that the
issue of birth permits be curtailed."

"And in doing so," cried the Keeper of Morals, "you have ignored the law
which bade us be fruitful and multiply."

"That have I done," replied the Statistician, "because the facts have
obsoleted the law. Our world is full, and what good would it do to issue
more birth permits when there is no more room to be born into?"

"But you should make room," protested the Keeper of Morals, "by issuing
more death permits. Surely it is not as great a sin to die as it is not
to be born."

"But I insist," declared the Statistician, "that to issue more death
permits than there are people ready to sicken and die would be to
encourage suicide and murder. Do you countenance such unmoral ways of
dying?"

"Certainly not," retorted the Keeper of Morals, "suicide and murder are
crimes. We must not encourage them, but neither must we discourage
births, for we are commanded to be fruitful and multiply."

"I agree with you," said Gud, addressing himself to the Keeper of
Morals, "in your belief that it is wrong to discourage births, and also
wrong to encourage deaths--for unrestricted birth and unpremeditated
death are great moral principles and nothing must be allowed to
interfere with them."

"Exactly," replied the Keeper of Morals, "yet this Statistician is
interfering by producing his unwelcome facts. He tells us that our world
is full and that there is room in it for not a single being more."

Gud turned to the Statistician and demanded: "Is this fact that you have
produced a true fact or is it only a statistical fact?"

And the Statistician replied: "The fact is a true fact. Indeed, when we
left to come here to consult you, we were obliged to make dummies and
leave them in our places so that we would find room for ourselves when
we returned. All this I can readily prove to you, if you will come with
us and see for yourself that there is room in our world for not a single
being more."

"It is not necessary for me to go out of my way," said Gud, "to see your
world, but I will send for it." And Gud called Fidu and commanded the
Underdog to go and fetch the world from whence his visitors came.

So Fidu went and fetched that world, and brought it and laid it at the
feet of Gud.

Gud looked upon that world and saw that the fact of its fullness was a
true fact and that there was room thereon for not a single being more.
So Gud turned and said to the Keeper of Morals: "The fact of the