always follow a man who believes in his own ideas. And this book is
just on the line of popular interest. You've got hold of a big
thing. It's full of hope and enthusiasm: it's written in the
religious key. There are passages in it that would do splendidly in
a Birthday Book--things that popular preachers would quote in their
sermons. If you'd wanted to catch a big public you couldn't have
gone about it in a better way. The thing's perfect for my purpose--I
wouldn't let you alter a word of it. It'll sell like a popular novel
if you'll let me handle it in the right way."






III





When the Professor left Harviss's office, the manuscript remained
behind. He thought he had been taken by the huge irony of the
situation--by the enlarged circumference of the joke. In its
original form, as Harviss had said, the book would have addressed
itself to a very limited circle: now it would include the world. The
elect would understand; the crowd would not; and his work would thus
serve a double purpose. And, after all, nothing was changed in the
situation; not a word of the book was to be altered. The change was
merely in the publisher's point of view, and in the "tip" he was to