"james_alan_gardner_-_three_hearings_on_the_existence_of_snakes_in_the_human_bloodstream" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gardner James Alan)

a purveyor of falsehood. But where did the falsehood truly he?
"This case cannot be decided today," Septus announced. "Mother Church
will investigate the claims of the accused to the fullest extent of her
strength. We will build magnifier devices of our own, properly blessed to
protect against Satan's interference." Septus fought back a smile at that;
there were still some stuffy inquisitors who believed the devil distorted
what one saw through any lens. "We shall see what is there and what is not."
Attendants nodded in agreement around the courtroom, just as they would
nod if the sentence had been immediate acquittal or death. But ben Jacob
said, "Your Holiness -- perhaps it would be best if the court were to... to
issue instructions that no other person build a magnification device until
the church has ruled in this matter."
"On the contrary," Septus replied. "I think the church should make
magnifiers available to all persons who ask. Let them see for themselves."
The Patriarch smiled, wondering if ben Jacob understood. A decree
suppressing magnifiers would simply encourage dissidents to build them in
secret; on the other hand, providing free access to such devices would bring
the curious into the church, not drive them away. Anyway, the question would
only interest the leisured class, those with time and energy to wonder about
esoteric issues. The great bulk of the laity, farmers and miners and
ostlers, would never hear of the offer. Even if they did, they would hardly
care. Minute animalcules might be amusing curiosities, but they had nothing
to do with a peasant's life.
Another pause for prayer and then Leeuwenhoek was escorted away to
instruct church scholars in how to build his magnification device. The man
seemed happy with the outcome -- more than escaping a death sentence, he
would now have the chance to show others what he'd seen. Septus had met many
men like that: grown-up children, looking for colorful shells on the beach
and touchingly grateful when someone else took an interest in their sandy
little collections.
As for Leeuwenhoek's original magnifier -- Septus had the device
brought to his chambers when the court recessed at noon. Blood was easy to
come by: one sharp jab from a pin and the Patriarch had his sample to
examine. Eagerly he peered through the viewing lens, adjusting the focus in
the same way as a telescope.
Animalcules. How remarkable.
Tiny, tiny animalcules... countless schools of them, swimming in his
own blood. What wonders God had made! Creatures of different shapes and
sizes, perhaps predators and prey, like the fishes that swam in the ocean.
And were there snakes? The question was almost irrelevant. And yet ...
very faintly, so close to invisible that it might be a trick of the eye,
something as thin as a hair seemed to flit momentarily across the view.
Then it was gone.
2. The Origin of Serpentine Analogues in the Blood of Papist Peoples:
Her Britannic Majesty, Anne VI, rather liked the Star Chamber. True,
its power had been monstrously abused at times in the past five centuries --
secret trials leading to secret executions of people who were probably more
innocent than the monarchs sitting on the judgment seat -- but even in the
glorious Empire, there was a place for this kind of hearing. The queen on
this side of the table, one other subjects on the other... it had the air of