What they were aware of was the dumb, numb, cold, heavy downward drag of the vast undersea forces that are sub-human; chemical forces, that belong to… - John Cowper Powys

As he contemplated the loveliness of her figure, it struck him as infinitely pathetic that even beauty such as hers should be so dependent on the sexual humours of this man or that man for its adequate appreciation.

What are they doing here, these difficult young persons and their still more difficult guardians? This — this sacred Elysian garden of the great humanistic tradition of classic wisdom and classic art — must not be invaded by clamorous babes and agitated elders, must not be profaned either by the plaudits or the strictures of the unlettered mob. Somewhere in human life, and where should it be if not in the cloistered seclusion of noble literature? — there must be an escape from the importunities of such people and from the responsibilities of the ignorance they so jealously guard.

Reason? Justice? The forces that victimized and paralysed him now were those that had created the world. Who was he to contend against them?