That Hideous Strength Read Online Free PDF Page A

themselves."
         "And yet they are, in a sense, the brains of Bracton," said Mark.
         "Good Lord, no! Glossop and Bill the Blizzard and even old Jewel have ten times their intelligence."      "I didn't know you took that view."
         "I think Glossop etc. are quite mistaken. I think their idea of culture and knowledge and what not is unrealistic. But it is quite a clear idea and they follow it out consistently. They know what they want. But our two poor friends haven't a ghost of a notion where they're going. They'll sweat blood to bring the N.I.C.E. to Edgestow: that's why they're indispensable. But what the point of the N.I.C.E. is, what the point of anything is - ask them another. Pragmatometry! Fifteen sub-directors!"
         "Well, perhaps I'm in the same boat myself."
         "Not at all. You saw the point at once."
         Mark was silent. The giddy sensation of being suddenly whirled up from one plane of secrecy to another prevented him from speaking.
         "I want you to come into the Institute," said Feverstone.
         "You mean-to leave Bracton?"
         "That makes no odds. Anyway, I don't suppose there's anything you want here. We'd make Curry warden when N.O. retires and---"
         "They were talking of making you warden."
         "God!" said Feverstone, and stared.
         Mark realised that from Feverstone's point of view this was like the suggestion that he should become Headmaster of a small idiots' school.
         "You," said Feverstone, "would be absolutely wasted as warden. That's the job for Curry. You want a man who loves business and wire-pulling for their own sake and doesn't really ask what it's all about. We've only got to tell him that he thinks so-and-so is a man the College wants, and then he'll never rest till so-and-so gets a Fellowship. That's what we want the College for: a drag net, a recruiting office."
         "A recruiting office for the N.I.C.E., you mean?"
         "Yes, in the first instance. But it's only one part of the general show."
         "I'm not sure that I know what you mean."
         "You soon will. It sounds rather in Busby's style to say that humanity is at the cross-roads. But it is the main question at the moment: which side one's on-obscurantism or order. If Science is really given a free hand it can now take over the human race and recondition it: make man a really efficient animal. If it doesn't-well, we're done."
         "Go on."
         "There are three main problems. First, the interplanetary problem."
         "What on earth do you mean?"
         "We can't do anything about that at present. The only man who could help was Weston."
         "He was killed in a blitz, wasn't he?"
         "He was murdered, and I've a shrewd idea who the murderer was."
         "Good God! Can nothing be done?"
         "There's no evidence. The murderer is a respectable Cambridge don with a game leg and a fair beard. He's dined in this College."
         "What was Weston murdered for?"
         "For being on our side. The murderer is one of the enemy."
         "You don't mean to say he murdered him for that?"
         "Yes," said Feverstone, bringing his hand down smartly on the table. "That's just the point. People like Curry or James think the violent  resistance of the other side ended with the persecution of Galileo and all that. But don't believe it. It is  just beginning. They know now that we have at last got real powers. They're going to fight every inch. They'll stop at nothing."
         "They can't win," said Mark.
         "We'll hope not," said Lord Feverstone. "That is why it is of such immense importance to each of us to choose the right side."
         "Oh, I haven't any doubt which is my side," said Mark. "Hang it all-the preservation of the human race-it's a pretty rock-bottom obligation."
         "Well, personally," said Feverstone, "I'm not indulging in any Busbyisms about that. The