As for his lectures in neighboring towns, we have been able to gather a few reports from the contemporary newspapers. In his letter of October 2, Swamiji wrote that he was to visit Evanston, a town just north of Chicago, where Professor Wright's friend Dr. Bradley lived. The Evanston lecture engagement was made almost immediately after the Parliament in conjunction with Dr. Carl von Bergen, a fellow delegate from Sweden.

The first intimation of the character of the Swami's work following the Parliament of Religions was an invitation from the Slayton Lyceum Lecture Bureau to make a tour of America. He accepted it as the best way to enable him broadcast the ideas with which his mind teemed and to disillusion the Western people of their erroneous notions about India and its religion. It was also a way to get funds for the various educational, philanthropic and religious works in India that he had in mind.

Dr. von Bergen, to judge from a photograph published in Neely's History of the Parliament of Religions, was a rather formidable, beetle-browed man, baldheaded and bewhiskered. According to the records, he spoke only once at the Parliament, giving on the opening day a short talk in which he made it clear that the broad and tolerant outlook of the Christian church in Sweden long antedated that of the Parliament of Religions. The conception that all religions have a measure of good in them was not new to him. We have reason to believe that von Bergen was one of those delegates who later developed a friendship with Swamiji, for we find that he attended a small and intimate luncheon in his company many months after the Parliament. (See chapter four.)

We now see him travelling here and there in America, visiting numerous cities and towns, telling of the glories of Indian culture. He lectured in most of the larger cities of the eastern, mid-western, and southern states, including Chicago, Iowa City, Des Moines, Memphis, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Madison, Detroit, Hartford, Buffalo, Boston, Cambridge, Baltimore, Washington, Brooklyn and New York. Unfortunately, our knowledge of the Swami's tour is not yet complete, but as time goes on, more and more information comes to light. In the contemporary daily newspapers, for instance, or in the reminiscences of those who met him and heard him lecture, one finds records of his illuminating utterances or glowing descriptions of his personality.

"His stay in Chicago has been a continual ovation", the Evanston Index reported on October 7; and as we have seen, nearly three weeks later he himself wrote to his friend Professor Wright, "I am very popular in Chicago." Although surprisingly little is known at present of his lecture engagements in and near the city during these seven or eight weeks, we do know that at the end of September he gave a course of three lectures in nearby Evanston in conjunction with one of the liberal delegates of the Parliament of Religions, a Dr. Carl van Bergen of Sweden. The Swami spoke on "Hindu Altruism" (September 30), "Monism" (October 3), and "Reincarnation" (October 5). On October 7 he lectured in Streator, Illinois, taking as his subject "The Customs of India"; and on October 27 he spoke on "The History of Buddhism" at the Fortnightly of Chicago, one of the most influential women's clubs of the Midwest.

ALTRUISM OF CHRISTIANITY_x000d_ ___________x000d_ It Will Be Contrasted with Hindoo Ethics_x000d_ in Lectures at Evanston_x000d_ Suami Vivekananda, a representative from India to the recent World's Parliament of Religions, and Dr. Carl Von Bergen, a representative from Scandinavia, will give three lectures in Evanston beginning to-morrow evening. The other lectures will be given on Tuesday and Thursday evenings of next week in the Congregational Church. The subjects for Saturday evenings are "Altruism in Christianity; illustrated by the life of Catherine of Siena, the herald of pure Christianity in the middle ages," by Dr. Von Bergen; "Hindu Altruism," by Suami Vivekananda. Tuesday evening, "Monism," Suami Vivekananda; "Lord Shaftesbury, the most earnest philanthropist of our age," Dr. Von Bergen. On this evening John W. Hutchinson will sing a number of the old time songs which have made him so famous. Thursday evening, "Huldine Beamish: the founder of the Edelweiss," Dr. Von Bergen. "Reincarnation," Suami Vivekananda.

