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The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ideal, by Stanley Grauman Weinbaum This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: The Ideal Author: Stanley Grauman Weinbaum Release Date: October 5, 2007 [EBook #22897] Language: English Character set encoding: ASCII *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IDEAL *** Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from _A Martian Odyssey and Others_ published in 1949. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note. THE IDEAL _"This," said the Franciscan, "is my Automaton, who at the proper time will speak, answer whatsoever question I may ask, and reveal all secret knowledge to me." He smiled as he laid his hand affectionately on the iron skull that topped the pedestal._ _The youth gazed open-mouthed, first at the head and then at the Friar. "But it's iron!" he whispered. "The head is iron, good father."_ _"Iron without, skill within, my son," said Roger Bacon. "It will speak, at the proper time and in its own manner, for so have I made it. A clever man can twist the devil's arts to God's ends, thereby cheating the fiend--Sst! There sounds vespers!_ Plena gratia, ave Virgo--" _But it did not speak. Long hours, long weeks, the_ doctor mirabilis _watched his creation, but iron lips were silent and the iron eyes dull, and no voice but the great man's own sounded in his monkish cell, nor was there ever an answer to all the questions that he asked--until one day when he sat surveying his work, composing a letter to Duns Scotus in distant Cologne--one day--_ _"Time is!" said the image, and smiled benignly._ _The Friar looked up. "Time is, indeed," he echoed. "Time it is that you give utterance, and to some assertion less obvious than that time is. For of course time is, else there were nothing at all. Without time--"_ _"Time was!" rumbled the image, still smiling, but sternly at the statue of Draco._ _"Indeed time was," said the Monk. "Time was, is, and wil
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