She was, indeed, The Friend. This was her vocation. She bore at her
girdle a golden key to unlock all caskets of confidence. Into
whatever home she entered she brought a benediction of truth, justice,
tolerance, and honor; and to every one who sought her to confess, or
seek counsel, she spoke the needed word of stern yet benignant wisdom.
To how many was the forming of her acquaintance an era of renovation,
of awakening from sloth, indulgence or despair, to heroic mastery of
fate, of inward serenity and strength, of new-birth to real self-hood,
of catholic sympathies, of energy consecrated to the Supreme Good.
Thus writes to her one who stands among the foremost in his own
department: "What I am I owe, in large measure, to the stimulus you
imparted. You roused my heart with high hopes; you raised my aims from
paltry and vain pursuits to those which tasked and fed the soul;
you inspired me with a great ambition, and made me see the worth
and meaning of life; you awakened in me confidence in my own powers,
showed me my special and distinct ability, and quickened my individual
consciousness by intelligent sympathy with tendencies and feelings
which I but half understood; you gave me to myself.
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