I have already mentioned the fact that I am a physician. When recently
from England came the news of the discovery of vaccination and I saw how
a small drop could penetrate through a man's entire system, then I
regretted that my father had thrown away the elixir. If I still
possessed it I would, despite my advanced age, try the experiment of
inoculating myself with it. The exhalation of the elixir acted only on
the tongue, and hence its fatal effect. if, however, it had been
possible to infiltrate a desire for truth into the whole man, then, ah
then! it might have been possible for a man really to know himself, which
is the beginning of his salvation. One thought occurs to me for my
consolation:
A race that has felt itself forced, generation after generation, to serve
the truth must finally have acquired an instinct to do so, like the races
of pearl-divers who by inheritance can hold their breath a phenomenally
long time.