Since both Evanston papers were weeklies, it was not until Swamiji and Dr. von Bergen had completed their lectures that the Press and the Index each ran a report on the series. The report in the Index of October 7, which is the more comprehensive, reads as follows (I have omitted those passages which relate only to Dr. Carl von Bergen) :

RELIGIOUS LECTURES_x000d_ At the Congregational Church, during the past week, there have been given a course of lectures which in nature much resembled the Religious Parliament which has just been completed. The lecturers were Dr. Carl von Bergen, of Sweden, and Suami Vivekananda, the Hindu monk. . . . _x000d_ Swami Vivekananda is a representative from India to the Parliament of Religions. He has attracted a great deal of attention on account of his unique attire in Mandarin colors, by his magnetic presence and by his brilliant oratory and wonderful exposition of Hindu philosophy. His stay in Chicago has been a continual ovation. The course of lectures was arranged to cover three evenings. [The lectures of Saturday and Tuesday evenings are listed without comment; then the article continues:]

On Thursday evening Oct. 5, Dr. von Bergen spoke on "Huldine Beamish, the Founder of the King's Daughters of Sweden," and "Reincarnation" was the subject treated by the Hindu monk. The latter was very interesting; the views being those that are not often heard in this part of the world. The doctrine of reincarnation of the soul, while comparatively new and little understood in this country, is well known in the east, being the foundation of nearly all the religions of those people. Those who do not use it as dogma, do not say anything against it.

The main point to be decided in regard to the doctrine is, as to whether we have had a past. We know that we have a present and feel sure of a future. Yet how can there be a present without a past? Modern science has proved that matter exists and continues to exist. Creation is merely a change in appearance. We are not sprung out of nothing. Some regard God as the common cause of everything and judge this a sufficient reason for existence. But in everything we must consider the phenomena; whence and from what matter springs. The same arguments that prove there is a future prove that there is a past. It is necessary that there should be causes other than God's will. Heredity is not able to give sufficient cause. Some say that we are not conscious of a former existence. Many cases have been found where there are distinct reminiscences of a past. And here lies the germ of the theory. Because the Hindu is kind to dumb animals many believe that we believe in the reincarnation of souls in lower orders. They are not able to conceive of kindness to dumb animals being other than the result of superstition. An ancient Hindu priest defines religion as anything that lifts one up. Brutality is driven out, humanity gives way to divinity. The theory of [re]incarnation does not confine man to this small earth. His soul can go to other, higher earths where he will be a loftier being, possessing, instead of five senses, eight, and continuing in this way he will at length approach the acme of perfection, divinity, and will be allowed to drink deep of oblivion in the "Islands of the Blest."

NEWS NOTES_x000d_ SUAMI VIVEKANANDA is the brilliant Hindu monk at the Parliament of religions. He has been the center of attraction on all occasions, not only by his "Baltimore Oriole" dress, but by his beaming countenance, his perfect unconsciousness [sic] and his marvelous eloquence in expounding Hindu philosophy. This brilliant orator has been engaged to give a course of three lectures in Evanston beginning Saturday, Sept.

The announcement in the Index was much the same as that above, and I will not burden the reader with it here, except to say that the Index referred to Swamiji himself not his dress-as "the Baltimore Oriole." Notices in both papers appeared also on September 30, giving the additional information that admission to one lecture was fifty cents, and to the course of three, one dollar.

Other evidence of Swamiji's lecturing outside of Chicago comes from the following letter, which he wrote on October 10 to Mrs. Kate Tannatt Woods, his hostess in Salem during the days before the Parliament:

Dear Mrs. Tannatt Woods:_x000d_ I received your letter yesterday. Just now I am lecturing about Chicago and am doing as I think very well-it is ranging from 30 to 80 dollars a lecture and just now I have been so well advertised in Chicago gratis by the Parliament of religions that it is not advisable to give up this field now. To which I am sure you will agree. However I may come soon to Boston but when I cannot say. Yesterday I returned from Streator where I got 87 dollars for a lecture. I have engagements every day this week. And hope more will come by the end of the week. _x000d_ My love to Mr. Woods and compliments to all our friends._x000d_ Yours truly,ll _x000d_ Vivekananda

Through these engagements in and outside Chicago some money came to the Swami. He wrote in a letter to Mrs. Tannatt Woods on October 10, from Chicago:

Just now I am lecturing about Chicago and am doing as I think very well; it is ranging from 30 to 80 dollars a lecture, and just now I have been so well advertised in Chicago gratis by the Parliament of Religions that it is not advisable to give up this field now. To which I am sure yon will agree. However I may come soon to Boston, but when I cannot say. Yesterday I returned from Streator where I got 87 dollars for a lecture. I have engagements every day this week. And hope more will come by the end of the week. . . .

