Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 50 — page 58: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

IT TAKES TWO in the world in which he lives against the background of the universe. The struggle for your mind is nearly over. You have gone through a process that is analogous to what we go through during our years of maturing and growth. It has not been easy, I know.” | “You don’t have to tell me it hasn’t been easy,” Jarril said with a flash of his old spirit. “Is there more?” “A little.” With the words the outside world dizzied and span and Jarril was plunged into the maelstrom of inner conflicts and feelings, his very hold on the precepts of life by which he had lived wrenched away. He knew the final humility of realisation that one’s own id is of micro- importance compared with that of the race’s. And the whole human race is of no importance, except to them- selves, in the scheme of uni- versal progression. Claire was holding out the re-filled glass to him and he drank thirstily. She smiled, and something in her eyes leaped and responded to the unspoken words in Jarril. He 57 touched her hand, the flesh cool and smooth and very comforting to him. Then he twisted round and found Ben standing by the door, face upturned to the sky. “It’s all right, Jarril.” Ben looked back into the dome, blinking his eyes from the glare outside. ““They’ve gone. The Sokkaths have ploughed on their imperious way, as they wish to do. Now we can get back to normal.” “Thank God for that,” Claire said, and smiled at Jarril. He sat up abruptly. ‘Now, just a minute.” He paused, feeling the inner something about him that had changed. He knew that he had believed what Ben and Claire had said, what they stood for, before he had been treated—if that was the right word—by the commind. That wasn’t it, either. The commind had no factual existence. It was just the embodied character of these people here, the distillation of their feelings, channelled by their own precepts and adher- ence to what they considered the right way of life. “Now comicloooks.com