“Oh, yes,” replied Heym. “Each region naturally developed its own tongue and generally sticks to it for sentimental reasons and also because the thoughts of a people are best expressed in the speech they themselves developed. But as soon as contact between the lands became common, an international language was worked out and learned by all concerned. In fact, only about fifty years ago a completely new world language was adopted, one correct according to the newly established principles of semantics. That’s more than the Empire has yet done. We can talk Terrestrial safely enough, it’ll pass for some local dialect, and I can do the talking for both of us with the natives.”

“Still”—Goram scowled—“I don’t like it. Everybody here has a higher I.Q. than myself—that’s not right for a bunch of barbarians. I feel as if everyone was looking at me.”

“Most of them observe us, yes, geniuses being naturally observant,” said Heym. “But we aren’t conspicuous in any way. Our men have often been on the planet in person without attracting attention.”

“Didn’t you say you’d appeared openly?”

“Yes—a few times, some centuries back, we made the most awe inspiring possible descents, coming down through the air on gravibeams in luminous clothes and performing seeming miracles. You see, even the primitive tribes had shown no signs of organized religion beyond the usual magic rites which they soon outgrew. We wanted to see if god-worship couldn’t be induced.” Heym smiled wryly. “But after the generation which had actually seen us, there was no sign of our manifestation. I suppose the young, being of independent mind, simply refused to believe their elders’ wild stories. Not that the people are without religious sense. There is a high proportion of unbelievers, but there is also a large philosophical and even devotional literature. But nobody founds a school of thought, rather everybody reaches his own conclusions.”

“I don’t see how progress is possible then.”

You wouldn’t, thought Heym contemptuously, but he only smiled and said, “Apparently it is.”

An aircraft roared low overhead, and a wagon driver fought to control his suddenly panicky animals. Goram said: “The biggest paradox here is the anachronism. Sail ships and oilburners docked side by side, animal power in the same street with chemical engines, stone and wood houses with efficient smoke precipitators—how come?”

“It’s partly a matter of the extremely rapid progress,” declared Heym, “A new invention appears before the economy has become geared to it. There won’t be many machines until mass-production factories are set up to produce them in quantity, and that will have to wait till mechanical knowledge is sufficiently advanced to develop factories almost entirely automatic—for few if any geniuses could stand to work on an assembly line all day. Meanwhile, the people are in no hurry to advance their standard of living. Already they have sufficient food, clothing, and other necessities for all, as well as abundant free time—why strain themselves to go beyond that? This isn’t the first time a brilliantly creative civilization has existed without interest in material progress; I might cite the Hellenic phase of the ancient Classical culture on Earth as another case.”