A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller [34]
Jeris laughed. “Quite clear! Eloquent! If the creature is the name, then the name is the creature. ‘Equals may be substituted for equals,’ or ‘The order of an equality is reversible,’ but may we proceed to the next axiom? If ‘Quantities equal to the same quantity may substitute for each other’ is true, then is there not some ‘same quantity’ which both name and diagram represent? Or is it a closed system?”
Francis reddened. “I would imagine,” he said slowly, after pausing to stifle his annoyance, “that the diagram represents an abstract concept, rather than a concrete thing. Perhaps the ancients had a systematic method for depicting a pure thought. It’s clearly not a recognizable picture of an object.”
“Yes, yes, it’s clearly unrecognizable!” Brother Jeris agreed with a chuckle.
“On the other hand, perhaps it does depict an object, but only in a very formal stylistic way-so that one would need special training or-”
“Special eyesight?”
“In my opinion, it’s a high abstraction of perhaps transcendental value expressing a thought of the Beatus Leibowitz.”
“Bravo! Now what was he thinking about?”
“Why-’Circuit Design,’” said Francis, picking the term out of the block of lettering at the lower right.
“Hmmm, what discipline does that art pertain to, Brother? What is its genus, species, property, and difference? Or is it only an ‘accident’?”
Jeris was becoming pretentious in his sarcasm, Francis thought, and decided to meet it with a soft answer. “Well, observe this column of figures, and its heading: ‘Electronics Parts Numbers.’ There was once, an art or science, called Electronics, which might belong to both Art and Science.”
“Uh-huh! Thus settling ‘genus’ and ‘species.’ Now as to ‘difference,’ if I may pursue the line. What was the subject matter of Electronics?”
“That too is written,” said Francis, who had searched the Memorabilia from high to low in an attempt to find clues which might make the blueprint slightly more comprehensible-but to very small avail. “The subject matter of Electronics was the electron,” he explained.
“So it is written, indeed. I am impressed. I know so little of these things. What, pray, was the ‘electron?’“
“Well, there is one fragmentary source which alludes to it as a “Negative Twist of Nothingness.’“
“What! How did they negate a nothingness? Wouldn’t that make it a somethingness?”
“Perhaps the negation applies to ‘twist.’”
“Ah! Then we would have on “Untwisted Nothing,” eh? Have you discovered how to untwist a nothingness?”
“Net yet,” Francis admitted.
“Well keep at it, Brother! How clever they must have been, those ancients-to know how to untwist nothing. Keep at it, and you may learn how. Then we’d have the “electron” in our midst, wouldn’t we? Whatever would we do with it? Put it on the altar in the chapel?”
“All right,” Francis sighed, “I don’t know. But I have a certain faith that the ‘electron’ existed at one time, although I don’t know how it was constructed or what it might have been used for.”
“How touching!” chuckled the iconoclast, and returned to his work.
The sporadic teasing of Brother Jeris saddened Francis, but did nothing to lessen his devotion to his project.
The exact duplication of every mark, blotch, and stain proved impossible, but the accuracy of his facsimile proved sufficient for the deception of the eye at a distance of two paces, and therefore adequate for display purposes, so that the original might be sealed and packed away. Having completed the facsimile, Brother Francis found himself disappointed. The drawing was too stark. There was nothing about it to suggest at first glance that it might be a holy relic. The style was terse and unpretentious-fittingly enough, perhaps, for the Beatus himself, and yet-
A copy of the relic was not enough. Saints were humble people who glorified not themselves but God, and it was left to others to portray the inward glory of the saintly by outward, visible signs. The stark copy was not enough: it was coldly unimaginative and did not commemorate the saintly qualities of