MAINLY AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL 21

but the moose, the black bears—amusing little
fellows they were—and the ghosts of the former
inhabitants. My Canadian experiences will npt
be dwelt upon in this book, though they have
contributed not a little to forming the perspective
in which the rest of my impressions are placed.

The War intervening, eleven years elapsed
before I again found myself on American soil and
among American friends—in 1924. There was
a course of lectures to be delivered at Harvard,
another at Yale, after which I wandered through
the Eastern States and the Middle West lecturing
to public audiences on various subjects connected
with philosophy and religion. Accustomed as I
was to the benevolent incredulities of Oxford I
found an immense refreshment in the keenness of
my American audiences, often finding that sub-
jects, the announcement of which would have
ensured me an almost empty auditorium at home,
would draw a crowd of eager-faced, attentive
people in almost any American city, great or small.
Often, of course, people would come who were not
interested in what I had to say and after listening
to a few sentences and coming to the conclusion
that " it was all bunk " would promptly get up
and walk out; not very good manners, perhaps,
but preferable to those of the hearer who sits the
lecture through yawning in the lecturer's face or
chatting to his neighbour. It was certainly no
personal fame of my own that drew people to hear
me, for in many of the cities I visited I was till then