Quotation from: Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard

Written by: Joseph Conrad


Afterwards, late at night, pacing to and fro outside, he had a long talk
with his chief engineer. He knew him well of old. This was not the first
undertaking in which their gifts, as elementally different as fire
and water, had worked in conjunction. From the contact of these two
personalities, who had not the same vision of the world, there was
generated a power for the world's service--a subtle force that could
set in motion mighty machines, men's muscles, and awaken also in human
breasts an unbounded devotion to the task. Of the young fellows at the
table, to whom the survey of the track was like the tracing of the path
of life, more than one would be called to meet death before the work was
done. But the work would be done: the force would be almost as strong
as a faith. Not quite, however. In the silence of the sleeping camp upon
the moonlit plateau forming the top of the pass like the floor of a
vast arena surrounded by the basalt walls of precipices, two strolling
figures in thick ulsters stood still, and the voice of the engineer
pronounced distinctly the words--

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Old Dominion University CS Dept
Designed by Joan A. Smith for the CRATE project
Created: 2007-2-22T12:35:29Z
Part of the CratePreservation Project
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Part of a series of experiments in web preservation under the direction of Michael L. Nelson, Ph.D.