iewpoint could produce that strange, instantaneous flash of
beauty. If the proceeding was unethical--well, Heaven knows I was
punished for it.

So I turned the attitudinizor on Carter. At the moment, he was listening
respectfully to van Manderpootz, and I sensed clearly his respect for
the great man, a respect that had in it a distinct element of fear. I
could hear Carter's impression of the booming voice of the professor,
sounding somewhat like the modulated thunder of a god, which was not far
from the little man's actual opinion of his master. I perceived Carter's
opinion of himself, and his self-picture was an even more mouselike
portrayal than my own impression of him. When, for an instant, he
glanced my way, I sensed his impression of me, and while I'm sure that
Dixon Wells is not the imbecile he appears to van Manderpootz, I'm
equally sure that he's not the debonair man of the world he seemed to
Carter. All in all, Carter's point of view seemed that of a timid,
inoffensive, retiring, servile little man, and I wondered all the more
what could have caused that vanished flash of beauty in a mind like his.

There was no trace of it now. His attention was completely taken up by
the voice of van Manderpootz, who had passed from a personal appraisal
of Carter's stupidity to a general lecture on the fallacies of the
unified field theory as presented by his rivals Corveille and Shrimski.
Carter was listening with an almost worshipful regard, and I could feel
his surges of indignation against the villains who dared to disagree
with the authority of van Manderpootz.

I sat there intent on the strange double vision of the attitudinizor,
which was in some respects like a Horsten psychomat--that is, one is
able to see both through his own eyes and through the eyes of his
subject. Thus I could see van Manderpootz and Carter quite clearly, but
at the same time I could see or sense what Carter saw and sensed. Thus I
perceived suddenly through my own eyes that the professor had ceased
talking to Carter, and had turned at the approach of somebody as yet
invisible to me, while at the same time, through Carter's eyes, I saw
that vision of ecstasy which had flashed for a moment in his mind. I
saw--description is utterly impossible, but I saw a woman who, except
possibly for the woman of the idealizator screen, was the most beautiful
creature I had ever seen!

I say description is impossible. That is the literal truth, for her
color