The Man Who Counts and the "Merchant Peccant To The Deaths of Fellowe Men"

The Man Who Counts, VI.

Asked how he would solve a practical problem, van Rijn replies:

"'Bah! Details! I am not an engineer. Engineers I hire. My job is not to do what is impossible, it is to make others do it for me.'" (p. 164)

(The moral that will be drawn at the end of the novel is stated clearly enough in advance.)

James Blish's arms merchant, Baines, later described by Satan as a "merchant peccant to the deaths of fellowe men," (ASK, p. 419) has paid for a major demonic conjuration but does not really care whether the cause of the phenomenon is demons or electrons. Any such detail:

"'...is a stupid footling technicality that I hire people like [his scientific adviser] and [the black magician] not to bother me with.'"

-James Blish, Black Easter IN Blish, After Such Knowledge (London, 1991), pp. 319-425 AT 16, p. 419.

Baines sounds like Holmes not caring whether the Earth goes around the sun. Van Rijn and Baines hire experts to solve problems for them. The difference is that van Rijn has a conscience.