t may add, 'I have not finished it as well as I could
wish.'

Now let me try to convey my personal impressions of this man. I see
him in various conversations with myself, when he has thought that he
could make use of me to serve his ever-present and impersonal ends,
trying to add me up, wondering how far I was sincere, and to what
extent I might be influenced by private objects; then, at last,
concluding that I was honest in my own fashion, opening his heart
little by little, and finally appealing to me to aid him in his
labours.

'I like that man; _he understands me!_' I once heard him say,
mentioning my name, and believing that he was thinking, not speaking.

I tell this story merely to illustrate his habit of reflecting aloud,
for as he spoke these words I was standing beside him. When I repeated
it to his Officers, one of them remarked horrified:--

'Good gracious! it might just as well have been something much less
complimentary. One never knows what he will say.'

He is an autocrat, whose word is law to thousands. Had he not been an
autocrat indeed, the Salvation Army would not exist to-day, for it
sprang from his brain like Minerva from the head of Jove, and has been
driven to success by his single, forceful will.

Yet this quality of masterfulness is tempered and illuminated by an
unfailing sense of humour, which he is quite ready to exercise at his
own expense. Thus, a few years ago he and I dined with the late Mr.
Herring, and, as a matter of fact, although I had certain things to
say on the matters under discussion, his flow of most interesting
conversation did not allow me over much opportunity of saying them. It
is hard to compete in words with one who has preached continually for
fifty years!

When General Booth departed to catch a midnight train, for the
Continent I think, Mr. Herring went to see him to the door. Returning
presently, much amused, he repeated their parting words, which were as
follows:--

GENERAL BOOTH: 'A very good fellow Haggard; but a talker, you know,
Herring, a talker!'

MR. HERRING (looking at him): 'Indeed!'

GENERAL BOOTH (laughing): 'Ah! Herring, you mean that it was _I_ who
did the talking, not Haggard. Well, _perhaps I did_.'

Some people think that General Booth is conceited.

'It is a pity that the old gentleman is so vain,' a highly-placed
person once said to me.

I answered that if he or I had done all that General Booth has done,
we might be pardoned a li