"E. E. Doc Smith - Lensman 8 - The Dragon Lensman" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

between the
Arisians and the Eddorians, the prototype confrontation between Good and Evil,
had
arrived. The struggle began for the lives and souls of the many races that
were evolving.
As Civilization grew, the Elders of Arisia surreptitiously encouraged the new
life forms to
resist the tyranny and to shape their independent ways toward perfection.

In the universal deceit which developed around the rise of the Eddorian-
inspired
Boskonian outlaws, the greatest secret of all was kept by the Arisians. Their
immortal
enemies, the Eddorians, were kept forever ignorant of their existence. The
Arisians were
the covert and incognito patrons of those opposing the evil Eddorians; they
were the real,
formidable counterforce in the eons-long contest with Boskonia and its
masters.

Four widely-scattered planets with advanced life forms were the nucleus of the
resistance in the First Galaxy: Tellus, known as Earth or Terra, Velantia,
Rigel Four, and
Palain Seven. Each, subtly encouraged by the Arisians, developed four
dissimilar races,
but it was Tellus which became the focal point for the organized force against
Boskone
and its puppet-masters. From Tellus came the formation of the Galactic Patrol,
to be the
instrument of Eddorian destruction. Also from Tellus came the Kinnison and
Samms fam-

ilies leading to their zenith, the union of their foremost leaders, Kimball
Kinnison, the Gray
Lensman, and Clarrissa MacDougall, the Red Lensman.

Within generations of the First Lensman, Virgil Samms, many Lensmen had been
recruited into a special corps of Patrolmen. They were outstanding military
leaders and
scientists, possessing extraordinary natural, non-mutated abilities. The
Lensman name
came from the peculiar semi-living Lens each one wore, usually on a wrist, a
unique gift
obtained from Mentor of Arisia. These incredible instruments, radiant crystal
complexities, were badges of honor, forgery-proof identification, and
amplifiers of
psychic powers. They were awarded only to those chosen by Mentor itself, the
amorphous fusion-entity of the four intellectually greatest Arisian Molders of
Civilization.
The psychical match to the quintessential individuality of the Lensman was