ASPR Journal, V14 - Iapsop.com

500 Jourual of the Amcrica11 Society for Psychical ResearclL
In many a delightful evening of uninterrupted conversation, I
was always impressed anew by the breadth of his intellectual sympathies;
by his wide and splendid grasp of the great literatures of
the world; by his scholarly enthusiasms; by his wonderful clarity
of vision. During all the years of the war I never heard from
any one man so clear and comprehensive a survey of the causes
and movements and the entire panorama of the situation, as I
heard from Dr. Hyslop. And this, even with the fact that for a
part of two winters I was in Washington in constant social meeting
with many eminent statesmen and political leaders. " You
ought to be the commanding general at the front," I used sometimes
to say to him, impressed with his vivid outline of the complicated
conditions. Dr. Hyslop was an exceedingly interesting
conversationalist. His mind was flexible, easily turning from one
subject to another, and if the terrible seriousness of the war
themes become too oppressive, we could always t'ake refuge in the
literary field, fascinating to us both and in which his wide and
varied scholarship, his profound grasp of philosophy, and his
splendid power of comparative estimates of these differing systems
made his exposition of them a rare and valuable privilege.
He was an ardent patriot; he had faith in our national future
while he saw very clearly some of our national sins. He was
pre-eminently a good citizen; he regarded his vote as a personal
duty and one never omitted, even at the cost of losing a day of
• his work in Boston.
In the throng of recollections that rush upon me on one phase
of his many-faceted character nothing impresses me more than his
charming capacity for friendships. He knew all kinds of people,
and he had a wonderful adaptability to all the variations. He had
an unerring instinct for the salient point in the person whom he
met. All sorts and conditions of men and women sought him
from those of his own associates to the numerous wandering minstrels
who held convictions of some special revelation which they
were miraculously ordained to inflict upon Dr. Hyslop. His inconceivable
patience with many of these might serve as a moral
lesS()n to the onlooker. " How can you let such a person take
your time which is so valuable?" one would sometimes ask. "0.
well, now that man has had a real experience," he would rejoin.
He brought to bear on all these problematic phases a singularly
Digitized by Coogle