.
“No,” said Brenner.
“Yet you have come to Abydos,” mused Rodriguez.
“The assignment seemed interesting,” said Brenner. “I did not challenge it.”
“I see,” said Rodriguez.
“What do you think to find on Abydos?” asked Brenner.
“I do not know what I will find,” said Rodriguez. “But I know for what I am searching.”
“What is that?” asked Brenner.
“The beginning,” said Rodriguez.
For those of you to whom this might not be clear Rodriguez and Brenner are anthropologists. To be sure, this designation had become something of an anachronistic misnomer, suggesting, as it does, in its root, that it had to do with a particular species. At present, of course, its meaning was no longer limited in such a provincial and circumscribed fashion. Earlier its scope, in virtue of certain interdisciplinary connections, had been extended to certain organisms on a given home world which were not always of the same species as that of Rodriguez and Brenner. After this, of course, there was not the least difficulty in extending it to numerous life forms in various systems, life forms which had little in common but the possession of some form of what we might think of as a cultural complexus. To be certain, the boundaries of the discipline were quite unclear, and the relationships with numerous kindred sciences, collateral or contained, as might be argued, such as sociology, political science, ethology, ecology, and genetics, were still a matter of disputed demarcations. Some individuals preferred to think not so much of separate countries of inquiry, each jealousy guarding its own borders, so to speak, as of inquiries themselves into which light might be shed from
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