what more need i say about this odd and solitary figure , this genius who labored all his life in obscurity in the most obscure of sciences , whom the world would little note nor long remember , but to whom the world owed much , this man who possessed , it seemed , not the slightest shred of humility or warmth , who lacked empathy and compassion and the ability to read men 's hearts-or the heart of a twelve-year-old boy whose world had been shattered in an awful instant ?