Se coubesse, o parágrafo deste conto em que o protagonista se apresenta figuraria neste blogue como uma espécie de epígrafe ou epitáfio anunciado:
«My name is Robert Herendeen. But really, should I continue? And here let me say that I begin this report against the grain of my own better nature, for I’ve never cared for the confessional tone so dear to our contemporary romantics. If in the course of this rigorous record I happen to bring forth my own feelings, it is I hope never for their own sake but solely for the sake of those other phenomena which I propose to examine in the clear light of – the clear light of! – and which, even now, when I look back on them – but this sentence is already quite long enough.».
