Stephen nodded at Lupin's explanation of the camera; he would want a better look at it later, but for now, the grindylow hatching was beginning!

Lupin's quotation was of course unfamiliar to him; it was appropriate enough for what Stephen saw of the creatures' behavior. In answer, he wrote: Grindylow life: nasty, brutish, and short, paraphrasing (fittingly enough) Hobbes's Leviathan.