hushes many a query and silences many an argument. And yet it is not in
the array of facts which can be given at any moment that young people
find their incentives and inspirations. They may have all the facts at
their tongue's end but lack the fire which shall transfuse those facts
into power to act in accordance with their teachings. Julius Cæsar is a
fact. A girl may have no doubt of his existence, she may not question
the great events of his life, but he does not stir her to action. The
fact of George Washington does not awaken the patriotism of a girl and
in schools where merely the facts regarding his life are given his
influence is practically negative. But whenever the facts have been
breathed upon by a sympathetic spirit and the fact George Washington
transformed into the personality that lives in the girl's presence then
his influence begins to count.

It is not the facts about Abraham Lincoln that engender heroism. The
facts may be presented in such a way as to hold but passing interest. I
have heard the life and times of Abraham Lincoln taught that way. But I
have seen Abraham Lincoln presented to a class of foreign girls by one
to whom he had become a friend as real and genuine as if he stood by her
side. As I listened _I_ saw Abraham Lincoln. I felt the kindness and
patience of his great soul, the honest purpose and the fine courage of
his life. The facts were there in that lesson but more than the facts
were there. _He_ was there. At the close of the lesson that teacher
looking into the faces of the girls who represented nearly every land
across the sea said to them, "What do you think of him?" One girl
responded eagerly "I think he was _grand_!" and a dark-haired intense
girl, her black eyes glowing, rose and said with an earnestness and
fervor I can _never_ forget, "I _love_ him!" "You shall hear more
tomorrow," said the teacher, and they looked as if it were hard to wait.