Had they stuck to the text it would all have been well; but a
reporter is a reporter; in spite of the editors there were
numerous little elaborations to pervert the context. A great man
must be careful of his speech. Dr. Holcomb was often busy
refuting; he could not understand the need of these little
twistings of wisdom. It kept him in controversy; the brothers of
his profession often took him to task for these little distorted
scraps of philosophy. He did not like journalism. He had a way of
consigning all writers and editors to the devil.

Which was vastly amusing to the reporters. Once they had him going
they poised their pens in glee and began splashing their venomous
ink. It was tragic; the great professor standing at bay to his
tormentors. One and all they loved him and one and all they took
delight in his torture. It was a hard task for a reporter to get
in at a lecture; and yet it was often the lot of the professor to
find himself and his words featured in his breakfast paper.

On the very day before this the doctor had come out with one of
his terse startling statements. He had a way of inserting
parenthetically some of his scraps of wisdom. It was in an Ethics
class. We quote his words as near as possible:

"Man, let me tell you, is egotistic. All our philosophy is based
on ego. We live threescore years and we balance it with all
eternity. We are it. Did you ever stop and think of eternity? It
is a rather long time. What right have we to say that life, which
we assume to be everlasting, immediately becomes restrospect once
it passes out of the conscious individuality which is allotted
upon this earth? The trouble is ourselves. We are five-sensed. We