First, association. Our intimacies, our associations, perhaps more powerfully than any other influence, determine, in the long run, what we are. Of course, there is a sense in which our associations disclose what we now are. There is a vast deal of truth in the proverb: “Birds of a feather flock together.” A second formative influence, which we all recognize and will admit, is knowledge. What we know forms us; it is impossible for us to be affected as to our character by that of which we remain in