In the days that follow, this man’s thinking undergoes a . . . quick and brutal reorientation. . . . Things that once filled him with awe seem strangely trivial, and things which a few days before did not even exist for him now fill his consciousness. For the first time he discovers the . . . beauty of the world of nature. . . . The perfection of children comes to him like a sudden revelation. . . . Everywhere he looks he gets the feeling that all is passing away. . . . He sees all life and stuff about him involved in a huge ceaseless combustion, a literal and apparent process of oxidation
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