The soundless air seemed to have the same effect as the universal darkness when men gnawed their tongues with pain.
From this infliction of silence there was no relief.

Everything was affected; gloom was the predominant note.

Joy appeared to have passed away as a factor of life, and this creative impulse had nothing to take its place.

That giant spot in high air was a plague of evil influence.
It seemed like a new misanthropic belief which had fallen on human beings, carrying with it the negation of all hope.
After a few days, men began to grow desperate; their very words as well as their senses seemed to be in chains.

Edgar Caswall again tortured his brain to find any antidote or palliative of this greater evil than before.