AS HIS FRIENDS AND FAMILY KNEW HIM 137 



"Most of his voluminous writings were thus freely 

 submitted to the family council, or copied by them, and 

 each one invited and encouraged to criticise; and thus, 

 not only were they made familiar with the workings of 

 his mind but were taught to express their own thoughts. 

 He wrote or composed and dictated his greatest books 

 in his parlor, surrounded by his family, and it seemed 

 sometimes as if he possessed a dual consciousness, so 

 quickly could he abstract or concentrate his mind upon 

 his writing. 



"Like few great men, he was the greater the closer one 

 got to him. Little children approached him confidingly, 

 and never left him without bearing away some good 

 lesson, so gently and simply taught as to be forever 

 planted in their young minds. His especial pleasure was 

 to say a kind word and lend a helping hand to young 

 men beginning the battle of life. Above all men, he 

 knew the value of praise as an incentive to high endeavor, 

 and when he had occasion to censure or criticise, he did it 

 with such obvious reluctance that it never failed to do 

 the good intended. While at home, he had been taught 

 to respect women, to love the truth, and to reverence 

 God; and these teachings he never forgot. 



"One of his daughters writes as follows: 'He never 

 had a study or anything like a sanctum, where his wife 

 and children could not come, preferring to work in the 

 midst of them wherever they congregated. He would 

 sit at the round marble-topped center table, with his 

 papers spread out, the bright light falling on his bald 

 head and shining on his brown curls, while he sat un- 

 conscious of what was going on around him; whether it 

 was music, or dancing, or reading aloud, or romping, he 

 would wTite away, or read what he had written, or talk to 

 himself and shake his head'. 



