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other people.
To me, they brought much reflection and unfolding of thought.
As I have said in another place, I read the two first named to a small circle of friends at my own house, and was somewhat disappointed at the result, as none of those present seemed willing to assume my point of view.
Repeating one of them under similar circumstances at the house of a friend, Henry James, the elder, called upon me to explain some point which my lecture had brought into view.
I asked if he could explain the point at issue.
He replied that he could not. Being somewhat disconcerted, I said to him, ‘You should not ask questions which you yourself cannot answer.’
I meant by this to say that one must not be called upon to explain what is evidently inexplicable.
Mr. James, however, did not so understand me, but told me afterwards that he considered this the most extraordinary statement that he had ever heard.
He discoursed a good deal after my lecture with much color and brilliancy, as was his wont.
His views of the Divine were highly anthropomorphic, and I remember that he said among other things, ‘My dear Madam, God is working all the time in his shirt-sleeves with all his might.’
This dear man was a great addition to the thought-power current in Boston society.
He had lived much abroad, and was for many years
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