So he said,

Not wholly understanding why he came,—

The memory of a figure rapt and bowed

Over a shell, or finding in the rocks,

As though by wizardry, relics of lost worlds;

Moments that, by a hardly noticed phrase,

Had touched with orderly meaning and new light

The giant flaws and foldings in the hills;

Moments when, in the cabin, he had stared

Into the “old philosopher’s” microscope,