‘“Of course I related this expansion, this instability, to the brilliant ideas of Einstein and enabled them to perceive something of the majestic spatio-temporal edifice constructed by him, as well as the proliferation of theories based on his concepts. I concluded with a spectacular tableau of a pulsating universe, with contraction following dilation, until it returns to a state of phenomenal concentration, followed by a new explosion marking the origin of another period of time and giving birth to another cycle…
‘“The sighs of a mythical heart, the heart of Divinity!… The comparison is to be found in Poe’s Eureka, the last pages of which I read to them. Perhaps I should apologise, but this cosmological poem has always inspired intense emotion in me. This has not been weakened by the dreadful commentaries made on the topic of Poe’s work by asses and one she-ass, and which I tried hard to communicate to them. Basing his ideas on inaccurate observations of his time, and being ignorant of all Einstein’s theories and of the expansion of the universe, as well as invoking laws of physics which were partially false, and using a sequence of imperfect reasoning, by what magic spell could Poe have come to a conception of creation which seems probable today to some of our greatest scholars? I let them reflect on this paradox.
‘“I can assure you, my dear friend, that I did everything I could to inspire them a little with the passion that animates us. I finished with a final quotation, the words of Einstein himself, ‘The cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and noblest motive for scientific research.’
‘“This is what I did. I finished exhausted, but confident and full of hope. And yet…”’
‘So far,’ Betty commented, ‘I don’t see what makes you so sullen. It seems to me that his lecture was skilful, magisterial in the best sense of the word, imbued certainly with a certain mysticism, but we know Zarratoff: he has the soul of a poet. For the goal that we are pursuing, that does not seem to me to be a failing. What do you find fault with in it?’
‘Me? Nothing at all. Like you I consider his account to be excellent, even very fine. In fact I was enthusiastic about it from start to finish, although I knew the essential ideas in advance. As would many of our colleagues.’
‘But that would not have been the case for the others, would it?’
‘Finish reading,’ Fawell murmured, in a deeply despondent way.
‘“And yet, my dear friend,”’ continued Zarratoff, ‘“I have to report quite a painful incident, which left me with a rather unpleasant impression.
‘“I had left the amphitheatre, which was full to bursting, and where I had been received by applause, which, I can assure you, had nothing obligatory about it. Everyone looked at me with a bright expression. In two lectures, each three hours in length, I was pleased to have revived the atmosphere in the centre. I was even more hopeful when, half an hour later, after resting because I was out of breath, I had gone to the reception room, where I found a delegation of members of my audience. I had in fact told them that I would be there, ready to answer any questions that they might have for me.
‘“As I could not receive a large crowd, I asked them to collect their questions together and to send one or several delegates. There were about a dozen, who were probably representative of all the students. All seemed impatient to see me.
‘“I observed them closely, while congratulating them on their enthusiasm. As far as I could judge, they belonged to classes which were very different from those of the former society: workers, bosses, housewives, women of the world, ranging in age from sixteen to sixty. I rubbed my hands in appreciation of their diversity. Their faces seemed to me to be imbued with a fervour tinged with a kind of anxiety, which I attributed to mental tension due to being confronted by the new perspectives that I had shown them, and to the fear of letting some important detail escape them or of inadvertently going down the path of error…’”
‘I came to know that state of mind when I was a student,’ Betty commented.
‘Zarratoff knew it also. If he hadn’t known it, he wouldn’t have talked of it in that way. I have also known it, as have many others among us,’ Fawell said in a dull voice. ‘Even nowadays I sometimes spend sleepless nights, bothered by such anxiety. Continue.’
‘“The first to speak must have been about fifty years old. He had the vigorous manner of a man used to having responsibilities. In fact, as I found out later, he used to belong to the class of directors, and, even after the revolution, he was considered worthy of holding an important post. He had a clear, practical mind, and he has been very useful to us in coordinating transport between different remote regions.
‘“However he started to speak to me with the timidity of a young schoolboy.
‘“‘Master,’ he said, ‘my question is probably evidence of great ignorance, but… I would like to know.’
‘“At that point his voice trembled and he paused for a moment. I asked him to continue quite openly, saying that curiosity and the thirst for knowledge would absolve him of any kind of stupi
dity in advance. So he continued with greater confidence:
‘“‘It’s like this. It’s a question which has been worrying me for a long time and the answer to it is probably quite clear to you, Master. I’d like to know if the reigning planet…’
‘“‘The reigning planet?’ I interrupted, taken aback.
‘“‘Sometimes it’s called ruling,’ he said. ‘I would like to know if the influence of the ruling planet when it’s in the ascendant can be affected when it is in conjunction with one of the galaxies which fill the sky and which you sketched out in such a wonderful tableau.’
‘“I leave you to imagine, my dear friend, my concern, when, after a few moments of astonishment, I realised what he was thinking about: horoscopes and astrology. It was the only aspect of the subject which had fascinated him. I had no time to reply to him. There was already a woman, a woman this time from a humble background, who was pushing her way through the rows of people. She prostrated herself in front of me before nervously spreading out on the floor a sheet of paper covered with diagrams. She begged me to examine it and tell her if the horoscope of her birth was correct. She had had it made by a renowned astrologist, but she guessed, after having listened to me, that there must be more things in the heavens than astrologers were aware of, and that a scholar like me could predict her fate with greater certainty and in more detail.
‘“And all the others were in the same state of mind, that is to say that their brains were crammed full to bursting, infested with ‘houses’, ‘luminaries’, ‘ascendants’, ‘themes’ and with ‘signs’ of good or bad fortune. Horoscopes were the only topic which, without the word ever being mentioned, they considered worthy of deeper explanation by me. They all started talking at once, waving diagrams around and subjecting me to a mass of crazy and anxious questions concerning shameless tall stories with which charlatans used to nurture the hopes of the people in former times. They used these stories to acquire considerable influence over the masses, an influence which, my experience seems to prove, has not diminished since the scientific revolution. That was the reason for the bright expressions and the trembling that I had noticed. They were expecting me to complement or correct the predictions of sorcerers!
‘“I leave it to you, my dear friend, to interpret this incident in a suitable way. I am too disturbed this evening to do it myself.
‘“There are only a few things left for me to add. I tried to regain my calm and make them aware of their folly. I invoked the arguments which you know and which we know to be irrefutable. They listened to me politely, without interrupting me, but it was clear that I was gradually losing the prestige that my eloquence might have gained for me. Personally, as I became aware of the abyss that separated us, I did not feel very persuasive. When I stopped speaking, the man who had spoken first said to me, shaking his head:
‘“‘Anyway, such a person probably died in the third month of the year, as his horoscope predicted.’
‘“There was no point in citing calculations concerning probability to him. I finished by leaving the group and they withdrew with their heads down, leaving me disheartened…”’
‘And there you have it,’ said Fawell. ‘Do you understand now why you do not find me in a triumphant mood?’
He seemed to be so confused that she avoided all criticism and tried to comfort him.