At table he failed to hear the conversation about petty and ignoble things, his eager mind seeking out and following cause and effect in everything before him.

In the meat on the platter he saw the shining sun and traced its energy back through all its transformations to its source a hundred million miles away, or traced its energy ahead to the moving muscles in his arms that enabled him to cut the meat, and to the brain wherewith he willed the muscles to move to cut the meat, until, with inward gaze, he saw the same sun shining in his brain.

He was entranced by illumination, and did not hear the "Bughouse," whispered by Jim, nor see the anxiety on his sister's face, nor notice the rotary motion of Bernard Higginbotham's finger, whereby he imparted the suggestion of wheels revolving in his brother-in-law's head.
What, in a way, most profoundly impressed Martin, was the correlation of knowledge--of all knowledge.

He had been curious to know things, and whatever he acquired he had filed away in separate memory compartments in his brain.

Thus, on the subject of sailing he had an immense store.