210 NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SEALER 



had vastly stimulated my intelligence and had given me the 

 sense of the inquiring motive. To this work he brought not only 

 a majestic and charming personality, but the body of tradition 

 which had grown up among the naturalists of the marvellous 

 period of the European awakening misnamed the French Revo- 

 lution. His method of teaching was that of the great school 

 wherein he had his nurture, vivified by his sympathy and his 

 enthusiasm. More than most of his pupils, I had been made 

 ready for his hands, and my three years with him gave me rapid 

 development. 



I would I could have set down a fit acknowledgment of my 

 debt through all my days to the women whose influence has 

 entered into my life and shaped for the best whatever has de- 

 veloped in me. I feel that I cannot do this part of my task even 

 to myself, so it will have to remain undone. It is, however, fit 

 to say that it has been my good fortune from the age of fifteen 

 years on, to be always in large measure controlled by women 

 of high character. For this I am devoutly thankful ; for it kept 

 me from the pit whereto I have seen so many go. While a man 

 should be a man's man in quality, taking his measure from his 

 relations with his own sex, in my opinion he cannot attain his 

 full stature without the influence of women. Of himself alone 

 the male human is a mere fragment of his kind ; he attains to his 

 humanity through the shaping influence of its better half. 



In my "account of stock" which I remember making as I 

 went from Cambridge to Kentucky, I found not much that was 

 likely to be of value in the work before me. On the moral side, 

 the equipment lacked the motive commonly noted as patriot- 

 ism or love of the "old flag," that humor which is well summed 

 up in the cry of "our country, right or wrong." This stimu- 

 lating, primitive emotion appears to have been left out in my 

 making. I felt, it is true, a certain measure of allegiance to my 

 native commonwealth, not to its name or area, but to the 

 people, for the reason that I knew and loved them. I firmly 

 believed that the Federal Union was a most useful convenience 



