he had forgotten for many years the lessons of that day , had forgotten to acknowledge the invisible winds which drove and penetrated all things and the vanity for which the vain and the virtuous ventured against it ; on that day , at the age of eight , he had perhaps been no less recalcitrant in his defiance than any other creature of futile endeavor , but through his failure , found himself suddenly equipped with the new understanding that his actions in spite of the wind had amounted to very little , if anything at all .