ABSTRACT
Presbyterian minister, in keeping with Scottish tradition. Various other ancestors had also followed a ministerial life, for example, a second cousin, Ami Ruhami Robbins. It might have been natural and easy for me to choose for myself such a career, but I did not do this. One cause may be that my father fell ill before I ventured on a choice. I might have discussed such a choice with my grandfather McLane, but the gap of two generations would have made this harder. For instance, I once asked him about the purpose of life; he responded that we lived for the glory of God, but I did not really understand what this meant. I also recall that I had various theological doubts and questions. When I officially joined my grandfather’s Congregational Church in Leominster, I had to answer a long list of questions; I recall that I did answer suitably but, on each question, kept in mind a rationalized qualification. Moreover, by that time I was fascinated with high-school chemistry and I had more or less decided that I would like to become a chemist. This, I thought, would be interesting work that would probably pay me an adequate salary-I distinctly felt that my father’s salary had been not quite adequate. As I mentioned earlier, I calculated that if I saved enough income, I would reach retirement with a capital of about $100,000, and that the interest at 4 percent would be sufficient for my old age. Of course, this figure turned out to be wildly wrong, but at the
time I had little understanding of the working of the economy (I had not yet heard of socialism, and I did not anticipate inflation).
