"Salvor Hardin!" It was the merest murmur.
Wienis frowned.
"Are you afraid of the name?
It is the same Salvor Hardin, who on his previous visit, ground our noses into the dust.
You're not forgetting that deadly insult to the royal house?
And from a commoner. The dregs of the gutter."
"No. I guess not.
No, I won't. I won't! We'll pay him back - but…but - I'm afraid - a little."
The regent rose.
"Afraid?
Of what?
Of what, you young-" He choked off.
"It would be…uh…sort of blasphemous, you know, to attack the Foundation.
I mean-" He paused.
"Go on."
Lepold said confusedly,
"I mean, if there were really a Galactic Spirit, he…uh…it mightn't like it.
Don't you think?
"No, I don't," was the hard answer.
Wienis sat down again and his lips twisted in a queer smile.
"And so you really bother your head a great deal over the Galactic Spirit, do you?
That's what comes of letting you run wild.
You've been listening to Verisof quite a bit, I take it."
"He's explained a great deal-"
"About the Galactic Spirit?"
"Yes."
"Why, you unweaned cub, he believes in that mummery a good deal less than I do, and I don't believe in it at all.
How many times have you been told that all this talk is nonsense?"
"Well, I know that. But Verisof says-"
"Pay no heed to Verisof.
It's nonsense."
There was a short, rebellious silence, and then Lepold said,
"Everyone believes it just the same.
I mean all this talk about the Prophet Hari Seldon and how he appointed the Foundation to carry on his commandments that there might some day be a return of the Galactic Paradise: and how anyone who disobeys his commandments will be destroyed for eternity.
They believe it. I've presided at festivals, and I'm sure they do."
"Yes, they do; but we don't.
And you may be thankful it's so, for according to this foolishness, you are king by divine right - and are semi-divine yourself.
Very handy.
It eliminates all possibilities of revolts and insures absolute obedience in everything.
And that is why, Lepold, you must take an active part in ordering the war against the Foundation.
I am only regent, and quite human.
You are king, and more than half a god - to them."
"But I suppose I'm not really," said the king reflectively.
"No, not really," came the sardonic response, "but you are to everyone but the people of the Foundation.
Get that?
To everyone but those of the Foundation.
Once they are removed there will be no one to deny you the godhead.
Think of that!"
"And after that we will ourselves be able to operate the power boxes of the temples and the ships that fly without men and the holy food that cures cancer and all the rest?
Verisof said only those blessed with the Galactic Spirit could-"