accident, but a
characteristic manner of delivery, the audience withheld its sympathy
and rather enjoyed the novelty and the feeling of uncertainty as to what
would come next. One little incident of the lecture occasioned an
admiring smile. A small bunch of flowers had been placed on the
reading-desk, and by some means, in one of his shuffles, they were
tipped over and fell forward to the floor. Not at all disconcerted, he
skipped nimbly out of the pulpit, picked up the flowers, put them back
in the vase, replaced it on the desk, and went on with the lecture as
though nothing had happened.

He was much interested in the twenty-dollar gold pieces in which he was
paid, never before having met with that form of money. His encouraging
friendliness of manner quite removed any feeling that a great man's time
was being wasted through one's intercourse. He gossiped pleasantly of
men and things as though talking with an equal. On one occasion he
seemed greatly to enjoy recounting how cleverly James Russell Lowell
imitated Alfred Tennyson's reading of his own poems. Over the
Sunday-school of our church Starr King had provided a small room where
he could retire and gain seclusion. It pleased Emerson. He said, "I
think I should enjoy a study beyond the orbit of the servant girl." He
was as self-effacing a man as I ever knew, and the most agreeable to
meet.

After his return from his short trip he gave two or three more lectures,
with a somewhat diminishing attendance. Dr. Stebbins remarked in
explanation, "I thought the people would tire in the sockets of their
wings if they attempted to follow _him_."

At this distance, I can remember little that he said, but no distance of
time or space can ever dim the delight I felt in meeting him, or the
impression formed of a most attractive, penetrating, and inspiring
personality.

His kindliness and geniality were unbounded. During our arrangement of
dates Mr. Davis smiled as he said of one suggested by Mr. Emerson, "That
would not be convenient for Mr. Murdock, for it is the evening of his
wedding." He did not forget it. After the lecture, a few days later, he
turned to me and asked, "Is she here?" When I brought my flattered wife,
he chatted with her familiarly, asking where she had lived before coming
to California, and placing her wholly at ease.

Every tone of his voice and every glance of his eye suggested the most
absolute serenity. He seemed the personification of calm wisdom