He' s really been a wonderful teacher to me although we have never met.

It has, however, made an impression. Some even see its influence in the ideal adopted by China' s Communist Party leader, Hu Jintao, whom Mr Zhao has never met, of a "harmonious society".

You and I have almost certainly never met, but what happens to you matters to me - your health, your happiness and your wealth - and vice versa.

In the last of these, a naïve young man from the country comes to the city - a common route in urbanizing 19th-century America - to seek help from his powerful relative, whom he has never met.

I never had the pleasure of meeting him.