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Show r!34- a part of me t h a t I c a n ' t deny?" "You don't worship God," the Poet had told him. "You worship history; a mistake I once made." The Professor believed t h i s to be true, but he did not consider i t a mistake. What was religion - what x-jas God - but the story of mankind's struggle to survive - the s p i r it of l i f e i t s e l f ? This was heresy in his own church, heresyy in the religion of the poet? but he believed i t anyway. The most intense religious feelings he had ever experienced had come recently? working on his present book, discovering what appeared to be the roots of religion in the early fears and hopes of primitive man? I t was not unusual for the Professor to have such thoughts run through his mind while he was in conversation, even when he was teaching? Occasionally? i t made him appear absent-minded. Tonight? no one seemed to notice, for a ll were equally? though in different ways, preoccupied. It was comforting to hear his s i s t e r - i n - l aw recount what was happening to her children, to hear his brother-in-law t e l l of the d i f f i c u l t i e s he had had harvesting his crops. Eventually? a l l of them turned to the same topic - food. Should they go out somewhere and get something to eat? The Professor's wife said no? not yet? She could fix something here if she had tof? but she couldn't leave the house until they had got word from the h o s p i t a l . She could fix some snacks she said? then, when they had heard what the specialist |