"Robert F. Young - Pithecanthropus Astralis" - читать интересную книгу автора (Young Robert F)

he had. I would never dream of superseding the Master of the Mountain's authority."
Councilman addressed Blazer again. "Tell us about the stars."
It was the opportunity Blazer had been waiting for. But now that it had arrived he found the task of
communicating what he had seen and felt considerably beyond his powers. "The stars," he murmured.
"The stars . . ." And then, "Yes, yes, I will tell you about them. I must. They are beautiful and terrible. It is
possible to see them much better from the mountaintop than from here, but they still seem almost as far
away. I reached up and tried to touch them, and it seemed that I almost could, but I knew that this was
true only in my mind. They are unbelievably high in the sky—far higher than even the Master of the
Mountain could reach, and this alone proves that he could not have put them there himself. And there are
more of them beyond the mountain, and there is another forest, too. And beyond this forest there are
other mountains, so—"
He became aware that someone was shouting. It was Lawmaker. "Liar! Blasphemer! You not only
presume to break the Master of the Mountain's law, you presume to question his omnipotence as well!"
"That will do, Lawmaker," Councilman said. To Blazer, he said, "Why did you climb the mountain,
Blazer?"
Blazer thought for a moment. Then he said, "I have spent many nights looking up at the stars. Many
seasons, many cycles. And the more I looked up at them, the more I thought about them, and the more I
thought about them the more I realized how little we know about them. They are always there at night,
looking down at us, almost like the Great Light of Day, and it occurred to me that perhaps there was
another reason for their being there than the one we have always taken for granted. And I thought that if I
climbed the mountain I would be close enough to them to find out what this reason was. But the mountain
is not high enough, and I failed.
But this was only the first attempt, Councilman. I think that if I were to climb it again with some of the
other members of the Tribe, we could built a tall tower atop it that might enable us to get close enough to
find out this reason." Excitement had been building up in Blazer all the while he talked. Excitement and
enthusiasm. Now, both emotions took command of him, and it seemed that he was no longer standing by
the cook-fire in the presence of his king but was soaring high into the heavens toward the stars, the world
shrinking swiftly beneath him, the new world—the world of the stars—opening up before him in almost
unbearable grandeur. "We can start tomorrow, Councilman. I will lead the way. We will build the tower
tall, Councilman, tall and strong. And I will climb to its very top and extend my arms and touch—yes,
touch—a star!"
Councilman looked at the radiant figure of the young man who so short a time ago had been a useful
member of the Tribe. He sighed. He turned toward Law-keeper. "Kill him," he said.

After the last of Blazer's screams had been borne away by the wintry wind, Councilman addressed
Lawmaker who, no longer capable of experiencing pleasure in witnessing another man's death throes,
had remained by the fire beside his king. "Was my judgment sound?"
"Oh yes, Councilman. It could not have been more so. As a blasphemer and a liar, Blazer deserved
to die."
Wearily, Councilman shook his head. "Blazer neither blasphemed nor lied. In my own mind there is
no doubt but what the stars are far more than we let ourselves believe and the world we live in but a
small part of a larger one."
He fell silent and did not speak for a long time. When at last he spoke again his eyes were fixed on
the fading fire, and it was as though he were talking to the flames. "But what purpose would it serve for
men to regard the stars as something more than lights in the sky, or for them to think of the world as a
vast, rather than a small, wilderness? A man has but three functions in life: to propagate himself, to fill his
belly and the bellies of his brood, and to provide himself and his brood with garments with which to keep
warm. He can perform these three functions best if he keeps his eves fixed upon the ground and learns as
much as possible about the world he lives in. If he looks too often heavenward, his spear may not find its
mark; and if he concerns himself with those parts of the world which he does not live in, he will learn less