There was no didacticism on his part; there was, on the contrary, a simplicity so great that I felt entirely at home with him; but he was so thoroughly a citizen of the world that I caught a glimpse of the world in his most casual talk.

I got a sense of the largeness and richness of life from him.

I did not know what it was which laid such hold on my mind, but I saw later that it was the remarkable culture of the man,--a culture made possible by many fortunate conditions of wealth, station, travel, and education, and expressing itself in a peculiar largeness of vision and sweetness of spirit.

In this man's friendship I was for the moment lifted out of my own crudity into that vast movement and experience in which all the races have shared.
I am often reminded of this early impulse and enthusiasm, but there are occasions when its significance and value become especially clear to me.

It was brought forcibly to my mind several years ago by an hour or two of talk with one who, as truly as any other American, stands as a representative man of culture; one, that is, whose large scholarship has been so completely absorbed that it has enriched the very texture of his mind, and given him the gift of sharing the experience of the race.