The universe - some call it the Library - consists of a huge number of hexagonal galleries, with wide ventilation chambers fenced with a railing. The arrangement of galleries is unchanged: five shelves on each wall ... A corridor leading to another gallery, the same as all others, adjoins one of the free sides. To the left and right of the corridor are two tiny rooms. In one you can sleep while standing, in the other - to satisfy natural needs. Nearby, a spiral staircase goes up and down. Rounded glass fruits, which are called lamps, give never dim light.

The librarian telling us about the Library traveled a lot in search of a book of books. He grew old, but his labors never succeeded. When the librarian dies, his body will be thrown over the railing into the bottomless grave of the ventilation well.

Idealists claim that the hexagon is an absolute form. To the mystics in ecstasy is a spherical room with a huge round book, which is God. But there is a classic definition: a library is a ball whose center is in one of the hexagons, and the surface is inaccessible. There are 20 shelves in each hexagon, 32 books on each shelf, 400 pages in each book, 40 lines on each page, about 80 letters in each line. There are letters on the spine of the book, but it is usually impossible to determine its content from them.

The library exists forever, and is a creation of God. Evidence of this perfect letters of books. The number of all characters is 25: 22 letters of the alphabet, space, comma and period. This allowed three hundred years ago to formulate the general law of the Library and its books, which are a chaotic set of characters, so that one meaningful line contains thousands of nonsense (one book consisted only of MCV letters repeating in a different order; in another, the chaos of letters ended with the words “О time, your pyramids ”). In one region, librarians completely refused to look for meaning in books, believing that the letter only imitates 25 natural signs.

For a long time it was believed that books were written in ancient or exotic languages ​​(indeed, librarians from different parts speak a wide variety of languages), but 400 pages of unchanged MCVs cannot correspond to any language. Others considered the cryptogram to be written, and this conjecture was accepted everywhere.

All this allowed one ingenious librarian to discover the law of the Library: all books consist of the same elements, and there are no two identical books in the entire Library. And the conclusion was made: the library is comprehensive, that is, it contains everything that can be expressed in all languages ​​(the history of the future, the autobiography of the archangels, the true story of your own death, the translation of each book into all languages, etc.).

And when the law of the Library was proclaimed, unrestrained joy took possession of everyone. The universe has made sense. At this time, much was said about Justification: books justifying the actions of each person. Native hexagons left thousands of thirsters, driven by a vain desire to find their excuse. These pilgrims argued in narrow galleries, strangled each other on the stairs, threw books that deceived them, died, went crazy ... Even at that time everyone was waiting for the discovery of the main secrets of mankind: the origin of the Library and time.

For four hundred years now, as people scour the hexagons ... There are official seekers, inquisitors. They come, always tired, talking with the librarian, sometimes leafing through the nearest book in search of wicked words. It can be seen that no one hopes to find anything.

Hope, naturally, was replaced by despair. One blasphemous sect called for quitting searches and shuffling signs until canonical books were recreated (authorities considered it necessary to take harsh measures, but adherents of the sect remained). Others believed that worthless books should be destroyed. The names of these "cleaners" are cursed, but the mourning lost "treasures" forget that the Library is infinite, and any damage will be negligible. And although each book is unique, there are hundreds of thousands of copies of it, differing in one letter. In fact, the “cleaners” were driven by a crazy desire to capture the magical, almighty books of the Purple Hexagon.

Another superstition of the time is also known: the Man of the Book. Allegedly, there is a book containing a summary of all the others, and a librarian read it and became like God. Many in made an unsuccessful pilgrimage in order to find Him, until the regressive method was proposed: to find book A, you should turn to book B, which indicates the location of A; to find book B you should go to book C ... In such adventures, the old Librarian spent his years ...

Atheists argue that nonsense is common for the Library, and meaningfulness is a miraculous exception. Rumors are circulating about a feverish Library, in which distraught volumes continually turn into others, mixing and denying everything that was claimed.

In fact, the Library includes all languages, all combinations of 25 characters, but by no means nonsense. Any combination of letters, for example “dhtsmrlchdy”, in one of the languages ​​of the divine Library will contain some formidable meaning; and any word, such as "library", will have the opposite meaning. And this work of the old Librarian is already contained on one of the shelves, as well as his refutation. And you, reading these lines, are you sure that you understand exactly what is written?

Confidence that everything is already written, destroys or turns into ghosts. There are places where people worship books and passionately kiss pages, not at all able to read. Epidemics, heretical strife, robber raids, suicides greatly reduced the number of librarians. The human race may completely fade away and the Library will survive: uninhabited, useless, incorruptible, mysterious, infinite.

Infinite ... It is absurd to assume that hexagons can end somewhere; it is absurd that the number of possible books is infinite. The library is rather limitless and periodic. And if the eternal wanderer set off in any direction, he would be able to make sure that the same books are repeated in the same mess. This is encouraging.