uch stuff as
this." I was not at all aware of the occurrence at the time, nor did I
hear of it until the same lady having sent me cards for a reception at
her house, I attended it, thereby provoking some comment. I was glad
afterwards that I had done so, as the lady in question paid me every
friendly attention, and made me quite sure that she had only yielded to
a momentary ebullition of temper, to which, indeed, she was too prone.

I read the "Phaedo" of Plato in the original Greek this summer, and was
somewhat helped in this by an English scholar, a university man, who was
passing the summer in Newport. He was "coaching" two young men who
intended to enter one of the English universities, and was obliged to
pass my house on his way to his lessons. He often paid me a visit, and
was very willing to help me over a difficult passage.

The report of my parlor readings soon brought me invitations to speak in
public. The first of these that I remember came from a committee having
in charge a meditated course of Sunday afternoon lectures on ethical
subjects, to be given without other exercises, in Horticultural Hall. I
was heard more than once in this course, and remember that one of my
themes was "Polarity," on which I had written an essay, of which I
thought, perhaps, too highly. In the course of the season I was engaged
in preparing for another reading. Meeting Rev. Phillips Brooks one day
in my sunset outing, I said to him, "Do you ever, in writing a sermon,
lose sight of your subject? I have a discourse to prepare and have lost
sight of mine." "Oh, yes," he replied, "it often happens to me." This
confession encouraged me to persevere in my work, and I finished my
lecture, and read it with acceptance.

I suppose that I may have greatly exaggerated in my own mind the value
of these writings to other people. To me, they brought much reflection
and unfolding of thought. As I have said in another place, I read the
two first named to a small circle of friends at my own house, and was
somewhat disappointed at the result, as none of those present seemed
willing to assume my point of view. Repeating one of them under similar
circumstances at the house of a friend, Henry James, the elder, called
upon me to explain some point which my lecture had brought into view. I
asked if he could explain the point at issue. He replied that he could
not. Being somewhat disconcerted, I said to him, "You should not ask
questions which you yours