Summary

The third chapter opens again with Claudia’s free associations on historical consciousness. She wonders about the sense history-makers have of their own significance and is fascinated by imagining great historical figures’ preoccupations with the mundane details of their monumental actions; Vasco da Gama or Marco Polo are envisioned in their dull examination of compasses, Caesar is imagined in his contemplation of the Sussex coast, the quaint figures on the Bayeaux tapestry are pictured in their decidedly non-quaint labors during the Norman invasion. Claudia’s associations focus in on the English settlers of America, and she declares the pilgrims are to have considerable space in her history of the world. She is thrilled, particularly, by the thought that these people, so small in their own struggle against the elements, spawned something so powerful.

After Claudia’s reflections comes the story of a trip she took with...