"Of course. How can I not believe it? I see it and live it
every day. And here," he added, remembering something, "I even
have a photograph."
"Obviously faked," said the host, dismissing it after a glance.
"Who invited this charlatan?" someone asked of no one in particular.
"I thought science had put an end to all this miraculous event
stuff long ago," said another man, rising from his chair and
preparing to leave.
"Well, let's not pursue this pointless discussion," the
host said. "Our guest apparently knows nothing of science, and
is impervious to logic and to the considered opinion of the best
minds of our nation. There's nothing left to do but adjourn."
The meeting began to break up, and the traveler was putting on
his coat when the man with the pipe made one last attempt to
reason with him.
"We are all scientists here, all educated men. All of us
agree that it is impossible for a heavier-than-air device to
fly on its own through the air. Don't you see that? This is
against the laws of nature--it violates the law of gravity."
"Well," said the traveler, "perhaps there is another law,
or perhaps there is a higher law than the law of gravity,
which, when it is understood, will explain how planes can fly."
"That's just what I'd expect a religious fanatic to say,"
said a man who had been listening in. "Science can jump
into the trash as far as you religious types are concerned."
"Not at all," said the traveler. "But your science is not
perfect. You do not yet know everything about everything, what
is possible and what is not possible."
"Go take your religion to a church and keep it away from
serious people," the man concluded, stomping out of the room.
In the weeks that followed, the traveler was ridiculed
and denounced in the newspapers, being called everything from a
con artist to a prospective mental patient. (The scientific
journals said nothing about the man because they considered the
whole matter as beneath serious thought.) As a result, the
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