Perhaps the absoluteness of the act of writing, in effect, his own elegy--and the absoluteness of his inability to answer his critics afterward--curiously mellowed him.
He panicked at the prospect of explanation.
mnli hypothesis: He panicked at the prospect of explanation. premise: Perhaps the absoluteness of the act of writing, in effect, his own elegy--and the absoluteness of his inability to answer his critics afterward--curiously mellowed him.