Thus it was inevitable that I should focus my attention on my humanitarian project.  During the last week of December I sought ammunition by making a visit to two of the institutions where I had once been a patient.  I went there to discuss certain phases of the subject of reform with the doctors in authority.  I was politely received and listened to with a degree of deference which was, indeed, gratifying.  Though I realized that I was rather intense on the subject of reform, I did not have that clear insight into my state of mind which the doctors had.  Indeed, I believe that only those expert in the detection of symptoms of a slightly disturbed mental condition could possibly have observed anything abnormal about me at that time.  Only when I discussed my fond project of reform did I betray an abnormal stress of feeling.  I could talk as convincingly about business as I had at any time in my life; for even at the height of this wave of enthusiasm I dealt at length with a certain banker who finally placed with my employers a large contract.

After conferring with the doctors, or rather—­as it proved—­exhibiting myself to them, I returned to New Haven and discussed my project with the President of Yale University.  He listened patiently—­he could scarcely do otherwise—­and did me the great favor of interposing his judgment at a time when I might have made a false move.  I told him that I intended to visit Washington at once, to enlist the aid of President Roosevelt; also that of Mr. Hay, Secretary of State.  Mr. Hadley tactfully advised me not to approach them until I had more thoroughly crystallized my ideas.  His wise suggestion I had the wisdom to adopt.

The next day I went to New York, and on January 1st, 1905, I began to write.  Within two days I had written about fifteen thousand words—­for the most part on the subject of reforms and how to effect them.  One of the documents prepared at that time contained grandiloquent passages that were a portent of coming events—­though I was ignorant of the fact.  In writing about my project I said, “Whether I am a tool of God or a toy of the devil, time alone will tell; but there will be no misunderstanding Time’s answer if I succeed in doing one-tenth of the good things I hope to accomplish....  Anything which is feasible in this philanthropic age can easily be put into practice....  A listener gets the impression that I hope to do a hundred years’ work in a day.  They are wrong there, for I’m not so in love with work—­as such.  I would like though to interest so many people in the accomplishment of my purpose that one hundred years’ work might be done in a fraction of that time.  Hearty co-operation brings quick results, and once you start a wave of enthusiasm in a sea of humanity, and have for the base of that wave a humanitarian project of great breadth, it will travel with irresistible and ever-increasing impulse to the ends of the earth—­which is far enough.  According to Dr. ——­, many of my ideas regarding the solution of the problem under consideration are years and years in advance of the times.  I agree with him, but that is no reason why we should not put ‘the times’ on board the express train of progress and give civilization a boost to a higher level, until it finally lands on a plateau where performance and perfection will be synonymous terms.”