XXX] BOSTON TO WASHINGTON iii 



value. I also dined with Professor Asa Gray to meet most of 

 the biological professors of Harvard University. After dinner 

 he asked me to give them some account of how I was led 

 to the theory of natural selection, and this was followed by 

 some interesting conversation. 



One evening I was invited to a meeting of the New 

 England Women's Club, where the Rev. J. G. Brooks gave 

 an address on "What Socialists want." I could hardly 

 make out whether he was a socialist or not, but I thought 

 his views to be very vague and unpractical. I was not at 

 that time a thorough socialist, but considered that a true 

 "social economy" founded on land nationalization and 

 equality of opportunity was what was immediately required. 

 When called upon, I spoke in this sense for about half an 

 hour. I afterwards wrote it out, treating it more systemati- 

 cally, and read it to a private meeting of my friends at 

 Washington. Its substance is embodied in the chapter on 

 Economic and Social Justice" in my "Studies." 



After my earlier Lowell lectures were over, I was free to 

 give them elsewhere, and had a few very interesting engage- 

 ments. On November 19 I went to Williamstown, in the 

 extreme north-west corner of Massachusetts, to lecture at 

 Williams College on " Colours of Animals." The lecture was 

 appreciated, but, unfortunately, the lantern was so poor as not 

 to show the coloured slides to advantage. Williamstown is 

 in a fine mountainous country, and the next day one of the 

 professors drove me in a buggy over very rough roads, and 

 sometimes over snow, to a pretty waterfall, where I collected 

 a few of the characteristic American ferns, which I sent home, 

 and which lived for many years in my garden. I here first 

 noticed the very striking effect of the white-barked birches 

 and yellow-barked willows in the winter landscape. The fine 

 Cypripedium spectabile, I was told, grew abundantly in the 

 bogs of this district. I was hospitably entertained by Presi- 

 dent Carter, who invited me to visit him in the summer, when 

 there are abundance of pretty flowers — an invitation, I much 

 regret, I was unable to profit by. 



Between my two last lectures in Boston I had to give one 



