one not apprehensibble sentence in the true sense of the word

[vil]

Dear teachers,

Would you be kind enough to give me a leg up with the interpretation of the following sentences?

The world has raised its whip; where will it descend?

It is not apprehensible (incomprehensible) to me in the true sense of the word.

Thanks for your efforts.

Regards,

V.

[rx-f]

What's the context? Was the sentence part of a longer text?

[vil]

Hi rx-f,

Thank you for your responsiveness.

I’m trying presumtuously my hand at reading Charles Theckery’s “Vanity Fair” in the original.

Here is the requested context:

Septimus Warren Smith, aged about thirty, pale-faced, beak-nosed, wearing brown shoes and a shabby overcoat, with hazel eyes which had that look of apprehension in them which makes complete strangers apprehensive too. The world has raised its whip; where will it descend?

Everything had come to a standstill. The throb of the motor engines sounded like a pulse irregularly drumming through an entire body. The sun became extraordinarily hot because the motor car had stopped outside Mulberry's shop window; old ladies on the tops of omnibuses spread their black parasols; here a green, here a red parasol opened with a little pop. Mrs. Dalloway, coming to the window with her arms full of sweet peas, looked out with her little pink face pursed in enquiry. Every one looked at the motor car. Septimus looked. Boys on bicycles sprang off. Traffic accumulated. And there the motor car stood, with drawn blinds, and upon them a curious pattern like a tree, Septimus thought, and this gradual drawing together of everything to one centre before his eyes, as if some horror had come almost to the surface and was about to burst into flames, terrified him. The world wavered and quivered and threatened to burst into flames. It is I who am blocking the way, he thought. Was he not being looked at and pointed at; was he not weighted there, rooted to the pavement, for a purpose? But for what purpose?

Regards,

V.