The first sentence in this scene is transitional, linking Septimus' suicide — a major occurrence — with a random observation that Peter Walsh makes. The speed and the noise of the passing ambulance suggest to Peter one of the "triumphs of civilization." This is nothing more than a commonplace, a pause to appreciate the scientific mind and its achievement. Yet in the preceding scene we were concerned with the same subjects — science and triumph. The scene ended, however, not with the scientists' triumph but with Septimus' triumph. He refused to submit; his "self" was precious; he believed in its sanctity and its mystery; and he died to preserve that mystery. There is irony in Peter's speaking of efficiency and organization so soon after Septimus' suicide, as there is irony in Septimus' receiving no respect when he was alive while the ambulance, possibly carrying his mangled body, prompts Peter's respect.
Peter's marveling at the invention of the automobile recalls the fascination of the townspeople for the black limousine early in the novel. Men are dazzled by things, by titles on people, by skywritings, but they approach one another with closed minds, pre-judgments, and scientific curiosity. Too often they are devoid of awe for the greatest miracle of all: the diversity and the mystery of the human personality. Certainly our own appreciation for the human mind becomes enriched as we read this book. Virginia Woolf offers us the human personality in its most disciplined sanity and in its most chaotic insanity.
As Peter continues to reflect, his observations are echoes of ideas we have already been concerned with. The idea of life and death merging and coming together are forces at work within Clarissa, as they were within Septimus. When Peter identifies his flaw as his "susceptibility," we remember that Clarissa also shares this flaw. Both have skeins of naked nerves; both are vulnerable to beauty, both register sensitive insights into life, yet Clarissa has sheltered her flaw within Richard Dalloway's gentle protectiveness. Peter has no such refuge from reality. He has never been able to disguise or master his intensities — but then he was not able to master Clarissa either; she feared too much the conjunction of their susceptibilities.
