urally one of religious heresies a violent attack on the
orthodox, scriptural God, but really an expression of the highest
reverence for the God which, as he said, had created the earth and sky
and the music of the constellations. Mark Twain once expressed himself
concerning reverence and the lack of it:

"I was never consciously and purposely irreverent in my life, yet
one person or another is always charging me with a lack of reverence.
Reverence for what--for whom? Who is to decide what ought to command my
reverence--my neighbor or I? I think I ought to do the electing myself.
The Mohammedan reveres Mohammed--it is his privilege; the Christian
doesn't--apparently that is his privilege; the account is square enough.
They haven't any right to complain of the other, yet they do complain
of each other, and that is where the unfairness comes in. Each says that
the other is irreverent, and both are mistaken, for manifestly you can't
have reverence for a thing that doesn't command it. If you could do that
you could digest what you haven't eaten, and do other miracles and get a
reputation."

He was not reading many books at this time--he was inclined rather to be
lazy, as he said, and to loaf during the afternoons; but I remember that
he read aloud 'After the Wedding' and 'The Mother'--those two beautiful
word-pictures by Howells--which he declared sounded the depths of
humanity with a deep-sea lead. Also he read a book by William Allen
White, 'In Our Town', a collection of tales that he found most
admirable. I think he took the trouble to send White a personal,
hand-written letter concerning them, although, with the habit of
dictation, he had begun, as he said, to "loathe the use of the pen."

There were usually some sort of mild social affairs going on in the
neighborhood, luncheons and afternoon gatherings like those of the
previous year, though he seems to have attended fewer of them, for
he did not often leave the house. Once, at least, he assisted in an
afternoon entertainment at the Dublin Club, where he introduced his
invention of the art of making an impromptu speech, and was assisted in
its demonstration by George de Forest Brush and Joseph Lindon Smith,
to the very great amusement of a crowd of summer visitors. The "art"
consisted mainly of having on hand a few reliable anecdotes and a set
formula which would lead directly to them from any given subject.

Twice or more he collected the children of the neighborh