Streator is a relatively small city, ninety miles southwest of Chicago. To judge from the announcement which appeared in the Streator Daily Free Press of October 5, the prices of admission to Swamiji's lecture, delivered in the Plumb Opera House, were twenty-five cents For the first floor and thirty-five cents for the balcony. Although in midwestern towns the words "opera house" were applied to any building, however small or shabby, where performances were held-the term being more cultural sounding and uplifting than the morally questionable "theatre"-the Plumb Opera House seems to have been a fairly sizable place. By a mathematical process, and allowing for the percentage taken by the manager of the house, one can arrive at the conclusion that Swamiji's audience consisted of approximately four hundred people.

VIVEKANANDA_x000d_ The lecture of this celebrated Hindoo at the Opera House, Saturday night, was very interesting. By comparative philology, he sought to establish the long admitted relationship between the Aryan races and their descendants in the new world.

He mildly defended the caste system of India which keeps three-fourths of the people in utter and humiliating subjection, and boasted that the India of today was the same India that had watched for centuries the meteoric nations of the world flash across the horizon and sink into oblivion.

In common with the people, he loves the past. He lives not for self, but for God. In his country a premium is placed on beggars and tramps, though not so distinguished in his lecture

When the meal is prepared, they wait for some man to come along who is first served, then the animals, the servants, the man of the house and lastly the woman of the household.

Boys are taken at 10 years of age and are kept by professors for a period of ten to twenty years, educated and sent forth to resume their former occupations or to engage in a life of endless wandering, preaching, and praying, taking along only that which is given them to eat and wear, but never touching money. Vivekananda is of the latter class.

Men approaching old age withdraw from the world, and after a period of study and prayer, when they feel them¬selves sanctified, they also go forward spreading the gospel.

He observed that leisure was necessary for intellectual development and scored Americans for not educating the Indians whom Columbus found in a state of savagery. In this he exhibited a lack of knowledge of conditions. His talk was lamentably short and much was left unsaid of seeming greater importance than much that was said.

It is said that Western women were sometimes so fascinated by the Swami's personality that some actually proposed marriage to him. One such, an heiress to a fortune, said, "Swami, I offer myself and all my riches at your feet!" His reply was "Madam, I am a sannyasin; what is marriage to me! To me all women are as my mother!" Verily, everywhere and in all situations of life, he was a sannyasi.

The reader may have formed some idea of Swamiji's state of mind during this period from his letters to Professor Wright. Additional new material indicates what a blessed state it was a state which, despite his incessant activity, was one of perfect peace. How fortunate were those who knew him at this time, for his inner serenity was such that it shone out as a blessing and a revelation.

In an excerpt from a newly discovered letter written to Swamiji by Mrs. Hale she recalls Swamiji as . . . The great and glorious soul that came to the Parliament of Religions, so full of love of God, that his face shone with Divine light, whose words were fire, whose very presence created an atmosphere of harmony and purity, thereby drawing all souls to himself.

One look at a photograph which has recently come to our hands is enough to show us something of what Mrs. Hale meant, for one cannot fail to be moved by the childlike tenderness of Swamiji's appearance, and by the wonderful peace and calm of his expression.

Inasmuch as this picture was copy righted in Washington by the photographer, it was evidently taken after Swamiji had become Famous, that is, after the first day of the Parliament. It has come to us along with a group of five other photographs, all of which, there is reason to believe, were taken in September of 1893, and all of which have been published. One of these is no doubt familiar to the reader; it is that in which Swamiji stands with arms folded across his chest and which was used as a colored poster during Parliament days.

All six pictures are autographed by Swamiji and inscribed with English translations from Sanskrit mottoes, some with the original Sanskrit written in Bengali characters.

