You think yourself citizen, king and priest; but you are merely an atom, a conscious atom of course, and in that and that alone, in that you are conscious, and know yourself a part of the whole and believe yourself an effective part of it, lies happiness. I enjoyed hearing you talk about the American Spirit; you talked about the soul of a country as if you had seen it and felt it and loved it. My dear friend, you do not know your own soul, nor the stuff out of which it is made, and yet in your American conceit you talk about the soul of a country. It was an interesting psychological study to watch you, and it gave me much amusement as well as something to think about. I enjoyed you most of all in your own little town, your college and your hospitable, beautiful home. I feared you would burst from pride and complacency as you interpreted the "American Spirit" from that little place; a speck, and not even a well-defined speck, on the map of your country. You, a world traveller, have at last become a really narrow provincial, I should say a very happy one, as provincials always are. You wanted me to see your country through the June atmosphere of your Commencement; a democratic, peaceful, rose-laden America. I saw it through the smoke and grime of Chicago, the crowded tenements of New York, the injustice of your courts and the corruption of your politics. Yet I am glad I saw _your_ America, and I want to thank you for your ardent endeavor to show it to me as you want it to be, and not as it is. My wife sends her thanks and greetings. She received more benefit out of her visit than I. I have had to promise to remodel the house, and put in another bathroom which is to be between our bedrooms. The new bathtub must be porcelain and we are to have an instantaneous heater. She still talks a good deal of the "_gute_ cornflecks" and "grep frut" which we both enjoyed so much. Above all she remembers the courtesy of the men, and if the servant did not place her chair for her at table, I fear I should now have to do it. America certainly is a Paradise for women, but it is "_Die Hoelle_" for men. Remember that when you and any of your family come to Berlin you are to be our guests. I trust you will come soon, for conditions over here look dubious, and the war, "_der grosse Krieg_," may come before we know it. _Herzliche Gruesse von Haus zu Haus._ _Auf Wiedersehen._ XV _The Challenge of the American Spirit_ I am sure the Herr Director will not object if I have the last word; for while he was with me that privilege was seldom mine and obtained only by dint of strategy. Since his departure, the great war which he prophesied has moved over Europe and hides every bit of fair and peaceful sky like a storm-cloud; its thunder and destructive lightning fill the air, leaving scarcely a place safe and undisturbed.