While I was endeavoring to imprint on my mind forever every detail of this awesome landscape, Captain Nemo stood motionless, as if petrified during a moment of mute ecstasy. He leaned upon a mossy stone. Was he dreaming of those countless generations long since vanished? Was he seeking of their ghosts the secrets of human fate? Was it here that this strange man came to steep himself in historical recollections? Did he in this forgotten city relive the ancient life, he who wanted no modern one?