Read the excerpt below from the short story “The Bet” by Anton P. Chekov and answer the question that follows. “And I despise your books, despise all worldly blessings and wisdom. Everything is void, frail, visionary and delusive as a mirage. Though you be proud and wise and beautiful, yet will death wipe you from the face of the earth like the mice underground; and your posterity, your history, and the immortality of your men of genius will be as frozen slag, burnt down together with the terrestrial globe. . . .” Which theme does the diction from the passage support best?