The Eye of Allah

Kipling, Rudyard. "The Eye of Allah." Debits and Credits. 1926. Coll. The Science Fiction Stories of Rudyard Kipling.

Really science—by God!—fiction, showing the introduction of the microscope at the fictional monastery of St. Illod's in the middle of the 13th c. CE (some 300 years before the microscope entered our history). The abbot has seen the wonders of optics in Cairo and has learned "that man stands ever between two Infinities—of greatness and littleness" (156), and he values such knowledge. "What you have seen, I saw long since among the physicians at Cairo. And I know what doctrine they drew from it"; he concludes that the birth of observational science "is untimely. It will be but the mother of more death, more torture, more division, and greater darkness in this dark age. Therefore I, who know both my world and the Chruch, take this Choice on my conscience. Go! It is finished," and he smashes the lens and burns the wooden parts of the device (158). (RDE, 09/07/95)