remember
Doctor Hale once rose and pointing to that window, said: "That window is
in memory of a man! But how vain a window, how absurd a monument if the
man had not left his impress upon the hearts of humanity! That beautiful
window only mirrors our memories of the individual."

And then Doctor Hale talked, just talked for an hour about Starr King.

Doctor Hale has given that same talk or sermon every year for thirty
years: I have heard it three times, but never exactly twice alike. I
have tried to get a printed copy of the address, but have so far
failed. Yet this is sure: you can not hear Doctor Hale tell of Starr
King without a feeling that King was a most royal specimen of humanity,
and a wish down deep in your heart that you, too, might reflect some of
the sterling virtues that he possessed.

* * * * *

Starr King died in California in Eighteen Hundred Sixty-four. In Golden
Gate Park, San Francisco, is his statue in bronze. In the First
Unitarian Church of San Francisco is a tablet to his memory; in the
Unitarian Church at Oakland are many loving tokens to his personality;
and in the State House at Sacramento is his portrait and an engrossed
copy of resolutions passed by the Legislature at the time of his death,
wherein he is referred to as "the man whose matchless oratory saved
California to the Union."

"Who was Starr King?" I once asked Doctor Charles H. Leonard of Tufts
College. And the saintly old man lifted his eyes as if in prayer of
thankfulness and answered: "Starr King! Starr King! He was the gentlest
and strongest, the most gifted soul I ever knew--I bless God that I
lived just to know Starr King!"

Not long after this I asked the same question of Doctor C. A. Bartol
that I had asked Doctor Leonard, and the reply was: "He was a man who
proved the possible--in point of temper and talent, the most virile
personality that New England has produced. We call Webster our greatest
orator, but this man surpassed Webster: he had a smile that was a
benediction; a voice that was a caress. We admired Webster, but Starr
King we loved: one convinced our reason, the other captured our hearts."

The Oriental custom of presenting a thing to the friend who admires it
symbols a very great truth. If you love a thing well enough, you make it
yours.

Culture is a matter of desire; knowledge is to be had for the asking;
and education is yours if you want it. All men should have a colleg