In the extended simile of the underlined passage from Paragraph 15 of "A Wagner Matinee," the narrator makes an observation about the soul that aring rokol been A. it is like a strange moss on a dusty shelf that, with excruciating suffering, can wither and die y for I the be B though after excruciating suffering it may seem to wither, the soul never dies, C. excruciating, interminable suffering that goes on for half a century can kill the soul. ​