HIS PLACE IN THE WORLD 



in putting on his colors ; or to call attention to 

 some peculiarity of a parasitical moss growing 

 upon a huge live-oak; or to point out how a 

 certain piece of roadmaking in progress should 

 be done to secure the best results for economy 

 or permanancy; or swiftly to note some geo- 

 logical sign along the way that proved the 

 theory that this beautiful valley hard by the 

 Pacific was an arm of the sea not longer ago 

 than the day in the winter of 1577 when Sir 

 Francis Drake, harassing many seas upon his 

 buccaneering voyages, sailed over the very 

 ground we were traveling over on his way up 

 the great bay of San Francisco. Then swiftly 

 backward his thoughts fly to the subject 

 under consideration, — perhaps the elusive but 

 fascinating phenomena that have their mani- 

 festation in the acts of the subliminal self, or 

 the curious coincidences of mental telepathy, 

 or the survival of the soul after death, or some 

 acute problem in sociology, or some topic 

 broadly religious or humanitarian. In any 

 such discussion, one must steadily be impressed 

 by the clarity of his mental vision, by the 

 neatness and precision of his language, by the 

 cogency of his thought. 



355 



