‘I had forgotten,’ he said.

‘What had you forgotten?’

’I had forgotten about the operation to-morrow.  I have been so interested as Man to-day that I have nearly forgotten Marcus Karenin.  Marcus Karenin must go under your knife to-morrow, Fowler, and very probably Marcus Karenin will die.’  He raised his slightly shrivelled hand.  ’It does not matter, Fowler.  It scarcely matters even to me.  For indeed is it Karenin who has been sitting here and talking; is it not rather a common mind, Fowler, that has played about between 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 attention, that he mused very deeply.