Some people called him a
prophet, but he was not conscious of that high calling. I do not
remember him saying that he was only a messenger. Perhaps later, when he
was reviewing his life, he connected his sudden inspirations with a
higher source, but for their realisation he relied upon a foundation of
veritable facts, facts patiently accumulated, a foundation laid broad
and deep. He had the vision of the prophet allied with the wisdom of the
philosopher and the calm mental detachment of the man of science.
Perhaps another explanation of his genius may be found in his
open-mindedness. Truth found ready access to his conscience, and always
a warm welcome, and he saw with open eyes where others were stone-blind.
He belonged to our common humanity. No caste or acquired pride or
unapproachable intellectualism cut him off from the people. His simple
humanness made him one with us all. And his humanity was singularly
comprehensive. It led him, for instance, to investigate the subject of
suffering in animals. He noticed that all good men and women rightly
shrank from giving pain to them, and he set himself to prove that the
capacity for pain decreased as we descended the scale of life, and that
poets and others were mistaken when they imputed acute suffering to the
lower creation, because of the very restricted response of their nervous
system. Even in the case of the human infant, he concluded that only
very slight sensations are at first required, and that such only are
therefore developed.
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