The mottoes are as follows:_x000d_ 1. Ajaramaravat prajnah vidyam _x000d_ arthancha chintayet_x000d_ Grihitaiva kesheshu mrityuna _x000d_ dharmam acharet_x000d_ When in search of knowledge or prosperity think that you would never have death or disease, and when worshipping God think that death's hand is in your hair._x000d_ 2. Eka eva suhrid dharma _x000d_ nidhanepyanuyati yah_x000d_ Virtue is the only friend which follows us even beyond the grave._x000d_ Everything else ends with death._x000d_ 3. One infinite pure and hly-beyond _x000d_ thought beyond qualities I bow down _x000d_ to thee_x000d_ 4. Samata sarv bhuteshu etanmuktasya _x000d_ Lakshanam_x000d_ Equality in all beings is the sign of the free_x000d_ 5. Thou art the only treasure in this world _x000d_ 6. Thou art the father the lord the _x000d_ mother the husband and love

It was through the kindness of the late Swami Vishwananda, then in charge of the Vivekananda Vedanta Society in Chicago, that these photographs and other invaluable material regarding Swamiji came to our hands, and the story of how this material was discovered by the Swami is worth telling here, for it is an example of those coincidences that occur so frequently in matters concerning Swamiji. Swami Vishwananda told us that a young man, unconnected with Vedanta, had received from his grandmother a bundle of unpublished letters, photographs, and other material, all pertaining to Swami Vivekananda. Knowing that his grandmother had cherished them, the young man had kept them, and indeed might still possess them, or perhaps by this time have discarded them, had it not been that a friend of his was a student of Swami Vishwananda's. How this friend came to know of the bundle of old documents is not known, but one day she told Swami Vishwananda of its existence. The Swami forthwith visited the young man and found, with what joy we can imagine, a veritable feast of hitherto unknown material! The young man gladly gave him the bundle, which had originally belonged, the Swami learned, to the McKindley sisters, nieces of Mr. and Mrs. Hale. It is such unlooked-for and fortuitous discoveries which give us hope that eventually more hidden material regarding Swamiji will come to light, slowly pushing its way up through the years.

But to return to Swamiji as he was during the Chicago days following the Parliament. Perhaps the clearest indication of his exalted state is given in a letter that Swami Vishwananda received in 1939 from Sarat Chandra Chakravarti, a disciple of Swamiji's whose diary is published in the Complete Works. A translated portion of this letter reads as follows:_x000d_ _x000d_ . . . Swamiji once told me that one moonlight night when he was on the shore of Lake Michigan his mind began to merge in Brahman. Suddenly he saw Sri Rama¬krishna and he remembered the work for which he had come to this world, and then his mind came down and again turned toward the fulfillment of his mission. I re¬corded this in my diary, but I did not think it necessary to make it public; therefore I have not published it as yet. I am letting only you know. . .

The Swami was loved not only by the Lyons and Hales but by everyone he visited, His hosts always showed him every consideration, and, aside from the charm and inspiration of his personality, he was a perfect guest, making every effort to fit himself in with Western customs and manners. East and West, so different in all other things, are different also in their forms of etiquette, and it was touching to many who met him in America to see how he would often turn to his host or hostess, questioning with all the simplicity of a child as to the right social form. "How is it?" he would ask: "Does the gentleman or the lady precede in coming up or going down the stairs?" As a guest he was given complete personal liberty. It was understood that at any moment the mood of insight might come upon him, making him oblivious of what was happening about him. As with his Master, even the simplest phenomenon of life would remind him of revelations and spiritual truths.

In what a transcendent state Swamiji lived at the very time when the world was his for the asking! The doors of the rich, the socially prominent, the brilliant were all open to him, and everywhere he was in demand. But his difficulty, it would seem, was not to lift his mind above the world that pressed about him on all sides but, for the sake of his work, to hold it down. It was always so with him; yet during the first few months of his stay in America the difficulty was perhaps at its most obvious.

It was always so with him; yet during the first few months of his stay in America the difficulty was perhaps at its most obvious. One recalls in this connection the following passage from Sister Nivedita, as quoted in the Life:

The Swami never seemed, it must be remembered, to be doing tapasya, but his whole life was a concentration so intense that for any one else it would have been a most terrible tapasya. When he first went to America, it was extremely difficult for him to control the momentum that carried him into meditation. "When he sits down to meditate," had said one whose guest he was in India, "in two minutes he feels nothing, though his body be black with mosquitoes." With this habit thus deeply ingrained, he landed in America, that country of railways and tram ways, and complicated engagement lists, and at first it was no uncommon thing for him to be carried two or three times round a tramcircuit, only disturbed periodically by the conductor asking for the fare. He was very much ashamed of such occurrences, however, and worked hard to overcome them.

Yet ingrained though the Swami's habit of meditation was, he missed nothing of importance in his surroundings. Just as he made every effort to give the American people a true picture of India and Hinduism, so he lost no opportunity to study the methods of the industrial and economic systems of the West, so that he could apply them later on in definite and practical ways to relieve the wants of his own people. Thus while lecturing in and around the city, he was also gathering all kinds of information regarding the working of Western civilization. Chicago offered him a broad field of study, for in many respects it was a representative city of the West, as it continues to be even today.

. . . Vivekananda lingered in Chicago for several months after the great Parliament of Religions closed, studying many questions relating to schools and the material advancement of civilization in order to carry back to his own people as convincing arguments regarding America as he brought to this country concerning the morality and spirituality of his own people.

In Chicago the Swami visited museums, universities, schools and art galleries, trying to comprehend the spirit of Western life. Gazing. at some work of art, or studying some signal engineering or architectural achievement, his thought would leap in admiration of the greatness of the human mind. He became a keen student of the public and social life in America. Often he would gaze in wonder at the mad rush of energy on all sides and view with astonishment the massive, towering palaces of industry. And the contrast between the pomp and power of the Western world, with its complicated and highly sophisticated social and industrial life, and the poverty and crowded misery of the Indian cities, with here and there some naked sadhu covered with ashes, would be borne in on him. The greatness of his spirit enabled him to hold the balance between the two worlds, the East and the West. He saw each clearly and to its depths, and the result of his continued and penetrating observations was later embodied in his two studies, "The East and the West" and "Modern India", written in Bengali.

The Hale house (on Dearborn between Burton Place and Schiller) was a block and a half from Lincoln Park, and there Swamiji sometimes went to sit in the sun and open air. A touching and revealing incident took place during these outings. It seems that each day when Swamiji sat in the park, a young woman and a little girl six years old would pass by on their way to the market. One day the woman, no doubt convinced that the young Hindu was kind and trustworthy, asked him if she might leave her child in his charge while she went about her marketing. Swamiji assured her When the child had grown to fifteen or sixteen, her mother came upon a picture of Swamiji, of whose fame she had by that time learned, and allowing it to her daughter, asked, "Do you remember your friend?" She remembered; for who knowing Swamiji, even at the age of six, could forget? Later, after she had married and moved to Philadelphia, the memory of Swamiji again became vivid in her mind, drawing her to spiritual life. She became a student of Swami Akhilananda, who used to visit that city now and then to meet with a group of devotees. How many small happenings such as that of a mother leaving her child in his charge took place throughout Swamiji's visit to America, how many chance contacts he had with people whose lives were translated by his touch or glance, we can only guess.

The Hale family were perhaps the moat fortunate of all; for, as is known, not only was Swamiji their guest from time to time, but he made their home his headquarters during almost all of 1894, before the pivot of his activities moved east ward to the Atlantic Coast. It was on George W. Hale's letter paper and thus, presumably, during one of his stays at Dearborn Street, that he jotted down in pencil a series of notes on the subjects of reason, faith, and love which have recently come to light. The date of the manuscript cannot be accurately determined, but inasmuch as Swamiji wrote these notes in the sanctuary that the Hales offered him in Chicago, I think their reproduction here will not be out of place. I am giving them exactly as they appear in the original:

Reason-has its limits its base¬_x000d_ its degeneration. The walls round it¬ _x000d_ Agnosticism. Atheism. But must not stop_x000d_ The beyond is acting upon influencing us every _x000d_ moment-the sky the stars acting upon us-even _x000d_ those not seen. Therefore must go beyond-reason _x000d_ alone can't go-finite can not get at the infinite

Faith its degeneration when alone-bigotry _x000d_ fanaticism--sectarianism. Narrowing_x000d_ finite :. can not get to the infinite _x000d_ Sometimes gain in intensity but looses [sic] in _x000d_ extensity-and in bigots & fanatics become _x000d_ worship of his own pride & vanity

Is there no other way-there is Love _x000d_ it never degenerates-peaceful softening _x000d_ ever-widening-the universe is too small _x000d_ for its expansiveness.

We can not define it we can only trace _x000d_ it through its development and describe its _x000d_ surroundings_x000d_ It is at first-what the gravitation_x000d_ is to the external world-tendency to unification _x000d_ forms and conventionalities are its death._x000d_ Worship through forms-methods-services _x000d_ forms-up to then no love._x000d_ When love comes method dies. _x000d_ Human language and human Forms _x000d_ God as father, God as mother, God as_x000d_ the lover-Surata-vardhanam etc. Solomon's Song of Songs-Dependence and independence_x000d_ Love Love¬_x000d_ Love the chaste wife Anasuya Sita-_x000d_ ¬not as hard dry duty but as ever pleasing _x000d_ love-Sita worship-¬_x000d_ The madness of Love--God intoxicated man _x000d_ The allegory of Radha-misunderstood_x000d_ The restriction more increase-_x000d_ ¬Lust is the death of love_x000d_ Self is the death of love _x000d_ individual to general_x000d_ Concrete to abstract-to absolute _x000d_ The praying Mahomedan and the girl _x000d_ The Sympathy-Kavir_x000d_ _x000d_ The Christian nun from whose hands blood came _x000d_ The Mahomedan Saint_x000d_ Every particle seeking its own complement _x000d_ When it finds that it is at rest_x000d_ Every man seeking-happiness-& stability _x000d_ The search is real but the objects are themselves _x000d_ but happiness is coming to them momentary at least through the search of these objects._x000d_ The only object unchangeable and the only _x000d_ complement of character and aspirations of the _x000d_ human Soul is God_x000d_ Love is struggle of a human Soul to find its _x000d_ complement, its stable equilibrium its infinite rest.

During his first year in America, the Swami met and became friends not only with philosophers and scientists, but with artists as well. Madame Emma Calve, the celebrated opera singer, who later became his ardent devotee, wrote in her autobiography (My Life, New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1922) of her first meeting1 with Swami Vivekananda and of the profound effect his teaching had had upon her life:_x000d_ An undated entry in one of the recently discovered travel diaries of Mme Calve (vide Prabuddha Bharata, 1977, p. 191 ) has made it rather doubtful when this first meeting took place. From the description of the Swami given by her in the autobiography it should have taken place sometime in late March of 1894; bot from what she has written in her diary and from other evidences, it appears to have taken place on November 28, 1899. The Swami his written in his letter from Chicago on November 30, 1889 to Mrs. Bull, 'Madame Calve came to see me day before yesterday. She is a great woman" As the description of the Swami in her narrative corresponds more to the earlier period, it has been given here.

It has been my good fortune and my joy to know a man who truly "walked with God", a noble being, a saint, a philosopher and a true friend. His influence upon my spiritual life was profound. He opened up new horizons before me, enlarging and unifying my religious idea and ideals; teaching me a broader understanding of truth. My soul will bear him eternal gratitude. . . . He was lecturing in Chicago one year when I was there; and as I was at that time greatly depressed in mind and body, I decided to go to him, having seen how he had helped some of my friends. An appointment was arranged for me and when I arrived at his house, I was immediately ushered into his study. Before going I had been told not to speak until he addressed me.

