"Why, I envy even the creatures inhabiting the planets throughout the Galaxy we visited but a moment ago. Partially intelligent though they are, struggling and groping, each individual dying after only a fleeting instant of life; born, growing old, and passing on in a minute fraction of a millionth of one cycle--yet I envy even them." "That was the reason you did not dematerialize those you accompanied briefly while they were flitting about in their crude space ship?" "Yes. Being alive for such an infinitesimal period of time, they value life highly. Why hurry them into the future that is so soon to be theirs?" "Do not dwell upon such thoughts, Eight," advised One. "They lead only to greater and greater depths of despondency. Consider instead what we have done and what we shall do." "I have considered everything, at length," the entity known as Eight thought back stubbornly. "What benefit or satisfaction do we get out of this continuous sojourn in the cycle of existence from which we should have departed æons ago? We have power, it is true, but what of it? It is barren. We create for ourselves bodies and their material surroundings, like this"--the great hall came into being, and so vast was the mentality creating it that the flow of thought continued without a break--"but what of it? We do not enjoy them as lesser beings enjoy the bodies which to them are synonymous with life. "We have traveled endlessly, we have seen much, we have studied much; but what of it? Fundamentally we have accomplished nothing and we know nothing. We know but little more than we knew countless thousands of cycles ago, when our home planet was still substance. We know nothing of time; we know nothing of space; we know nothing even of the fourth dimension save that the three of us who rotated themselves into it have never returned. And until one of us succeeds in building a neutralizing pattern we can never die--we must face a drab and cheerless eternity of existence as we now are." "An eternity, yes, but an eternity neither drab nor cheerless. We know but little, as you have said, but in that fact lies a stimulus; we can and shall go on forever, learning more and ever more. Think of it! But hold--what is that? I feel a foreign thought. It must emanate from a mind powerful indeed to have come so far." "I have felt them. There are four foreign minds, but they are unimportant." "Have you analyzed them?" "Yes. They are the people of the space ship which we just mentioned; projecting their mentalities to us here." "Projecting mentalities? Such a low form of life? They must have learned much from you, Eight." "Perhaps I did give them one or two hints," Eight returned, utterly indifferent, "but they are of no importance to us."