PUBLIC SPEAKING 



401 



upon him the Harvard degree of LL. D., with his usual felicitous 

 characterization addressing him as "naturalist and humanist." 



At all times Mr. Shaler was flooded with invitations, especially 

 during these later years, to speak at colleges, schools, institutes, 

 societies, and clubs ; but, though the list of his addresses is long, 

 aside from subjects relating to his profession, touching world 

 interests as divergent as those which appealed to the Congress 

 of Religions and the Military Historical Society of Massachu- 

 setts, only a comparatively small number of these invitations 

 did he ever accept. Speaking in strange places and before 

 miscellaneous audiences was never agreeable to him. On the 

 occasions when he attended the Harvard Club dinners in dif- 

 ferent cities he always said afterwards that he had had a "good 

 time" with the boys. 



Twenty-one years after he gave his first course of lectures 

 before the Lowell Institute, Mr. Shaler delivered his last 

 (1902-03), on the subject of " Dynamic Geology." All of these 

 elements of work and play must in a general way enter into the 

 picture we would give of the busy years included within the 

 dates of this chapter. 



