e--and the peace-makers, perhaps with the best will in
the world, using the Institute techniques to restore order. Then one
step leads to another, power gets more and more centralized and it
isn't long before you have the total state back again. Only this total
state could _never_ be overthrown!"

Elena Casimir bit her lip. A stray breeze slid down the rock wall and
rumpled her bright hair. After a long while she said, "Maybe you're
right. But America today has, on the whole, a good government. You
could let them know."

"Too risky. Sooner or later someone, probably with very idealistic
motives, would force the whole thing into the open. So we're keeping
hidden the very fact that our most important equations exist--which is
why we didn't ask for help when Meade's detectives finally learned
that they know."

"How do you know your precious Institute won't become just such an
oligarchy as you describe?"

"I don't," Simon said, "but it's improbable. You see, the recruits who
are eventually taught everything we know are pretty thoroughly
indoctrinated with our own present-day beliefs. And we've learned
enough individual psych to do some real indoctrinating! They'll pass
it on to the next generation and so on.

"Meanwhile we hope the social structure and the mental climate is
being modified in such a way that eventually it would be very
difficult, if not impossible, for anyone to impose absolute control by
any means. For as I said before, even an ultimately developed
psychodynamics can't do everything. Ordinary propaganda, for instance,
is quite ineffective on people trained in critical thinking.

"When enough people the world over are sane we can make the knowledge
general. Meanwhile we've got to keep it under wraps and quietly
prevent anyone else from learning the same things independently. Most
such prevention, by the way, consists merely of recruiting promising
researchers into our own ranks."

"The world's too big," she said very softly. "You can't foresee all
that'll happen. Too many things could go wrong."

"Maybe. It's a chance we've got to take." His own gaze was somber.

They sat for awhile in stillness. Then she said, "It all sounds very
pretty. But--what are you, Dalgetty?"

"Simon," he corrected.

"What are you?" she repeated. "You've done things I wouldn't have
believed were possible. _Are you human?_"

"I'm told so." He smiled.

"Yes? I wonder! How is it possible that you--"

He wagged a fing