mentioned this visit to Horace Smith, one of the teachers in his
department, and got himself and his wife invited for dinner on the
following Friday. Dinner over, the two professors retired to the
library.

Two and a half hours later Horace had assimilated and grasped every
detail of the theory. He then leaned back in his chair and closed his
eyes, fingertips to temples, trying to find some flaw. Finally he shook
his head. "It's no use," he said. "Your theory is logically inescapable.
But--" He frowned. "Where does that place us? Probably where some
schools of thought have always suspected we would wind up eventually.
With the realization that the basic laws of the universe can't be
reached by logic or even by experiment based upon logic."

"I wouldn't say that," Martin objected. "My theory is an intellectual
curiosity, that's all. That's the way I present it in my latest book. By
the way, it's coming out soon. Signed the contract a month ago." He
pulled his thoughts back to the conversation. "After all, one must hold
onto the pragmatic approach to reality. Here is a theory that logic says
must be the only possible way a universe can be constructed and
operate. It's beautiful and logically complete, but not applicable. No
pragmatic value."

"Congratulations on the book. But, damn it," Horace said, "it attacks my
most basic faith. Logic. Reason."

"Faith?" Martin echoed, amused. "Yes, perhaps you're right. That's a
word that's foreign to my thinking. Belief is so unnecessary."

"You don't mean that."

"But I do."

Horace pondered. "I can prove otherwise. You believe--as an
example--that your wife is faithful to you." It was a statement rather
than a question.

"As a matter of fact--I don't. I act upon the greater probability that
she is. I don't hire detectives to follow her. Nor do I throw her into
situations to test her faithfulness. I admit the possibility that she's
unfaithful to me. If evidence came that she was, I might confront her
with the evidence. Where does belief become necessary?"

"Do you believe your son will become a success in life?" Horace asked.

"No. I've done everything I could think of to increase the probability
that he will. One of the things I've done is to instill in him the
realization that belief is unnecessary in thinking. Surely, as a
scientist, you realize that nothing we use in science finds its value or
validity from human belief. If, tomorrow, evidence were brought forth
th