It is a great and beautiful spectacle to see a man somehow
emerging from oblivion by his own efforts, dispelling with the
light of his reason the shadows in which nature had enveloped
him, rising above himself, soaring in his mind right up to the
celestial regions, moving, like the sun, with giant strides through
the vast extent of the universe, and, what is even greater and
more difficult, returning to himself in order to study man there
and learn of his nature, his obligations, and his end.
