[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Jeris laughed. "Quite clear! Eloquent! If the creature is the name, then the
name is the creature. 'Equals may be substituted for equals,' or
'The order of an equality is reversible,' but may we proceed to the next
axiom? If 'Quantities equal to the same quantity may substitute for each
other' is true, then is there not some 'same quantity' which both name and
diagram represent? Or is it a closed system?"
Francis reddened. "I would imagine," he said slowly, after pausing to stifle
his annoyance, "that the diagram represents an abstract concept, rather than a
concrete thing. Perhaps the ancients had a systematic method for depicting a
pure thought. It's clearly not a recognizable picture of an object."
"Yes, yes, it's clearly unrecognizable!" Brother Jeris agreed with a chuckle.
"On the other hand, perhaps it does depict an object, but only in a very
formal stylistic way--so that one would need special training or--"
"Special eyesight?"
"In my opinion, it's a high abstraction of perhaps transcendental value
expressing a thought of the Beatus Leibowitz."
"Bravo! Now what was he thinking about?"
"Why--'Circuit Design,'" said Francis, picking the term out of the block of
lettering at the lower right.
"Hmmm, what discipline does that art pertain to, Brother? What is its genus,
species, property, and difference? Or is it only. an 'accident'?"
Jeris was becoming pretentious in his sarcasm, Francis thought, and decided to
meet it with a soft answer. "Well, observe this column of figures, and its
heading: 'Electronics Parts Numbers.' There was once, an
Negative Twist of Nothingness.
"What! How did they negate a nothingness? Wouldn't that make it a
somethingness?"
"Perhaps the negation applies to 'twist.'"
"Ah! Then we would have an 'Untwisted Nothing,' eh? Have you discovered how to
untwist a nothingness?"
"Not yet," Francis admitted.
Page 30
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"Well keep at it, Brother! How clever they must have been, those ancients--to
know how to untwist nothing. Keep at it, and you may learn how. Then we'd have
the 'electron' in our midst, wouldn't we? Whatever would we do with it? Put it
on the altar in the chapel?"
"All right," Francis sighed, "I don't know. But I have a certain faith that
the 'electron' existed at one time, although I don't know how it was
constructed or what it might have been used for."
"How touching!" chuckled the iconoclast, and returned to his work.
The sporadic teasing of Brother Jeris saddened Francis, but did nothing to
lessen his devotion to his project.
The exact duplication of every mark, blotch, and stain proved im-
possible, but the accuracy of his facsimile proved sufficient for the decep-
tion of the eye at a distance of two paces, and therefore adequate for dis-
play purposes, so that the original might be sealed and packed away.
Having completed the facsimile, Brother Francis found himself disap-
pointed. The drawing was too stark. There was nothing about it to suggest at
first glance that it might be a holy relic. The style was terse and unpre-
tentious--fittingly enough, perhaps, for the Beatus himself, and yet--
A copy of the relic was not enough. Saints were humble people who glorified
not themselves but God, and it was left to others to portray the inward glory
of the saintly by outward, visible signs. The stark copy was not enough: it
was coldly unimaginative and did not commemorate the saintly qualities of the
Beatus in any visible way.
Glorificemus, thought Francis, while he worked on the perennials.
He was copying pages of the Psalms at the moment for later rebinding. He
paused to regain his place in the text, and to notice meaning in the words--
lines. Other craftsmen would fill in riots of color around his simply inked
copy and would construct the pictorial capitals. He was learning to illumi-
nate, but was not yet proficient enough to be trusted at gold-inlay work on
the perennials.
Glorificemus. He was thinking of the blueprint again.
Without mentioning the idea to anyone, Brother Francis began to plan. He found
the finest available lambskin and spent several weeks of his spare time at
curing it and stretching it and stoning it to a perfect surface, which he
eventually bleached to a snowy whiteness and carefully stored away. For months
afterward, he spent every available minute of his free time looking through
the Memorabilia, again seeking clues to the meaning of the Leibowitz print. He
found nothing resembling the squiggles in the drawing, nor anything else to
help him interpret its meaning, but after a long time he stumbled across a
fragment of a book which contained a partially destroyed page whose subject
matter was blueprinting. It seemed to be a piece of an encyclopaedia. The
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]