It is a link that connects us with a higher and better nature than our own.

And though we may be far from reaching the standard of our hero, we are, to a certain extent, sustained and fortified by his depicted presence constantly before us.
Fox was proud to acknowledge how much he owed to the example and conversation of Burke.

On one occasion he said of him, that "if he was to put all the political information he had gained from books, all that he had learned from science, or that the knowledge of the world and its affairs taught him, into one scale, and the improvement he had derived from Mr.Burke's conversation and instruction into the other, the latter would preponderate." Professor Tyndall speaks of Faraday's friendship as "energy and inspiration." After spending an evening with him he wrote: "His work excites admiration, but contact with him warms and elevates the heart.
Here, surely, is a strong man.

I love strength, but let me not forget the example of its union with modesty, tenderness, and sweetness, in the character of Faraday." Even the gentlest natures are powerful to influence the character of others for good.

Thus Wordsworth seems to have been especially impressed by the character of his sister Dorothy, who exercised upon his mind and heart a lasting influence.