Read the passage from "by the waters of babylon
how does visiting the place of the gods affect the
narrator?
it is not true what some of the tales say that the ground
there burns forever, for i have been there. here and there
were the marks and stains of the great burning, on the
ruins, that is true. but they were old marks and old stains. it
is not true either what some of our priests say that it is an
island covered with fogs and enchantments. it is not. it is a
great dead place-greater than any dead place we know
everywhere in it there are god-roads, though most are
cracked and broken everywhere there are the ruins of the
high towers of the gods
he discovers that it is unwise to have an inquiring mind
he learns that there is nothing supernatural to fear in
the destroyed city
he renounces everything he learned from the priests
and his father
he understands that the past has nothing of interest for
people of the present.