Page:Evgenii Zamyatin - We (Zilboorg translation).pdf/174

Rh mechanics, physicians, meteorologists, etc At twelve sharp—you must remember this—when the bell rings for dinner, we shall remain in the passage; lock them all up in the dining hall, and the Integral will be ours. You realize that it is essential, happen what may! The Integral in our hands will be a tool that will help to put an end to everything at once without pain Their aeros? Bah! They would be insignificant mosquitoes against a buzzard. And then, if it proves inevitable, we may direct the tubes of the motors downward, and by their work alone ”

I jumped up.

“It is inconceivable! It is absurd! Is it not clear to you that what you are planning is a revolution? Absurd, because a revolution is impossible! Because our—I speak for myself and for you—our revolution was the last one. No other revolutions may occur. Everybody knows that.”

A mocking, sharp triangle of brows.

“My dear, you are a mathematician, are you not? More than that, a philosopher-mathematician? Well, then, name the last number.”

“What is I  I cannot understand, which last?”

“The last one, the highest, the largest.”

“But I-330, that’s absurd! Since the number of numbers is infinite, how can there be a last one?”

“And why then do you think there is a last revolution their number is infinite The ‘last one’ is a child’s story. Children are afraid of the infinite, and it is necessary that children should not be frightened, so that they may sleep through the night.”

“But what is the use, what is the use of it all? For the sake of the Well-Doer! What is the use since all of us are happy already?”

“All right! Even suppose that is so. And then what?”

“How funny! A purely childish question. You tell a story to children, come to the very end, and they will invariably ask you, ‘and then what’? and ‘what for’? And