Correct answer: the narrator is able to justify his failures with theirs.
Explanation:
All throughout the text, the narrator is trying to justify his/her choice to give up studying natural history. The author felt like if the great minds of the time could be so easily overthrown and had been ignorant on so many topics until then, then it was worthless to pursue the study of such subjects. The narrator feels like their belittlement makes up for the choice not to pursue those studies in natural history.
The answer to the given question above would be SUBJUNCTIVE. The answer for this is option B. Based on the given sentence above, given the sentence's underlined verb, the mood for this is subjunctive. Hope this answers your question. Have a great day ahead!
So that the reader can get more absorbed in the passage .
