It is a truth of which to be grateful, that the good is as easily and deeply absorbed as the bad. Millions of noble men and women date the beginning of their nobility from the time they first knew certain people. Everyone who came into even transient companionship with Phillips Brooks went away with something more of worth in his character. "I scarcely ever meet President Andrews," said a student at Brown University, "but I am better for being in his atmosphere."

An Oriental poem conveys, in a fascinating manner, this idea of mental and spiritual absorption:

“A fragrant piece of earth salutes

Each passenger, and perfume shoots,

Unlike the common earth or sod,

Around through all the air abroad.

A pilgrim once did near it rest,

And took it up and thus addressed:

‘Art thou a lump of musk? or art

A ball of spice, this smell t' impart

To all who chance to travel by

The spot where thou, like earth, dost lie?’

Humbly the clod replied: ‘I must

Confess that I am only dust.

But once a rose within me grew;

Its rootlets shot, its flowerets blew;

And all the rose's sweetness rolled

Throughout the texture of my mold;

And so it is that I impart

Perfume to thee, whoe'er thou art.’”