"E. E. Doc Smith - Lensman 2 - First Lensman" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

of Asia
you were allowed to do as you pleased. Similar activities upon Rigel Four,
Velantia,
Palain Seven, and elsewhere were also allowed to proceed without effective
opposition.
With the appearance of Virgil Samms, however, the time arrived to put an end to
your
customary pernicious, obstructive, and destructive activities. I therefore
interposed a
barrier between you and those who would otherwise be completely defenseless
against
you."
"But why now? Why not thousands of cycles ago? And why Virgil Samms?"
 "To answer those questions would be to give you valuable data. You may --
too
late -- be able to answer them yourself. But to continue: you accuse me, and all
Arisia, of
cowardice; an evidently muddy and inept thought. Reflect, please, upon the
completeness of your failure in the affair of Roger's planetoid; upon the fact
that you
have accomplished nothing whatever since that time; upon the situation in which
you now
find yourself.
"Even though the trend of thought of your race is basically materialistic
and
mechanistic, and you belittle' ours as being 'philosophic' and 'impractical',
you found --
much to your surprise -- that your most destructive physical agencies are not
able to
affect even this form of flesh which I am now energizing, to say nothing of
affecting the
reality which is I.
"If this episode is the result of the customary thinking of the second-in-
command
of Eddore's Innermost Circle . . . but no, my visualization cannot be that badly
at fault.
Overconfidence -- the tyrant's innate proclivity to underestimate an opponent --
these
things have put you into a false position; but I greatly fear that they will not
operate to do
so in any really important future affair."
"Rest assured that they will not!" Gharlane snarled. "It may not be --
exactly --
cowardice. It is, however, something closely akin. If you could have acted
effectively
against us at any time in the past, you would have done so. If you could act
effectively
against us now, you would be acting, not talking. That is elementary -- self-
evidently true.
So true that you have not tried to deny it -- nor would you expect me to believe