Note:

Fix-up Novel containing:
• The Butterflys of Beauty • (1971) • novelette
• The Cryer of Crystal • (1971) • shortstory
• The Decision Makers • (1965) • novelette
• The Shamblers of Misery • (1969) • novelette

Synopsis: What is an Alien Intelligence? Armed with the required five master's degrees, among other outstanding accomplishments, you are a member of the elite Practical Philosopher Corps, a handful of galactic roamers trained to detect intelligent life forms on the hundreds of newly colonized planets. As mankind's "Conscience" you are a brilliant blend of scientific realism and unfettered imagination: you must perceive the often subtle and always unexpected manifestations of the alien mind. And, of course, your life is a tightrope walk between twin duties to planetary conservation and your own aggressive, expanding race. For when a Conscience declares a world to cradle intelligent life, man must, regardless of cost, abandon it to its own destiny. Your name is Allen Odegaard. You probably have more enemies than friends. But the job has compensations: in your wanderings it is said you have met the final intelligence. (from the back cover of the DAW Books edition)