The Last Heights 



of the reflections scattered through the pages 

 of the Souvenirs. 

 This was his reply: 



Because I have shifted a few grains of sand upon 

 the shore, am I in a position to understand the 

 abysmal depths of the ocean? Life has unfathom- 

 able secrets. Human knowledge will be erased 

 from the world's archives before we know the last 

 word concerning a gnat. 



Thus the Homer, the Plato of the insects. 

 He is utterly unassuming. He will not allow 

 his admirers to impose upon him. He does 

 not allow himself to be snared by the lure of 

 vivid, brilliant language, nor by the intoxicat- 

 ing problems of inner truths whose surface 

 he grazes. According to him the sum of all 

 his work has been but to " shift a few grains 

 of sand upon the shore " of knowledge, and 

 it is useless for him to endeavour to sound 

 the mysteries of life; he has not even 

 learned — he does not even think it possible to 

 human knowledge to learn — " the last word 

 concerning a gnat." 



Does this imply that he has relapsed into 

 scepticism; that finally, in despair, he re- 

 nounces the ambition of his whole life, vitam 

 impendere verof By no means. He has 

 striven to attain it even beyond his strength. 



379 



