At that time it was also hoped that a clarification of humanity's basic mysteries -
the origin of the Library and of time - might be found. It is verisimilar that these
grave mysteries could be explained in words: if the language of philosophers is
not sufficient, the multiform Library will have produced the unprecedented
language required, with its vocabularies and grammars. For four centuries now
men have exhausted the hexagons... There are official searchers, inquisitors. I
have seen them in the performance of their function: they always arrive extremely
tired from their journeys; they speak of a broken stairway which almost killed
them; they talk with the librarian of galleries and stairs; sometimes they pick up
the nearest volume and leaf through it, looking for infamous words. Obviously, no
one expects to discover anything.