n6 MY LIFE 



others less known. The dinner was luxurious in the extreme, 

 the table covered over with delicate ferns, and roses with 

 bouquets of violets and daffodils before each guest. I sat next 



to Lowell, and was rather awed, a^ I did not know much of 

 liis writings, and I think lie had never heard of me. The 

 condition of things was not improved by his quoting some 



Latin author to illustrate some remark addressed to me, evi- 

 dently to, see if T was a scholar. I was so taken aback that 

 instead of saying I had forgotten the little Latin I ever knew, 

 and that my special interests were in nature, I merely replied 

 vaguely to his observation. However, the conversation soon 

 became more general, and such subjects as politics, travel, 

 Sir James Brooke, and even spiritualism, afforded some pleas- 

 ant interchange of ideas. Fortunately there were no speeches, 

 but I was not so much impressed by the Boston celebrities as 

 I ought to have been. 



A good deal of time during my last three weeks in Boston 

 was spent in the society cither of the professed men of science 

 or the spiritualists, with both of whom I felt myself at ease; 

 while for general intelligence the latter were quite equal to the 

 former. I also attended some very remarkable seances, an 

 account of which will be given in a future chapter. I had 

 one good example of the sudden changes of temperature to 

 which Boston is liable. On December 24 it was a very mild 

 day, so much so that walking was quite oppressive, and in 

 the evening I sat in my room with the window open to keep 

 cool. At night it rained tremendously till 2 or 3 A.M., but 

 Christmas Day was a hard frost, and the next day the greatest 

 cold I felt in America. I was told that during the winter and 

 spring the thermometer often falls 6o° in two hours, and a 

 Bostonian never goes out for a few hours, however mild it 

 may be, without being provided with warm clothing against 

 sudden changes, which often produce serious effects. 



I reached Washington on December 31, and after spending 

 four days with Professor Riley, the State entomologist, I 

 took a room at the Hamilton Hotel, where (with the exception 

 of ten days in Canada) I lived till April 7. I found Washing- 

 ton a very pleasant residence on account of the large number 



