"A period of profound depression followed my youthful exuberance over our scientific achievements. The fundamentals of my cosmic beliefs were profoundly shaken.
I lost myself amid the distances of the theory of cognition, where I vainly sought to delimit the capacity of our minds to solve these problems. I sought the key to the ultimate revelations in the history of our planet and in the lives of our great men.
"And it was here that the genius of great thinkers and inspired artists pointed the path out of desperation. For I sought for some law which should direct the hearts of these men.
Was there, I asked myself, some equation working in their minds as they advanced beyond the frontiers of knowledge, or created immortal music or paintings? But there was no regularity, nothing resembling our so-called laws of nature behind their genius. By no repetitive series of experiments could a mathematical causal relationship be established.
Inspiration put into effect the will of God Himself through the thoughts and deeds of these men. There could only be one answer: it was God, acting through His creatures.
"It was a soul-satisfying illumination of my spiritual darkness to find the transcendental deity manifesting Himself in the creativeness of the spiritual and artistic great. My discovery convinced me that whatsoever is good and desirable is sired by the holy search for perfection and dammed by the receptivity of humility.
"That the majority in their search for truth do not go beyond the material is the greatest of human tragedies. Our schools crowd the minds of our children with knowledge which intoxicates them, perhaps broadening their horizons, notwithstanding. At the gates of the mysteries our schools balk. 'We cannot teach what we do not know' is the slogan.
Thus our youth is deprived of humility, their most valuable dowry for the future.
"As an example, the schools enlighten the children at a tender age as to the physiological and medical aspects of sex. It is claimed that such biological enlightenment protects and strengthens the morality of youth. Not a word is said to them of the ethical aspects of love, nor of any factor which might awaken in those children respect for the divine mysteries of propagation of the race, and of birth.
"No, I say. As medical lectures on sex cannot promote morality, scientific enlightenment cannot promote ethics. Rather, is the reverse true, for each scientific advance brings the danger of blasphemous self-glorification. The most important and never-ending social task of our churches is to keep awake humility for the curbing of overweening pride in our knowledge and accomplishments.
"We may learn from the history of our planet that idolatry of our own deeds and achievements is the greatest, most dangerous blight with which humanity threatens both itself and its civilization. It renders mankind completely sterile in the face of the challenge of the future. If scientific achievement be deified, humility suffers, and there can be no further true science without her mother, humility. If mankind worships ideology, symbols, or its own history, it forfeits the ability to adapt the structure of the state to the demands of technological advancement.
"God, and God alone must be worshipped, if man would complete his mission in this world. He cannot overcome his pride of accomplishment except by his humility before the Deity. Such humility, however, frees him to adapt to the constantly varying demands of the future and fits him to better the inheritance of his forefathers and such of his own works as require betterment. Thus man may achieve submission to God's will by recognizing the imperfections of the present, and develop a will of his own to follow God's way as it opens before him.
"Thus, and not otherwise, can he create the basic ethic which must bear up technology and transmute her dangers into benefits for mankind."
Chapter 31 — Immortal Man
The launching of the now wingless landing boats was a major event in Martial scientific and cultural circles. Towering on the launching platforms, the boats were miniatures of the massive Sirius vessels, ready to ascend from Earth on their voyages to the orbit. A large number of Martians witnessed the unprecedented spectacle. When all was in readiness, Holt led his little group to their respective landing boats and then, clad in his space suit, marched slowly around the circle of observers who were seated in the great pressurized vehicles which several Martian irrigation companies had furnished for the great event. Holt placed his hand upon his heart in the Martian farewell, then mounted to the cabin of GoddanTs boat. The door closed and a few minutes later the two boats shot upwards a few seconds apart. As the condensation trails gradually dissolved in the thin atmosphere, the huge land vehicles rattled to the concrete airlocks through which the Martians would return to the galleries of their pressurized world.
The Earthlings were on the first stage of their journey home.
No incident disturbed the climb to the orbit, where the interplanetary ships awaited the boats. When the short maneuver of adaptation terminated, Holt's party and their three Martian guests beheld through their circular ports the clumsy structures hanging without apparent motion against the black heavens. To the three Martians, the sight was so moving that they could hardly be dragged from their windows. Almost reluctantly they entered the busy bees which came to transfer the landing party and the various gifts and souvenirs to the passenger ships for the long drift to Earth. Finally, the remnants of propellants unused by the landing boats were emptied into the reserve tanks of the returning vessels.
"X minus 1 minute," resounded from the bull horns.
Holt, from his acceleration couch in Polaris'" pilot's cabin, viewed the six echeloned passenger ships in front of him. The final test had come. Would the complicated mechanisms still function to a fraction of a second? Had the crews properly maintained them despite the psychic load to which they had so long been subject? Could, perhaps, this at long last have frustrated John Wiegand's tireless insistence upon perfection? Within 60 short seconds, he would know — perhaps the last knowledge he would ever acquire…
"X minus 30 seconds."
Copilot and engineer rapidly scanned the complicated instrument panels, nodding approvingly, yet gravely. The rising pitch of the direction gyros rose above the monotonous rustle of the respiration blowers.
"X minus 20 seconds."
The tenseness of the moment reflected itself in the exchanged glances of the three men…
"X minus 10 — 9 — 8 — 7 — 6 — 5 — 4- "
"Number 6 prestage light's missing!" Hal Royer's voice roared through the bullhorn.
The navigator had been checking the warning lights of the squadron from the navigation room. Hardly had the words left his mouth than the main stage of Polaris ignited, as simultaneous streams of fire shot from the rocket motors of all ships except Holt's immediate leader, Regulus.