## Metadata - Author: [[Matthew Kneale]] - Full Title: English Passengers - Category: #books ## Highlights - But there is no trap like a mystery to confound. Even if you know the answer is some terrible hardship to endure, still you must hear. ‘‘Tell me.’’ ([Location 1086](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001NJMBFO&location=1086)) - A ship’s captain needs charts like a lawyer needs sin, as to go sailing about the globe without is dropping right back to Chris Columbus himself who mistook America for India. ([Location 1993](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001NJMBFO&location=1993)) - a few clutches of mountains huddled here and there, bleak and spiky, as if they might cause injury to careless angels. ([Location 4941](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001NJMBFO&location=4941)) - Following their gaze, I now saw my own dear loyal wife, sitting in a darkened room, her face lost in silent tears. An opened letter lay by her side. Now the scene changed once again. What was this strange land that I glimpsed next, with its walls of shining stone, its wondrous greenery? I was, I realized, looking upon Eden! This time, however, I heard no voices from the ferns and flowers urging me onwards, and a cold wind blew across this forgotten spot. Worse was to follow. All at once I found myself looking upon a mighty lecture hall, its auditorium filled with innocent faces, eager for guidance. There upon the rostrum sat none other but my own enemies in the war of letters: a row of atheist geologists, the face of each filled with terrible triumph. I felt myself come to, quite as if I had been in a state of unconsciousness. For a moment I remained beside the tree stump, quietly praying and, in some way I cannot even begin to describe, I simply knew, that my prayers were heard. Once again I struggled to regain my feet. This time, miraculously, I felt myself succeed, quite as if some great hand had come to my aid. I took a short step. I paused. I took another. I felt pain. In addition to my wound, the sole of my shoeless foot was exposed to every sharp stone and stinging plant upon the way. Still I pressed onwards. As I hobbled slowly forth, I felt darkness creeping upon me, reaching out with a terrible coaxing. I fought the darkness back. Little by little I advanced by yards, then more. I began to hope that I might at least find strength enough to reach the settlement, where I might be discovered, and given a Christian burial, rather than remain lost, perhaps to be devoured by beasts. It seemed as if an age were passing, but finally, surely enough, I discerned the buildings of the settlement become visible through the trees. Now, wildly, I permitted my hopes to grow greater still, even to the jetty, where others would be found. I persevered. Despair threatened anew, and anew I cast despair away. With each further yard gained I prayed thanks, and I prayed for strength to endure the next. Then, suddenly and wonderfully, I found myself stumbling into clear sight of the sea. ([Location 5047](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001NJMBFO&location=5047)) - ‘‘I have not long to live,’’ he faltered. In a curious way it was all the more shocking because I had always thought him such a bothersome old ninny. There is, I suppose, nothing like a fellow strolling up saying he is about to die to make you feel you should have liked him. ([Location 5072](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001NJMBFO&location=5072)) - All at once I felt myself haunted by a terrible vision, of a world without guidance: a land of emptiness, where all was ruled by the madness of chance. How could one endure such a place, where all significance was lost? I myself would mean nothing, but would merely be a kind of self-invention: a speck upon the wind, calling itself Wilson. ([Location 6502](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001NJMBFO&location=6502)) - Little by little the Sincerity was trying to reach that fine state that every wooden vessel is always hankering to become: a wide spread of driftwood and canvas decorating some empty stretch of ocean. ([Location 7392](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001NJMBFO&location=7392)) - May the revolutions of mind establish the empire of reason and benevolence over the ruins of ignorance and prejudice. ([Location 7961](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001NJMBFO&location=7961))