Question

Read the following passage carefully:

Giles adjusted the brass vernier of the great telescope with fingers that had grown thick and stiff from forty years in the mountain air. Outside, the storm bruised the peak with slate-colored clouds, but within the dome, Giles saw only the faint, recalcitrant smudge of the newly sighted comet. To him, the comet was a slow, mathematical testament—a quiet coordinate in an infinite catalog that required nothing but patient transcription.

Percival, however, paced the iron gallery above, his bootheels clattering like hail. He had arrived from the capital only three days prior, his pockets stuffed with journals and letters of introduction, his mind ablaze with the prospect of naming the celestial visitor. 'We must publish by Tuesday’s post, Giles!' Percival called down, his breath rising in white plumes. 'The French academy is already tracking the same quadrant. If we delay to verify the declination, we forfeit the glory of the discovery!' Giles did not look up from his ledger. He merely dipped his pen in the inkwell, waiting for the ink to settle, his quietude a silent rebuke to the younger man’s frantic ambition. For Giles, to name the star prematurely was to defile the sky; for Percival, an unnamed star was simply wasted capital.

In the passage, the contrast between Percival's frantic behavior and Giles's deliberate composure primarily serves to do which of the following?