SPEARMAN: No comment....
STERN: If I might differ with you, Mr. Spearman, it seems to
me--after being shown over this lovely island--the
domesticated cattle and those wonderful white beasts--the
plantations and the houses--the perfect English and adult
thinking of our new friends--above all, the school--it seems
to me that Dr. Wright and his colleagues are realists of the
first water. Of course I'm strongly prejudiced in their
favor, because--well, during the twelve years of our journey
I dreamed constantly of some such achievement as this
myself. So it's like coming home. I'm a doctor, Mr.
Spearman; before I was chosen for the journey, I ran a
clinic. As an intern, I had a lot of ambulance and emergency
service at one of the big hospitals in Melbourne; I saw a
superabundance of--let's call them obvious facts. Now I
think the sunny quiet here, the good health and intelligence
of the children, the gardens, the devotion of these people
to each other and to their work, the searching thought
they've given to their laws and their future--I fancy those
are obvious facts too...?
WRIGHT: Man is neither good nor bad, but both. But he can
swing the balance.
STERN: Too right. I think I understand you, Doctor--why you
want to stay here. I think I understand it very well.
SLADE: I wouldn't urge you. It's only that I--took something
else for granted. Foolishly. Let me be just a listener.
ELIS: And let me fill your cup. You're behind us, Captain.
MINIAAN: The big jug is empty. How'd'at happen?
MUSON: Portrait of a fat woman going away with another big
jug.
PAUL: Bless you, lady.
MUSON: It was you that finished emptying it. I think.
NISANA: Couldn't have been me....
STERN: Are there any important physiological differences?
WRIGHT: Nothing of first importance. Minor differences in
blood chemistry, shape of hands and feet. Our friends have
the hind brain in the spinal column, which may be the
reason for their better muscular co-ordination and--you
know, Doctor, I have often wished that the human race of
Earth, which we call Charin, had more room in its head for
the expansion of the frontal lobes.
ELIS: I have a very high opinion of your frontal lobes,
Christopher Wright. I have noticed that sometimes a large
skull merely rattles.
STERN: Just the same the point is well taken.
PAUL: Might call it the miracle of the lobes and wishes.
PAKRIAA: Why don't you wait till Muson comes back...?
SALLY MARINO: Don't you--now, maybe this is a foolish
question--don't you have to work awfully hard--I mean, with
so few technical aids? The--oh, oil lamps, the necessarily
primitive--of course, you've done miracles to have as much
as you do have, starting from almost nothing. What I'm
trying to say, doesn't mere survival take up so much time
and effort that it--well, wears you down?