during all the time spent on planning and building they turned out to be the most important of all , time and again, upon the foundation of these sketches and notes, and their spontaneity, I then built the Cone during those long six years, years intensified by being aimed at this single objective, so Roithamer. And now here I was myself, settled in Hoeller’s garret just as Roithamer had described it, trying to get a clear idea of its interior, and as I sat on the bed or at the table or at the desk or on the corner chair, or paced back and forth, I had been pacing back and forth almost the entire time, because I believed I could gain an even greater intensity of concentration on everything I was considering, looking at, observing, and checking out as well, and I was not disappointed in my aim of gaining such great concentration on Hoeller’s garret, the object of my observation and examination, as I suddenly found myself pacing back and forth quite rapidly, I could hear even better, more intently, what Roithamer had said that time in England, and so I could understand it better and more intently, while at the same time my observation of the Hoeller garret’s interior had become even keener, little by little and under the spell of Roithamer’s characteristic cadences, I finally caught all the meanings in everything Roithamer had said, I remembered, as I heard him again in Hoeller’s garret saying all he had said that time in England, suddenly it all came back to me with all its full significance, and so I had the ideal opportunity for making comparisons and was more and more struck by how exact Roithamer’s description had been, while describing Hoeller’s garret to me in England as if he were inside it, he must have been seeing it in his mind, otherwise so precise a description would have been impossible, but I know how precise Roithamer’s descriptions always were, without being in the least distracted by any sound, the incessant rushing of the Aurach had never distracted me or Roithamer during his sojourns in Hoeller’s garret, a place so totally noiseless apart from the deafening noise of the torrential river, especially torrential at the Aurach gorge, so that it was possible for me to concentrate entirely on Roithamer’s original description then, and on my own present observations of Hoeller’s garret now, I had concentrated totally upon that description and this observation, no noises would have disturbed me in this effort, but luckily the whole Hoeller house suddenly went completely quiet just at this moment of concentration, which was odd because the Hoeller children had just come home from school and I’d just seen a number of the local foresters entering the house to see the taxidermist, I’d seen them from my attic window at the moment I began to concentrate on listening to Roithamer, on his description, my observations, on my own looking and noticing and reexamining of the garret with reference to his description of it, yet at that moment and in fact the whole time I was concentrating on this subject there was perfect quiet. So it was possible for me to check on all the objects in Hoeller’s garret one by one, as one systematically goes over a scientific experiment which must suddenly be checked out for one reason or another, there is always a reason for such testing. Because he was so self-absorbed, always intent upon his scientific work, and because his preoccupation and concentration made him appear to be totally wrapped up in himself and his scientific work to the exclusion of everything else, it was always amazing to find him so well informed, every time, in all fields other than his own, he was, for example, exceptionally knowledgeable about everything that seemed to be of no concern to him at all and need not concern him, such as, for instance, the world of politics, which he must have been following with the utmost attention since he could not, otherwise, have acquired so sophisticated a
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