CONFORMITY TO ENVIRONMENT 189 



is said to have fled in dismay. Why did he run away ? 

 I do not know. I only know that I should have done 

 the same. One more instance. Some thirty years 

 ago the northern army was fleeing, a disorganized mob, 

 toward Winchester. Early had fallen upon them sud- 

 denly in the gray of the morning, and, while one corps 

 still held its ground, the rest of the army was melting 

 away in panic. Then a little red-faced trooper came 

 tearing down the line shouting, " Face the other way 

 boys ; face the other way." And those panic-stricken 

 men turned and rolled an irresistible avalanche of 

 heroes upon the Confederate lines. What made them 

 turn about ? It was something which I can neither 

 define nor analyze — the personal power of Sheridan. 

 It is the secret of every great leader of men. Now 

 Sheridan had imparted more than information to these 

 men. Is it too much to say that he put himself into 

 them ? From such men power streams out like elec- 

 tricity from a huge dynamo. 



Now society furnishes the medium through which 

 such a man can act. You have all met such men, 

 though probably not more than one or two of them. 

 But one such man is a host. They may be men of few 

 words. But their very presence and look calls out all 

 that is good in you ; and while you are with them evil 

 loses its power. Says the gay and licentious Alci- 

 biades, in Plato's " Banquet " concerning Socrates : 



" When I heard Pericles or any other great orator, 

 I was entertained and delighted, and I felt that he 

 had spoken well. But no mortal speech has ever ex- 

 cited in my mind such emotions as are excited by this 

 magician. Whenever I hear him, I am, as it were, 

 charmed and fettered. My heart leaps like an in- 



