"But we know--you've taught us--scarcely anything!" Constance protested. "I have taught you exactly enough. That we do not know exactly what changes to anticipate is implicit in the fact that our race is out of date. Further Arisian teaching would tend to set you in the out-dated Arisian mold and thereby defeat our every purpose. As I have informed you repeatedly, we ourselves do not know what extra qualities you possess. Hence we are in no sense competent to instruct you in the natures or in the uses of them. It is certain, however, that you have those extra qualities. It is equally certain that you possess the abilities to develop them to the full. I have set your feet on the sure way to the full development of those abilities." "But that will take much time, sir," Kit thought, "and if you leave us now we won't have it." "You will have time enough and to spare." "Oh--then we won't have to do it right away?" Constance broke in. "Good!" "We are all glad of that," Camilla added. "We're too full of our own lives, too eager for experiences, to enjoy the prospect of living such lives as you Arisians have lived. I am right in assuming, am I not, that our own development will in time force us into the same or a similar existence?" "Your muddy thinking has again distorted the truth," Mentor reproved her. "There will be no force involved. You will gain everything, lose nothing. You have no conception of the depth and breadth of the vistas now just beginning to open to you. Your lives will be immeasurably fuller, higher, greater than any heretofore known to this universe. As your capabilities increase, you will find that you will no longer care for the society of entities less able than your own kind." * * * * * "But I don't _want_ to live forever!" Constance wailed. "More muddy thinking." Mentor's thought was--for him--somewhat testy. "Perhaps, in the present instance, barely excusable. You know that you are not immortal. You should know that an infinity of time is necessary for the acquirement of infinite knowledge; and that your span of life will be just as short, in comparison with your capacity to live and to learn, as that of Homo sapiens. When the time comes you will want to--you will need to--change your manner of living." "Tell us when?" Kat suggested. "It would be nice to know, so that we could get ready." "I could tell you, since in that way my visualization is clear, but I will not. Fifty years--a hundred--a million--what matters it? Live your lives to the fullest, year by year, developing your every obvious, latent, and nascent capability; calmly assured that long before any need for your services shall arise, you shall have established yourselves upon some planet of your choice and shall be in every respect ready for whatever may come to pass."