...
"For such men are needed here ... to rouse us out of the petty, dogmatic
ways of our crude pioneers...."
"Van Maarden is a remarkable man," continued Dineen; "he writes plays,
poems, books of economic philosophy, novels ... recently he tried to
start a co-operative colony for Dutch farmers in South Carolina, but it
went on the rocks ... and now Van Maarden, for all his genius, is
practically stranded here in America.
"It is, or ought to be, one of the duties of an educational centre like
Laurel, to aid such men ... men who travel about, disseminating ideas,
carrying the torch of inspiration ... like Giordano Bruno, in former
days."
Van Maarden came ... a little, dapper, black-bearded man ... but a very
boy in his enthusiasm. He advanced many doctrines at variance with even
the political radicalism of Kansas.
But whether it was his winning way or his foreign reputation, he was
accepted gravely, and ideas won consideration, enunciated by him, that
would have been looked on as mad, coming from me....
Again the faculty were nonplussed ... puzzled....
Dineen, Van Maarden and I were together much. And the latter found more
delight in the time when he could discuss freely and unacademically with
me than when he was invited to formal teas and dinners by the weightier
members of the faculty and community.
It was psychic research that we particularly discussed.
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