The Science of Discworld II

sunk. Oh, those were a few busy months. We lost four horses and Nosios the Carpenter was kicked in the head.’ The smile faded. ‘And then … and then …’
    â€˜Yes?’
    â€˜â€¦ something terrible happened.’
    The wizards leaned forward.
    â€˜â€¦ Phocian designed the fourth test. It’s over there. Not much to see now, of course. People stole all the heavy cloth of the Endless Road and a lot of the woodwork, too.’ The slave sighed. ‘It was Hades to build and took many months to get right but, in short, it worked like this. We used a huge roll of heavy white cloth, which we rolled off one huge spindle and on to the other. Believe me, sirs, even that took some doing, and the work of forty slaves. At the place where the horse was to be suspended, we stretched the cloth tight over a shallow trough of powdered charcoal, so that a little weight on the cloth would press it down on to the stuff …’
    â€˜Aha,’ said the Dean. ‘I think I can see this one …’
    Niklias nodded. ‘My master commanded many changes before the device functioned to his satisfaction … many gears and rollers and cranks, much rebuilding of strange mechanisms, much profanity which, I have no doubt, the gods noted. But finally we suspended the well-trained horse in its sling and the rider urged it into a trot as the cloth rolled beneath. And, yes, afterwards, oh sad that day, we measured the length of the cloth where the horse had trotted and the length of the smears of charcoal where a hoof had pressed on the cloth and … I hardly dare say it, even now, the total length of the second was to the length of the first was as four is to five.’
    â€˜So for a fifth of the time all hooves were in the air!’ said the Dean. ‘Well done! I love a puzzle!’
    â€˜No, it was not well done!’ shouted the slave. ‘My master ranted! We did it again and again! And it was always the same!’
    â€˜I don’t quite see the problem—’ Ridcully began.
    â€˜He tore at his hair and raved at us, and most of the men fled! And then he went and sat in the waves on the shore, and after a long whileI dared to go and speak to him, and he turned hollow eyes on me and said, “Great Antigonus is wrong. I proved him wrong! Not by thoughtful dispute, but by gross mechanical contrivances! I am ashamed! He is the greatest of philosophers! He had told us that the sun goes around the world, he had told us how the planets move! And if he is wrong, what is right? What have I done? I have squandered the wealth of my family. What fame is there for me now? What cursed work shall I do next? Should I steal the colours from a flower? Shall I say to everyone, ‘What you think is right, is not right’? Shall I weigh the stars? Shall I plumb the utter depths of the sea? Shall I ask the poet to measure the width of love and the direction of pleasure? What have I made of myself …” and he wept.’
    There was silence. None of the wizards moved.
    Niklias settled down a little. ‘And then he bade me go back and he told me to take the little money that was left. In the morning he was gone. Some say he fled to Egypt, some say to Italy. But for myself, I think he did indeed plumb, at the last, the depth of the sea. For I do not know what he was, or what he had become. And presently people came and tore down most of the engines.’
    He shifted his weight and looked at the remains of the strange devices, skeletal against the livid sunset. There was something wistful in his expression.
    â€˜No one comes now,’ he said. ‘Hardly anyone at all. This is where the Fates struck and the gods laughed at men. But I remember how he wept. And so I remain, to tell the story.’

TWENTY-TWO
THE NEW NARRATIVIUM
    T HE WIZARDS HAVE BEEN TRYING to find some ‘psyence’ in Roundworld, but it is proving even more elusive than the correct spelling.
    They are having problems because they are tackling a difficult question. There isn’t a simple definition of ‘science’ that really captures what it is. And it’s not the sort of thing that comes into existence at a single place and time. The development of science was a process in which non-science slowly became science. The two ends of the process are easily distinguished, but there’s no special place in between where science suddenly came into being.
    These difficulties are