he true
nature of things."

* * * * *

"I sincerely hope I'm wrong about it," Ont said. "I too would like to
believe that there is more in reality than just us. I wonder if other
kinds of entities are possible? I mean thinking beings with different
forms, different senses, perhaps different types of thinking. It may be
they exist and we aren't equipped to detect them. They may be around us
all the time, aware of us and our puerile thoughts, but so superior to
us in every way that they don't think it worth while even to consider
our feeble cogitations."

"I wouldn't call YOUR cogitations feeble, Ont," Upt exclaimed
admiringly.

"That is a point of relativity," Ont said, somewhat flattered. "It does
seem in vain, though. We spend our existence in solving the problems of
reality, and when we have solved them we have no need of the solution.
It gives us a feeling of satisfaction to gain the theoretical basis of
reality from our point of view. But I for one would feel much better if
we could be of service to some entity who is unable to accomplish that
himself, but might be able to comprehend it if we taught him."

"All very noble," Upt said skeptically. "But I can't even imagine a
thinking creature different from us in any way."

"That's why it's so difficult," Ont said. "In our own minds we tend to
become absolute rather than relative in our conceptions. Some other
entity might, for example, think much more slowly than we, or with
incredible rapidity, so that our thoughts would be sluggish to him, or
so swift that he would never be able to grasp them until long after we
were gone.

"Also, we tend to think that thought as we experience it, is the only
possible type of thought. In reality there may be others. Different
mental principles. Different material structure. Perhaps concepts
outside our ability to grasp, while ours might be outside the ability of
such creatures to grasp also."

"I don't believe I grasp what you're trying to say," Upt hesitated.

"Well, put it this way," Ont said patiently. "All things are relative.
Why not thought? It might be possible to have two thinking minds which
are relatively non-thinking. Each, from EVERY standard of the other,
being totally thoughtless and without intelligence or mind."

"Now you're going too far," Upt said. "Thought is thought, I think,
and--it's real. If any other entity thinks, its thinking must be real
too."

"Of course," On