Browning's came into my mind--

"This man decided not to live but to know."

Indeed the whole of "A Grammarian's Funeral" were here appropriate. Is
it not men after this type of whom we feel

"Our low life was the level's and the night's. He's for the morning"?

To my surprise I found the church of St. Aspais locked. A courteous
hair-dresser thereupon told me that all churches in Melun were closed
from noon till half past one, but that, as noon had only just struck, if
I were brisk I might possibly catch the sacristan. After a pretty hot
chase I succeeded in finding a deaf, decrepit, dingy old man who showed
me round the church, although evidently very impatient for his mid-day
meal. He informed me that this closing of churches at Melun had been
necessitated of late years by a series of robberies. From twelve till
half past one o'clock no worshippers are present as a rule, hence the
thieves' opportunity. Unfortunately marauders do not strip beautiful
interiors of the tinselly gew-gaws that so often deface them; in this
respect, however, St. Aspais being comparatively an exception. Alike
within and without the proportions are magnificent, and the old stained
glass is not marred by modern crudities. I do not here by any means
exhaust the sights of this ancient town, from which, by the way,
Barbizon is now reached in twenty minutes, an electric tramway plying
regularly between Melun and that famous art pilgrimage.