King at the Century 



Nor, I think, did he expect you to 

 experience any other — certainly not 

 to be led very far astray by any in- 

 tensity of interest or to be perma- 

 nently disoriented by credulity pushed 

 to the point of naivete. To his alert- 

 ness and agility of mind any open- 

 mouthed contemplative resting in the 

 mere fact — whatever the marvel he 

 was divulging — must have seemed 

 stagnant, rather than active, apprecia- 

 tion. In proof of which one has only 

 to recall the fact that the phenomena 

 he was fond of relating were always 

 of an illustrative rather than of a final 

 character. Occasionally, perhaps, he 

 left you to divine their bearings, their 

 ulterior significance. But that they 

 had such was the source of their in- 

 terest for him. 



For, after all, his extraordinary ac- 

 tivity of mind was something more 

 constructive than mere alertness — 

 however multifariously exhibited — 



