CHAPTER XVI 



PHYSICS AND PHILOSOPHY 



Those wonderful Western experiences put 

 new life into me. I came back to poverty and 

 poverty can never be pleasant, but I had cour- 

 age to face it. I marshalled my assets and 

 swapped them off for my obligations, leaving 

 only my cherished library and furniture enough 

 for a home in the country. I hoped to realize 

 something from lightly encumbered properties, 

 but the panic of 1873 left no such equities. 

 Houses that cost tens of thousands to build were 

 offered at one-tenth of that cost. My prospec- 

 tive income was represented by zero, but I knew 

 a town in Massachusetts where I could almost 

 live upon that and thither I moved my family. 

 I don't like to dwell upon the fact that I re- 

 mained behind for some days from literal lack 

 of money for traveling expenses. 



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