As the date of your birthday approaches please allow me to send my heart-felt good wishes, and my congratulations on the quality of the years you have left behind you. And may I take this occasion to tell you that your friendly interest has been and is one of the most cherished rewards of my professional life? We live live in a strange world, at a strange time. Public opinion 2just now means less than ever before, because it is re-actionary, without roots or background. It represents the spasm of a multitude of minds, not their lucid natural judgement. We We could almost say with "Macbeth⁴" that "nothing is but what is not." We behave as though we could create a new scale of values by the mere act of besmirching the old. In such a time, the only satisfaction any reflective person can value have is in the sympathetic consideration of a few individuals in the world; those whom one respects and admires. Your friendly interest in my books has grown the more precious to me as the times have grown stranger. Of the half-dozen so called "public men" from whom I used to hear by letter occasionally, you are the only one who is not now living in exile⁵. They were not sentenced by any court, I believe; they simply are not allowed to live at home. Switzerland⁶ and America⁷ are rich in scholars just now, because they have nowhere else to go.