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But if it were true! A vast panorama of possible achievements spread before him.

“Four hundred years!” he murmured with awe. “You’ve had four hundred years head-start on the rest of the world! What wonders you must have uncovered in that time!”

“Our technical achievements may disappoint you,” warned Crandon. “Oh, they’re way beyond anything that you are familiar with. You’ve undoubtedly noticed the shielding material on the reactor. That’s a fairly recent development of our metallurgical department. There are other things in the laboratory that I can’t even explain to you until you have caught up on the technical basis for understanding them.

“Our emphasis has not been on physical sciences, however, except as they contribute to our central project. We want to change civilization so that it can use physical science without disaster.”

For a moment Don had been fired with enthusiasm. But at these words his heart sank.

“Then you’ve failed,” he said bitterly. “In spite of centuries of advance warning, you’ve failed to change the rest of us enough to prevent us from trying to blow ourselves off the Earth. Here we are, still snarling and snapping at our neighbors’ throats—and we’ve caught up with you. We have the atomic bomb. What’s POSAT been doing all that time? Or have you found that human nature really can’t be changed?”