Act III, scene iii of David Hume in the Library of Babel

Below are the last two paragraphs of Jorge Luis Borges’ short story “The Library of Babel.” Here, the Argentine author (pictured above) concludes his story by contrasting “the present condition of humanity” (which teeters at the verge of extinction!) with the “elegant hope” that the books in the Universal Library have meaning:

Methodical composition distracts me from the present condition of humanity. The certainty that everything has already been written annuls us, or renders us phantasmal. I know districts in which the young people prostrate themselves before books and like savages kiss their pages, though they cannot read a letter. Epidemics, heretical discords, pilgrimages that inevitably degenerate into brigandage have decimated the population. I believe I mentioned the suicides, which are more and more frequent every year. I am perhaps misled by old age and fear, but I suspect that the human species—the only species—teeters at the verge of extinction, yet that the Library—enlightened, solitary, infinite, perfectly unmoving, armed with precious volumes, pointless, incorruptible, and secret—will endure.

I have just written the word “infinite.” I have not included that adjective out of mere rhetorical habit; I hereby state that it is not illogical to think that the world is infinite. Those who believe it to have limits hypothesize that in some remote place or places the corridors and staircases and hexagons may, inconceivably, end—which is absurd. And yet those who picture the world as unlimited forget that the number of possible books is not. I will be bold enough to suggest this solution to the ancient problem: The Library is unlimited but periodic. If an eternal traveler should journey in any direction, he would find after untold centuries that the same volumes are repeated in the same disorder—which, repeated, becomes order: the Order. My solitude is cheered by that elegant hope. [Borges 1998/1941, Paras. 14-15; emphasis in the original; footnote omitted]

The final word of the final sentence of the final paragraph of the story is the word “hope.” (Borges 1998/1941, Para. 15) But why is the narrator of the story so hopeful, especially considering the penultimate paragraph of the story, which paints a bleak and foreboding picture of “the present condition of humanity.” (Ibid., Para. 14) Mankind is on the verge of intellectual and physical extinction: illiterate and ignorant youth blindly worship books they cannot read. Others ignite brain epidemics, commit heresies, or embark on “pilgrimages that inevitably degenerate into brigandage,” all of which have “decimated” the library’s frail and teetering population. Still others resort to suicide. Although the doom and gloom and foreboding of many of the previous paragraphs all come to a head here, what is most surprising to me is that this dark picture still contains a ray of hope: the Universal Library will endure, even if humanity does not.

So, why is the narrator so hopeful? I will consider this question and conclude my series on “David Hume in the Library of Babel” in my next post.