l." I paid the
printer's bill, and gave the rest away. I sent one to Dr. Munger; and
this is what he said of it:

"DEAR MR. IRVINE:

"Many thanks for the little book you sent me. I have read nearly
all the brief chapters, and this would not be the case if they
were dull. That they certainly are not. Nor would they have held
my interest if they did not in the main strike me as true. I can
say more, namely, that they seem to me admirably suited to the
people you have in charge, and good for anybody. They have at
least done me good, and often stirred me deeply. Their strong
point is the humanity that runs along their pages--along with a
sincere reverence. I hope they will have a wide circulation."

The tide was ebbing, but it was not yet out. The announcement that I
was a Socialist brought, of course, the members of the party around
me, but on Sunday nights, when they came, expecting a discourse on
economic determinism and found me searching for the hidden springs of
the heart, and the larger personal life, as well as the larger social
life, they went away disappointed and never came back.

As I looked around, however, at the churches and the university, I
could find nothing to equal the social passion of the socialists--it
was a religion with them. True, they were limited in their expression
of that passion, but they were live coals, all of them, and I was more
at home in their meetings than in the churches.

CHAPTER XVIII

I BECOME A SOCIALIST

I soon joined the party and gave myself body, soul and spirit to the
Socialists' propaganda. The quest for a living took me to a little
farm on the outskirts of the city. There were eighteen acres--sixteen
of them stones.

Gradually I began to feel that my rejection was not a mere matter of
being let alone, of ignoring me; it was a positive attitude. There was
a design to drive me out of the city. On the farm I was without the
gates in person but my influence was within, among the workers. We
spent every penny we had on the farm. I hired a neighbouring farmer to
plow my ground and plant my seed, for I had neither horse nor
machinery. I told him I had a little cottage in the woods in
Massachusetts that I was offering for sale and I would pay him out of
the proceeds. At first he believed me and did the work.

It took me two months to get that cottage sold and get the money for
it. The farmer's son camped on my doorstep daily. Every day I met h