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"It's all right," said Didactylos "I don't put any oil in it"

"A lantern that doesn't shine for a man that doesn't see?"

"Yeah Works perfectly And of course it's very philosophical"

"And you live in a barrel"

"Very fashionable, living in a barrel," said Didactylos, walking forward briskly, his fingers only occasionally touching the raised patterns on the plank "Most of the philosophers do it It shows conteot a sauna in his It's as you can think of in it, he says"

Brutha looked around Scrolls protruded fro the hour

"It's all soI never ht, they were all"

"You got to remember there's three basic approaches to philosophy in these parts," said Didactylos "Tell him, Urn"

"There's the Xenoists," said Urn promptly "They say the world is basically complex and random And there's the Ibidians They say the world is basically simple and follows certain fundamental rules"

"And there'sa scroll out of its rack

"Master says basically it's a funny old world," said Urn

"And doesn't contain enough to drink," said Didactylos

"And doesn't contain enough to drink"

"Gods," said Didactylos, half to hiods? Here's Xeno's Reflections, and old Aristocrates' Platitudes, and Ibid's bloody stupid Discourses, and Legibus's Geoies"

Didactylos's fingers danced across the racks More dust filled the air

"These are all books?" said Brutha

"Oh, yes Everyone writes 'eers"

"And people can read them?" said Brutha

Omnia was based on one book And here werehundreds

"Well, they can if they want," said Urn "But no one co They're es, this," said Didactylos "Got to write a book, see, to prove you're a philosopher Then you get your scroll and free official philosopher's loofah"

The sunlight pooled on a big stone table in the center of the roolowed in the golden light

"Orinjcrates' On the Nature of Plants," said Didactylos "Six hundred plants and their uses"

"They're beautiful," whispered Brutha

"Yes, that is one of the uses of plants," said Didactylos "And one which old Orinjcrates neglected to notice, too Well done Show him Philo's Bestiary, Urn"

Another scroll unrolled There were dozens of Pictures of animals, thousands of unreadable words

"Butpictures of ani to"

"Pictures of just about everything in there," said Didactylos

Art was not permitted in Omnia

"And this is the book Didactylos wrote," said Urn

Brutha looked down at a picture of a turtle There wereelephants, they're elephants, his me indelibly into hiswith e

"How can this be?" said Brutha "A world on the back of a tortoise? Why does everyone tell me this? This can't be true!"

"Tell that to the mariners," said Didactylos "Everyone who's ever sailed the Rim Ocean knows it Why deny the obvious?"

"But surely the world is a perfect sphere, spinning about the sphere of the sun, just as the Septateuch tells us," said Brutha "That seeht to be"

"Ought?" said Didactylos "Well, I don't know about ought That's not a philosophical word"

"Andwhat is this" Bruthaof the turtle

"That's a plan view," said Urn

"Map of the world," said Didactylos

"Map? What's a map?"

"It's a sort of picture that shows you where you are," said Didactylos

Brutha stared in wonderment "And how does it know?"

"Hah!"

"Gods," proods!"

"But is all this true?" said Brutha

Didactylos shrugged "Could be Could be We are here and it is now The way I see it is, after that, everything tends towards guesswork"

"You mean you don't know it's true?" said Brutha

"I think itcertain is what being a philosopher is all about"

"Talk about gods," said Om

"Gods," said Brutha weakly

His mind was on fire These people s, and they weren't sure But he'd been sure, and Brother Nhumrod had been sure, and Deacon Vorbis had a sureness you could bend horseshoes around Sureness was a rock

Now he knehen Vorbis spoke about Ephebe, his face was gray with hatred and his voice was tense as a wire If there was no truth, as there left? And these bu away the pillars of the world, and they'd nothing to replace them with but uncertainty And they were proud of this?