His height is readily calculated from the length of his stride,
and we know that he was bearded. His hairiness was the one point
which impressed itself upon Thaddeus Sholto when he saw him at
the window. I don't know that there is anything else."
"The associate?"
"Ah, well, there is no great mystery in that. But you will know
all about it soon enough. How sweet the morning air is! See how
that one little cloud floats like a pink feather from some
gigantic flamingo. Now the red rim of the sun pushes itself over
the London cloud-bank. It shines on a good many folk, but on
none, I dare bet, who are on a stranger errand than you and I.
How small we feel with our petty ambitions and strivings in the
presence of the great elemental forces of nature! Are you well
up in your Jean Paul?"
"Fairly so. I worked back to him through Carlyle."
"That was like following the brook to the parent lake. He makes
one curious but profound remark. It is that the chief proof of
man's real greatness lies in his perception of his own smallness.
It argues, you see, a power of comparison and of appreciation
which is in itself a proof of nobility. There is much food for
thought in Richter.
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