When the disciples asked Jesus who was greatest in the kingdom of heaven, he set a little child in the midst of them.... By the "poor in spirit," therefore, I understand our Lord to mean those who retain the spirit of little children, for little children are they of whom he said, "of such is the kingdom," in which they who are most childlike are greatest. Childlike men are the antipodes of the crawling creatures we call "poor spirited;" the men of expediencies and policies, who are sharp-eyed along the low horizons of earth.

p. 41 - Master and Men (1894)