We also know of another superstition of that time: that of the Man of the Book. On
some shelf in some hexagon (men reasoned) there must exist a book which is the
formula and perfect compendium of all the rest: some librarian has gone through it
and he is analogous to a god. In the language of this zone vestiges of this remote
functionary's cult still persist. Many wandered in search of Him. For a century they
have exhausted in vain the most varied areas. How could one locate the
venerated and secret hexagon which housed Him? Someone proposed a
regressive method: To locate book A, consult first book B which indicates A's
position; to locate book B, consult first a book C, and so on to infinity... In
adventures such as these, I have squandered and wasted my years. It does not
seem unlikely to me that there is a total book on some shelf of the universe 3 ; I
pray to the unknown gods that a man - just one, even though it were thousands of
years ago! - may have examined and read it. If honor and wisdom and happiness
are not for me, let them be for others. Let heaven exist, though my place be in
hell. Let me be outraged and annihilated, but for one instant, in one being, let Your
enormous Library be justified.