10 MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR 



students' societies a lecture on ants, as delightful in 

 expression as it was rich in knowledge. This gift of 

 speech of course stood him in good stead after he was 

 ordained. " The people hang on his lips " were the words 

 of his first vicar to me. 



As a man of mature years, and married, Rees natur- 

 ally, in some respects, stood outside the circle of students. 

 But he was far too human to separate himself from them 

 completely. He was even willing to play the boy on 

 occasion. There was no hint of condescension in his 

 attitude to them, no air of superiority, though the 

 superiority was real. I do not think that he readily 

 made friends, but he was most loyal to those whom he 

 admitted to his heart. He knew that I liked him and 

 admired him and meant well by him, and he was acutely 

 pained on one occasion when he believed that he had 

 quite unwittingly done me an injury. Even if he was 

 right, I fear that I had beforehand injured him at 

 least as much by the emphatic expression of my opinion 

 of him. It is easy to forget that some sprats imagine 

 themselves to be the peers of whales and resent the 

 blunt assertion of the fact that they are considerably 

 smaller. But if men of mark almost inevitably stir 

 envy and jealousy in the mean, they have their reward 

 in the admiration of bigger souls. I have already quoted 

 the generous words of Rees's first vicar, and I know 

 that this hearty appreciation was not confined to the 

 vicar. I had been instrumental in placing Rees there, 

 and a neighbouring vicar, aware of the fact and admiring 

 Rees, asked me to send him " a curate like Rees." I 

 was obliged to own that it was quite beyond my 



