And of course this was a quixotic idea on his part: you have a nomadic people and you're going to enclose them within four walls. |
He would be a typical 19th-century polymath, if you like: a musician, a linguist, a highly cultured man and very versatile, a politician, a merchant. He had to somehow build this monastic town, this mission, from nothing. |
He's able to negotiate - and in that sense he's modern. |