een us? You and
I and all of us have added thought to thought, but the thread is neither
you nor me. What is true we all have; when the individual has altogether
brought himself to the test and winnowing of expression, then the
individual is done. I feel as though I had already been emptied out of
that little vessel, that Marcus Karenin, which in my youth held me so
tightly and completely. Your beauty, dear Edith, and your broad brow,
dear Rachel, and you, Fowler, with your firm and skilful hands, are now
almost as much to me as this hand that beats the arm of my chair. And as
little me. And the spirit that desires to know, the spirit that resolves
to do, that spirit that lives and has talked in us to-day, lived in
Athens, lived in Florence, lives on, I know, for ever....

'And you, old Sun, with your sword of flame searing these poor eyes
of Marcus for the last time of all, beware of me! You think I die--and
indeed I am only taking off one more coat to get at you. I have
threatened you for ten thousand years, and soon I warn you I shall be
coming. When I am altogether stripped and my disguises thrown away. Very
soon now, old Sun, I shall launch myself at you, and I shall reach you
and I shall put my foot on your spotted face and tug you about by your
fiery locks. One step I shall take to the moon, and then I shall leap
at you. I've talked to you before, old Sun, I've talked to you a million
times, and now I am beginning to remember. Yes--long ago, long ago,
before I had stripped off a few thousand generations, dust now
and forgotten, I was a hairy savage and I pointed my hand at you
and--clearly I remember it!--I saw you in a net. Have you forgotten
that, old Sun? . . .

'Old Sun, I gather myself together out of the pools of the individual
that have held me dispersed so long. I gather my billion thoughts into
science and my million wills into a common purpose. Well may you slink
down behind the mountains from me, well may you cower....'

Section 10

Karenin desired that he might dream alone for a little while before he
returned to the cell in which he was to sleep. He was given relief for a
pain that began to trouble him and wrapped warmly about with furs, for
a great coldness was creeping over all things, and so they left him, and
he sat for a long time watching the afterglow give place to the darkness
of night.

It seemed to those who had to watch over him unobtrusively lest he
should be in want of any attentio