219.英文正文（219）

“haveyoueverseenthosebones，winston？ofcoursenot。***nineteenth-centurybiologistsinventedthem。beforemantherewasnothing。afterman，ifhecouldcometoanend，therewouldbenothing。outsidemanthereisnothing。”

“butthewholeuniverseisoutsideus。lookatthestars！someofthemareamillionlight-yearsaway。theyareoutofourreachforever。”

“whatarethestars？”saido’brienindifferently。“theyarebitsoffireafewkilometresaway。wecouldreachthemifwewantedto。orwecouldblotthemout。theearthisthecentreoftheuniverse。thesunandthestarsgoroundit。”winstonmadeanotherconvulsivemovement。thistimehedidnotsayanything。o’briencontinuedasthoughansweringaspokenobjection：

“forcertainpurposes，ofcourse，thatisnottrue。whenwenavigatetheocean，orwhenwepredictaneclipse，weoftenfinditconvenienttoassumethattheearthgoesroundthesunandthatthestarsaremillionsuponmillionsofkilometresaway。butwhatofit？doyousupposeitisbeyondustoproduceadualsystemofastronomy？thestarscanbenearordistant，accordingasweneedthem。doyousupposeourmathematiciansareunequaltothat？haveyouforgottendoublethink？”

winstonshrankbackuponthebed。whateverhesaid，theswiftanswercrushedhimlikeabludgeon。andyetheknew，heknew，thathewasintheright。thebeliefthatnothingexistsoutsideyourownmind—surelytheremustbesomewayofdemonstratingthatitwasfalse？haditnotbeenexposedlongagoasafallacy？therewasevenanameforit，whichhehadforgotten。afaintsmiletwitchedthecornersofo’brien’smouthashelookeddownathim。