"Pity, Montag, pity. Don't haggle and
nag them; you were so recently one of them yourself. They are so confident that they
will run on for ever. But they won't run on. They don't know that this is all one huge
big blazing meteor that makes a pretty fire in space, but that some day it'll have to
hit. They see only the blaze, the pretty fire, as you saw
it.
"Montag, old men who stay at home, afraid, tending
their peanut-brittle bones, have no right to criticize. Yet you almost killed things at
the start. Watch it! I'm with you, remember that. I understand how it happened. I must
admit that your blind raging invigorated me. God, how young I felt! But now-I want you
to feel old, I want a little of my cowardice to be distilled in you tonight. The next
few hours, when you see Captain Beatty, tiptoe round him, let me hear him for you, let
me feel the situation out. Survival is our ticket. Forget the poor, silly women
....
These are Faber's words
about the night's events. He gives a just reason for why the other firemen cannot
understand what Montag has begun to think about and Faber's age has given him the wisdom
that Montag's youth has yet to afford him.
The major events
of the night included Montag bringing Faber a bible, Montag confronting his wife and the
women she hangs out with about the richness of text, and at the moment that this passage
occurs, Montag is in the firehouse just before the men are called out to his house on an
alarm. I think Faber is trying to show Montag that with Montag's vigor and young and
Faber's wisdom, the two of them could possibly find success to stage this revolt. Faber
tries to show Montag that Faber's fear is good for the two of them because Montag's
courage is about to get them in trouble.
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