A debt I owe

SOME years ago, in a happier day for France, it was my privilege to be associated over a brief period with Professor Paul Janet, distinguished director of L'Ecole Supérieure d'Electricité in Paris. In his office, stretching well across one wall, was a row of portrait photographs, only one or two of which could I identify. To my question as to who they were, Janet replied: “Les hommes qui ont influencé ma vie” (Men who have influenced my life). It seemed to me a very graceful way of paying constant tribute to men he had admired, revered, and who had had an influence on his life.