as he spoke, one became aware of a curious tremor of awe.  He never made any appeal to our hearts or feelings; but it always seemed as if he had condescended for a moment to put aside far bigger and loftier designs in order to drop a fruit of ripened wisdom in our way.  He came among us, indeed, like a statesman rather than like a teacher.  The brief interviews we had with him were regarded with a sort of terror, but produced, in me at least, an almost fanatical respect and admiration.  And yet I had no reason to suppose that he was not, like all of us, subject to the law of life and pilgrimage, though one could not conceive of him as having to enter the arena of life again as a helpless child!

On this occasion I was summoned suddenly to his presence.  I found him, as usual, bent over his work, which he did not intermit, but merely motioned me to be seated.  Presently he put away his papers from him, and turned round upon me.  One of the disconcerting things about him was the fact that his thought had a peculiarly compelling tendency, and that while he read one’s mind in a flash, his own thoughts remained very nearly impenetrable.  On this occasion he commended me for my work and my relations with my fellow-students, adding that I had made rapid progress.  He then said, “I have two questions to ask you.  Have you any special relations, either with any one whom you have left behind you on earth, or with any one with whom you have made acquaintance since you quitted it, which you desire to pursue?”

I told him, which was the truth, that since my stay in the College I had become so much absorbed in the studies of the place that I seemed to have became strangely oblivious of my external friends, but that it was more a suspension than a destruction of would-be relations.

“Yes,” he said, “I perceive that that is your temperament.  It has its effectiveness, no doubt, but it also has its dangers; and, whatever happens, one ought never to be able to accuse oneself justly of any disloyalty.”

He seemed to wait for me to speak, whereupon I mentioned a very dear friend of my days of earth; but I added that most of those whom I had loved best had predeceased me, and that I had looked forward to a renewal of our intercourse.  I also mentioned the names of Charmides and Cynthia, the latter of whom was in memory strangely near to my heart.

He seemed satisfied with this.  Then he said, “It is true that we have to multiply relationships with others, both in the world and out of it; but we must also practise economy.  We must not abandon ourselves to passing fancies, or be subservient to charm, while if we have made an emotional mistake, and have been disappointed with one whom we have taken the trouble to win, we must guard such conquests with a close and peculiar tenderness.  But enough of that, for I have to ask you if there is any special work for which you feel yourself disposed.  There is a great choice of employment here.  You may