Although there were no enemy or
other danger to be perceived, they felt the apprehension and doubt of those who
have come unawares upon some awe-inspiring place where they themselves are paltry
fellows of no account. When Marco Polo came at last to Cathay seven hundred
years ago, did he not feel – and did his heart not falter as he realized – that
this great and splendid capital of an empire had had its being all the years of
his life and far longer, and that he had been ignorant of it? That it was in
need of nothing from him, from Venice, from Europe? That it was full of wonders
beyond his understanding? That his arrival was a matter of no importance
whatever? We know that he felt these things, and so has many a traveler in
foreign parts who did not know what he was going to find. There is nothing that
cuts you down to size like coming to some strange and marvelous place where no
one even stops to notice that you stare about you. - R.A