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.""It was I who pointed out what you call the danger before ever you headed outward from Siwenna.""Then you realize that it must be stopped in embryo or perhaps not at all.You have known of this Foundation before anyone had heard of it.You know more about it than anyone else in the Empire.You probably know how it might best be attacked; and you can probably forewarn me of its countermeasures.Come, let us be friends."Ducem Barr rose.He said flatly, "Such help as I could give you means nothing.So I will make you free of it in the face of your strenuous demand.""I will be the judge of its meaning.""No, I am serious.Not all the might of the Empire could avail to crush this pygmy world.""Why not?" Bel Riose's eyes glistened fiercely."No, stay where you are.I'll tell you when you may leave.Why not? If you think I underestimate this enemy I have discovered, you are wrong.Patrician," he spoke reluctantly, "I lost a ship on my return.I have no proof that it fell into the hands of the Foundation; but it has not been located since and were it merely an accident, its dead hulk should, certainly have been found along the route we took.It is not an important loss – less than the tenth part of a fleabite, but it may mean that the Foundation has already opened hostilities.Such eagerness and such disregard for consequences might mean secret forces of which I know nothing.Can you help me then by answering a specific question? What is their military power?""I haven't any notion.""Then explain yourself on your own terms.Why do you say the Empire can not defeat this small enemy?"The Siwennian seated himself once more and looked away from Riose's fixed glare.He spoke heavily, "Because I have faith in the principles of psychohistory.It is a strange science.It reached mathematical maturity with one man, Hari Seldon, and died with him, for no man since has been capable of manipulating its intricacies.But in that short period, it proved itself the most powerful instrument ever invented for the study of humanity.Without pretending to predict the actions of individual humans, it formulated definite laws capable of mathematical analysis and extrapolation to govern and predict the mass action of human groups.""So–" "It was that psychohistory which Seldon and the group he worked with applied in full force to the establishment of the Foundation.The place, time, and conditions all conspire mathematically and so, inevitably, to the development of a Second Galactic Empire."Riose's voice trembled with indignation."You mean that this art of his predicts that I would attack the Foundation and lose such and such a battle for such and such a reason? You are trying to say that I am a silly robot following a predetermined course into destruction.""No," replied the old patrician, sharply."I have already said that the science had nothing to do with individual actions.It is the vaster background that has been foreseen.""Then we stand clasped tightly in the forcing hand of the Goddess of Historical Necessity.""Of Psychohistorical Necessity," prompted Barr, softly."And if I exercise my prerogative of freewill? If I choose to attack next year, or not to attack at all? How pliable is the Goddess? How resourceful?"Barr shrugged."Attack now or never; with a single ship, or all the force in the Empire; by military force or economic pressure; by candid declaration of war or by treacherous ambush.Do whatever you wish in your fullest exercise of freewill.You will still lose.""Because of Hari Seldon's dead hand?""Because of the dead hand of the mathematics of human behavior that can neither be stopped, swerved, nor delayed."The two faced each other in deadlock, until the general stepped back.He said simply, "I'll take that challenge.It's a dead hand against a living will."4.THE EMPEROR CLEON II commonly called "The Great." The last strong Emperor of the First Empire, he is important for the political and artistic renaissance that took place during his long reign.He is best known to romance, however, for his connection with Bel Riose, and to the common man, he is simply "Riose's Emperor." It is important not to allow events of the last year of his reign to overshadow forty years of.ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA Cleon II was Lord of the Universe.Cleon II also suffered from a painful and undiagnosed ailment.By the queer twists of human affairs, the two statements are not mutually exclusive, nor even particularly incongruous
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