The Senior Common Room at St Anselm's had entered its evening state of gentle philosophical decay.
Books had migrated from shelves onto chairs, from chairs onto tables, and from tables into stacks whose structural integrity appeared to depend largely upon hope.
Rain continued its patient negotiations with the windows.
Professor Quillibrace sat beside the fire reading.
Miss Elowen Stray was making notes.
Mr Blottisham entered with the expression of a man carrying a revelation.
"I have discovered the difficulty with all this ghost business."
Quillibrace looked up.
"Have you?"
"Certainly."
Blottisham sat down heavily.
"We have been approaching matters from the wrong end."
Quillibrace waited.
"What we require," Blottisham continued, "is the beginning."
Silence.
Miss Stray slowly lowered her pencil.
Quillibrace removed his spectacles.
"The beginning?"
"Precisely."
Blottisham leaned back confidently.
"Everything becomes perfectly clear if one simply identifies where it all started."
Quillibrace stared at him.
"I'm afraid you'll have to narrow it down somewhat."
Blottisham waved vaguely.
"Everything."
"The universe?"
"Certainly."
"Language?"
"Naturally."
"Society?"
"Of course."
"Meaning?"
"Obviously."
Quillibrace looked at Miss Stray.
Miss Stray looked back.
Blottisham narrowed his eyes.
"That expression again."
"What expression?"
"The one suggesting I have accidentally wandered into another trap."
"No trap at all," said Quillibrace mildly. "Merely curiosity."
He folded his hands.
"Tell me, why do you suppose beginnings are so important?"
Blottisham blinked.
"Because explanations require them."
"Do they?"
"Certainly."
He looked faintly astonished.
"If I ask why something happened, one naturally explains what caused it."
"And before that?"
"What?"
"The cause itself."
Blottisham frowned.
"What about it?"
"What caused that?"
Blottisham paused.
"Something earlier."
"And that?"
"Something earlier still."
Quillibrace nodded.
"And so on."
Blottisham's expression gradually altered.
"Oh."
Miss Stray smiled.
"The difficulty is rather old," she said.
"Every explanation seems to invite another question."
"Why this?"
"Because that."
"Why that?"
"Because something else."
Blottisham stared into space.
"And one could continue forever."
"Precisely," said Quillibrace.
"Without some point of closure, explanation begins retreating endlessly."
Blottisham nodded slowly.
"So one invents an origin."
"One identifies a beginning," said Miss Stray.
"A first cause."
"An initial event."
"A foundation."
Blottisham looked relieved.
"There we are then."
Quillibrace sighed softly.
Miss Stray stared at the ceiling.
Blottisham looked irritated.
"No, really, what is wrong with that?"
"Nothing initially," Quillibrace replied.
"It solved a genuine problem."
"But?"
"There is almost always a but."
Quillibrace gestured lightly.
"Once one possesses origins, one begins applying them everywhere."
He counted quietly on his fingers.
"Childhood explains adulthood."
"Founding events explain institutions."
"Original meanings explain language."
"First causes explain outcomes."
Miss Stray nodded.
"The beginning gradually acquires explanatory authority."
"What came first becomes what matters most."
Blottisham frowned.
"Doesn't it?"
Quillibrace looked thoughtful.
"Sometimes."
He closed his book.
"But tell me — when precisely did language begin?"
Blottisham looked surprised.
"Well..."
"The first word?"
"Possibly."
"The first symbol?"
"Perhaps."
"The first meaningful distinction?"
"Hm."
"The first social practice?"
Blottisham sat very still.
"Oh dear."
Quillibrace nodded encouragingly.
"Quite."
Miss Stray leaned forward.
"The same difficulty appears repeatedly."
"When did a species begin?"
"When did a culture begin?"
"When did a self begin?"
"Processes unfolding gradually often resist singular starting points."
Blottisham stared into the fire.
"So the beginning starts becoming... blurry."
"Very good."
"And even if one finds a beginning..."
Quillibrace waited.
"...it does not necessarily explain everything afterwards."
Quillibrace smiled.
"Excellent."
Blottisham looked alarmed.
"I've done it again, haven't I?"
Miss Stray nodded sympathetically.
"A founding event does not contain an entire history."
"Initial conditions do not eliminate transformation."
"What comes first does not automatically remain most important."
Silence settled around the room.
Rain moved softly against the windows.
Blottisham looked troubled.
"So origins are another ghost."
"Mm."
"And we simply assume explanations require beginnings."
"Mm."
Blottisham glanced uneasily around the room.
"So at present we have a ghost of substance hiding in the furniture..."
"Yes."
"...a ghost of essence wandering around beside it..."
"Yes."
"...and now a ghost of origin."
"Yes."
A long pause followed.
Then Blottisham said quietly:
"Quillibrace?"
"Yes?"
"Are we certain St Anselm's isn't actually haunted?"
Quillibrace looked around the room thoughtfully.
"At this point," he said, "I am becoming increasingly uncertain what would count as evidence against it."
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