incarnated twenty years later
in the city of Jeddul, three thousand miles away." The square black
beard jiggled as the scientist laughed.

"Now, as to the political implications of these contradictory
theories: Since the Statisticalists believe that they will reincarnate
entirely at random, their aim is to create an utterly classless social
and economic order, in which, theoretically, each individuality will
reincarnate into a condition of equality with everybody else. Their
political program, therefore, is one of complete socialization of all
means of production and distribution, abolition of hereditary titles
and inherited wealth--eventually, all private wealth--and total
government control of all economic, social and cultural activities. Of
course," Dr. Harnosh apologized, "politics isn't my subject; I
wouldn't presume to judge how that would function in practice."

"I would," Verkan Vall said shortly, thinking of all the different
time-lines on which he had seen systems like that in operation. "You
wouldn't like it, doctor. And the Volitionalists?"

"Well, since they believe that they are able to choose the
circumstances of their next reincarnations for themselves, they are
the party of the _status quo_. Naturally, almost all the nobles,
almost all the wealthy trading and manufacturing families, and almost
all professional people, are Volitionalists; most of the workers and
peasants are Statisticalists. Or, at least, they were, for the most
part, before we began announcing the results of the Lady Dallona's
experimental work."

"Ah; now we come to it," Verkan Vall said as the story clarified.

"Yes. In somewhat oversimplified form, the situation is rather like
this," Dr. Harnosh of Hosh said. "The Lady Dallona introduced a number
of refinements and some outright innovations into our technique of
recovering memories of past reincarnations. Previously, it was
necessary to keep the subject in an hypnotic trance, during which he
or she would narrate what was remembered of past reincarnations, and
this would be recorded. On emerging from the trance, the subject would
remember nothing; the tape-recording would be all that would be left.
But the Lady Dallona devised a technique by which these memories would
remain in what might be called the fore part of the subject's
subconscious mind, so that they could be brought to the level of
consciousness at will. More, she was able to recover memories of past
discarnate existe