evening when a play of Sophocles was
to be rendered by the students of a
certain university in which the tradi-
tion of culture has never wholly died
out, and I led the talk along the
lines of the play. I was rewarded by
an hour of such delight as comes only
from the best kind of talk, and I felt
anew the peculiar charm and power
of culture. For what I got that en-
riched me and prepared me for real
comprehension of one of the greatest
works of art in all literature was not
information, but atmosphere. I saw
rising about me the vanished life,
which the dramatist knew so well that
its secrets of conviction and tempera-
ment were all open to him; in archi-
tecture, poetry, religion, politics, and
manners, it was quietly rebuilded
for me in such wise that my own
imagination was stirred to meet the

[[98]]

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v?