Narration: The dose was so prodigious that he was rocked from head to toe, turned pale, went rigid, then was seized with a fit of trembling,

Narration: as if he had been hit not with an overload of historiography and historiosophy, but with a genuine bolt from the blue.

Narration: He pulled himself together, took a deep breath, wiped his brow, steadied his still quivering legs and said: