Page:Life of Isaiah V Williamson.djvu/76

58 But much more than this, other influences were silently and strongly working upon his mind and heart, by which he was unconsciously being led to a new view of his life and to enter upon a new career.

The world grew larger and finer to him as he wandered through the British Museum and the National Gallery of London. The great universities were to him the living representatives of the wise and good whose benefactions had made possible these great seats of learning. He was deeply stirred by the touch he had with the forces working for the world's uplift in science, art and general education.

While he walked among the treasures of the old past, he saw signs of a new life as he watched the artists at their work and the teachers in their college classrooms. He wandered about the streets and shops, drinking in the vitality of an advancing civilization. The effect upon him was depressing. He had cut the connection with the living forces and activities of his time. He had cast himself upon an island in the midst of a great sea and chosen to be a Robinson Crusoe. He could