Clarence King 



WE sometimes, though most 

 rarely, meet a man of a 

 nature so genial, of qualities so 

 radiant, so instinct with vitality, that 

 in connection with him the thought 

 of mortality seems incongruous. 

 Such men appear as exempt from 

 the ordinary lethal fate of the rest 

 of us as the " happy gods " of the 

 Greek poets. They are not neces- 

 sarily fortunate or prosperous, but 

 whatever their luck or their accidents 

 they seem as independent of them 

 as actors are of their momentary 

 disguises. The law of their nature 

 is to be radiant ; clouds are to them 

 a transient and negligible condition. 

 While they live they are surrounded 

 by an atmosphere of universal regard 

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