It is the most
difficult thing to get a great savant to talk about his subject,
though, if he is kind and patient, will answer unintelligent
questions, and help a feeble mind along, it is one of the most
delightful things in the world. I seized the opportunity some
little while ago, on finding myself sitting next to a great
physicist, of asking him a series of fumbling questions on the
subject of modern theories of matter; for an hour I stumbled like a
child, supported by a strong hand, in a dim and unfamiliar world,
among the mysterious essences of things. I should like to try to
reproduce it here, but I have no doubt I should reproduce it all
wrong. Still, it was deeply inspiring to look out into chaos, to
hear the rush and motion of atoms, moving in vast vortices, to
learn that inside the hardest and most impenetrable of substances
there was probably a feverish intensity of inner motion. I do not
know that I acquired any precise knowledge, but I drank deep
draughts of wonder and awe. The great man, with his amused and
weary smile, was infinitely gentle, and left me, I will say, far
more conscious of the beauty and the holiness of knowledge.
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