“I am losing my interest in human beings; in the significance of their lives and actions.”

This line establishes that the author’s energy for centering humanity in their worldview is waning. Humans are not necessarily what the world spins around. This line foreshadows the narrator’s coming reactions to The Ugliness of Man’s Hubris.

“Someone has said it is better to study one man than ten books.”

An old adage, the narrator says, suggests that a single man may contain as much as 10 entire books. In other words, by studying man, one may learn even more than by reading books. However, in step with the narrator’s opening line, the narrator does not agree with this adage; both men and books contribute to her suffering, not to her knowledge.

“Can one of them talk to me like the night – the Summer night? Like the stars or the caressing wind.”

No man or book could communicate with the eloquence of the night. Chopin begins personifying nature here, the features of which can apparently “talk.” The adjective “caressing” also first introduces the theme of The Allure of Gentleness.