Raising my head after a brief struggle, I perceived that I was
standing in front of the famous tomb of Abelard and Heloise. The
sculptured forms of the unhappy lovers reposed side by side on the lid
of the stone mausoleum, as they had lain for six centuries, and
immortalized the mingling of their mortal dust below. Tears sprang to
my eyes as I looked at their still, peaceful faces, for I remembered
my dead wife, and then, my lost children. Death, that contained them
in its hollow caverns, could not be frightful to me. It was rather the
treasure-house of all I possessed most precious, and which I should
now hasten to reclaim. All the loneliness and longing which had been
dulled by habit, and lately covered over by mental activity, awoke,
and cried out passionately within me, repelling the slight pleasures
of this world, as a child crying for its mother dashes aside an
offered toy. What was left to me in life that I should cling to it?
What ties bound me to this perfidious, slippery earth? To whom owed I
any duties? Whose pillow would moisten with tears because I had passed
out of sight? Destitute of personal interests, I could only devote
myself to those of humanity, and that by some method that should
concentrate in a single moment both the achievement and its reward.
For small were the enjoyment to survive for fame, with whose report I
could return laden to no fireside, for whose sake I could watch no
eyes brighten in sweet pride of sympathy. I should sicken of it in
half an hour, and my hard-earned laurels would become as dusty and
lifeless as those ghastly wreaths of immortelles hanging around
Heloise's tomb. So desolated love joined itself to restless ambition
and ideal enthusiasm, to concentrate my life for the purpose from
which, since then, it has never swerved.

Thus resolved upon self-devotion, I set about the task of finding a
colleague to share the risks and glory of my enterprise. I did not
conceal from myself that upon him would devolve a role far more
difficult and complicated than my own. From me, the subject of the
proposed experiment, was only required sublime heroism for the
sacrifice. But the man who should perform the operation must possess
moral courage to face public criticism, perhaps opprobrium; a trained
intellect, already habituated to discussion of the problem in
question, and impassioned for its solution; great practical skill and
finesse, able to appreciate and profit by every detail of th