To conquer Death on his own
ground was to win the great victory over that Power, and to drive back
to an indefinite distance the boundaries of human supremacy.
It was assuredly not for the sake of benefiting mankind at large that
he pursued his researches at all sacrifices and at all costs. The
prime object of all his consideration was himself, as he unhesitatingly
admitted on all occasions, conceiving perhaps that it was easier to
defend such a position than to disclaim it. There could be no doubt
that in the man's enormous self-estimation, the Supreme Power occupied a
place secondary to Keyork Arabian's personality, and hostile to it. And
he had taken up arms, as Lucifer, assuming his individual right to live
in spite of God, Man and Nature, convinced that the secret could be
discovered and determined to find it and to use it, no matter at what
price. In him there was neither ambition, nor pride, nor vanity in the
ordinary meaning of these words. For passion ceases with the cessation
of comparison between man and his fellows, and Keyork Arabian
acknowledged no ground for such a comparison in his own case. He had
matched himself in a struggle with the Supreme Power, and, directly,
with that Power's only active representative on earth, with death.
It was well said of him that he had no beliefs, for he knew of no
intermediate position between total suspension of judgment, and the
certainty of direct knowledge.
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