When I entered the room, I stood before him in silence for a moment. He was seated in a noble attitude of meditation, his robe of saffron yellow falling in straight lines to the floor, his head swathed in a turban bent forward, his eyes on the ground. After a pause he spoke without looking up._x000d_ "My child," he said, "what a troubled atmosphere you have about you! Be calm! It is essential."_x000d_ Then in a quiet voice, untroubled and aloof, this man who did not even know my name talked to me of my secret problems and anxieties. He spoke of things that I thought were unknown even to my nearest friends. It seemed miraculous, supernatural._x000d_ "How do you know all this?" I asked at last. "Who has talked of me to you?"_x000d_ He looked at me with his quiet smile as though I were a child who had asked a foolish question._x000d_ "No one has talked to me," he answered gently. "Do you think it is necessary? I read in you as in an open book."_x000d_ Finally it was time for me to leave._x000d_ "You must forget," he said as I rose. "Become gay and happy again. Build up your health. Do not dwell in silence upon your sorrows. Transmute your emotion into some form of external expression. Your spiritual health requires it. Your art demands it."

I left him, deeply impressed by his words and his personality. He seemed to have emptied my brain of all its feverish complexities and placed there instead his clear and calming thoughts. I became once again vivacious and cheerful, thanks to the effect of his powerful will. He did not use any of the hypnotic or mesmeric influences. It was the strength of his character, the purity and intensity of his purpose that carried conviction. It seemed to me, when I came to know him better, that he lulled one's chaotic thoughts into a state of peaceful acqui¬escence, so that one could give complete and undivided attention to his words.

He often spoke in parables, answering our questions or making his points clear by means of a poetic analogy. One day we were discussing immortality and the survival of individual characteristics. He was expounding his belief in reincarnation which was a fundamental part of his teaching.

"I cannot bear the idea," I exclaimed. "I cling to my individuality, unimportant as it may be: I don't want to be absorbed into an eternal unity. The mere thought is terrible to me."_x000d_ "One day a drop of water fell into the vast ocean," the Swami answered. "When it found itself there, it began to weep and complain just as you are doing. The great ocean laughed at the drop of water. 'Why do you weep?' it asked. `I do not understand. When you join me, you join all your brothers and sisters, the other drops of water of which I am made. You become the ocean itself If you wish to leave me, you have only to rise up on a sunbeam into the clouds. From there you can descend again, little drop of water, a blessing and a benediction to the thirsty earth."'

In addition to writing of Swami Vivekananda in her autobiography, Mme Calve often spoke to her friends of him, revealing in later years her memory of episodes long passed. One of these was a story of an encounter between the Swami and John D. Rockefeller, the fabulously wealthy American financier. Emma Calve related the incident, which may have taken place in the early part of 1894, to her close friend, Mme Paul Verdier, herself an ardent devotee. The latter's notes, taken down during a conversation with Mme Calve, read as follows:

Mr. X, in whose home Swamiji was staying in Chicago, was a partner or an associate in some business with John D. Rockefeller. Many times John D. heard his friends talking about this extraordinary and wonderful Hindu monk who was staying with them, and many times he had been invited to meet Swamiji, but, for one reason or another, always refused. At that time Rockefeller was not yet at the peak of his fortune, but was already powerful and strong willed, very difficult to handle and a hard man to advise.

But one day, although he did not want to meet Swamiji, he was pushed to it by an impulse and went directly to the house of his friend, brushing aside the butler who opened the door and saying that he wanted to see the Hindu monk.

The butler ushered him into the living room, and, not waiting to be announced, Rockefeller entered into Swami's adjoining study and was much surprised, I presume, to see Swamiji behind his writing table not even lifting his eyes to see who had entered.

After a while, as with Calve, Swamiji told Rockefeller much of his past that was not known to any but himself, and made him understand that the money he had already accumulated was not his, that he was only a channel and that his duty was to do good to the world-that God had given him all his wealth in order that he might have an opportunity to help and do good to people.

Rockefeller was annoyed that anyone dared to talk to him that way and tell him what to do. He left the room in irritation, not even saying goodbye. But about a week after, again without being announced, he entered Swamiji's study and, finding him the same as before, threw on his desk a paper which told of his plans to donate an enormous sum of money toward the financing of a public institution.

"Well, there you are," he said. "You must be satisfied now, and you can thank me for it."

Swamiji didn't even lift his eyes, did not move. Then taking the paper, he quietly read it, saying: "It is for you to thank me." That was all. This was Rockefeller's first large donation to the public welfare.