Something of Agassiz's astonishment and pleasure at the

encouragement given to his projected work is told in his letters.

To his old friend Professor Valenciennes, in Paris, he writes: "I

have just had an evidence of what one may do here in the interest

of science. Some six months ago I formed a plan for the publication

of my researches in America, and determined to carry it out with

all possible care and beauty of finish. I estimated my materials at

ten volumes, quarto, and having fixed the price at 60 francs (12

dollars) a volume, thought I might, perhaps, dispose of five

hundred. I brought out my prospectus, and I have to-day seventeen

hundred subscribers. What do you say to that for a work which is to

cost six hundred francs a copy, and of which nothing has as yet

appeared? Nor is the list closed yet, for every day I receive new

subscriptions,--this very morning one from California! Where will

not the love of science find its niche!". . .

In the same strain he says, at a little later date, to Sir Charles

Lyell: "You will, no doubt, be pleased to learn that the first

volume of my new work, 'Contributions to the Natural History of the

United States,' which is to consist of ten volumes, quarto, is now

printing, to come out this summer. I hope it will show that I have

not been idle during ten years' silence. I am somewhat anxious

about the reception of my first chapter, headed, 'Classification,'

which contains anything but what zoologists would generally expect

under that head. The subscription is marvelous. Conceive twenty-one

hundred names before the appearance of the first pages of a work

costing one hundred and twenty dollars! It places in my hands the

means of doing henceforth for Natural History what I had never

dreamed of before.". . .

This work, as originally planned, was never completed. It was cut

short by ill-health and by the pressure of engagements arising from

the rapid development of the great Museum, which finally became, as

will be seen, the absorbing interest of his life. As it stands, the

"Contributions to the Natural History of the United States"

consists of four large quarto volumes. The first two are divided

into three parts, namely: 1st. An Essay on Classification. 2nd. The

North American Testudinata. 3rd. The Embryology of the Turtle,--the

latter two being illustrated by thirty-four plates. The third and

fourth volumes are devoted to the Radiata, and consist of five

parts, namely: 1st. Acalephs in general. 2nd. Ctenophorae. 3rd.

Discophorae. 4th. Hydroida. 5th. Homologies of the Radiates,

--illustrated by forty-six plates.* (* The plates are of rare

accuracy and beauty, and were chiefly drawn by A. Sonrel, though

many of the microscopic drawings were made by Professor H.J. Clark,

who was at that time Agassiz's private assistant. For details

respecting Professor Clark's share in this work, and also

concerning the aid of various kinds furnished to the author during

its preparation, the reader is referred to the Preface of the

volumes themselves.)

For originality of material, clearness of presentation, and beauty

of illustration, these volumes have had their full recognition as

models of scientific work. Their philosophy was, perhaps, too much

out of harmony with the current theories of the day to be

acceptable. In the "Essay on Classification" especially, Agassiz

brought out with renewed earnestness his conviction that the animal

world rests upon certain abstract conceptions, persistent and

indestructible. He insists that while physical influences maintain,

and within certain limits modify, organisms, they have never

affected typical structure,--those characters, namely, upon which

the great groups of the animal kingdom are united. From his point

of view, therefore, what environment can do serves to emphasize

what it cannot do. For the argument on which these conclusions are

based we refer to the book itself. The discussion of this question

occupies, however, only the first portion of the volume, two thirds

of which are devoted to a general consideration of classification,

and the ideas which it embodies, with a review of the modern

systems of zoology.

The following letter was one of many in the same tone received from

his European correspondents concerning this work.

FROM RICHARD OWEN.

December 9, 1857.

. . .I cannot permit a day to elapse without thanking you for the

two volumes of your great work on American zoology, which, from

your masterly and exhaustive style of treatment, becomes the most

important contribution to the right progress of zoological science

in all parts of the world where progress permits its cultivation.

It is worthy of the author of the classical work on fossil fishes;

and such works, like the Cyclopean structures of antiquity, are

built to endure. I feel and I beg to express a fervent hope that

you may be spared in health and vigor to see the completion of your

great plan.

I have placed in Mr. Trubner's hands a set of the numbers (6) of my

"History of British Fossil Reptiles," which have already appeared;

a seventh will soon be out, and as they will be sent to you in

succession I hope you will permit me to make a small and inadequate

return for your liberality in the gift of your work by adding your

name to the list of my subscribers. . .

Believe me always truly yours,

RICHARD OWEN.

Agassiz had promised himself that the first volume of his new work

should be finished in time for his fiftieth birthday,--a milestone

along the road, as it were, to mark his half century. Upon this

self-appointed task he spent himself with the passion dominated by

patience, which characterized him when his whole heart was bent

toward an end. For weeks he wrote many hours of the day and a great

part of the night, going out sometimes into the darkness and the

open air to cool the fever of work, and then returning to his desk

again. He felt himself that the excitement was too great, and in

proportion to the strain was the relief when he set the seal of

finis on his last page within the appointed time.

His special students, young men who fully shared his scientific

life and rewarded his generosity by an affectionate devotion,

knowing, perhaps, that he himself associated the completion of his

book with his birthday, celebrated both events by a serenade on the

eve of his anniversary. They took into their confidence Mr. Otto

Dresel, warmly valued by Agassiz both as friend and musician, and

he arranged their midnight programme for them. Always sure of

finding their professor awake and at work at that hour, they

stationed the musicians before the house, and as the last stroke of

twelve sounded, the succeeding stillness was broken by men's voices

singing a Bach choral. When Agassiz stepped out to see whence came

this pleasant salutation, he was met by his young friends bringing

flowers and congratulations. Then followed one number after another

of the well-ordered selection, into which was admitted here and

there a German student song in memory of Agassiz's own university

life at Heidelberg and Munich. It was late, or rather early, since

the new day was already begun, before the little concert was over

and the guests had dispersed. It is difficult to reproduce with

anything like its original glow and coloring a scene of this kind.

It will no more be called back than the hour or the moonlight night

which had the warmth and softness of June. It is recorded here only

because it illustrates the intimate personal sympathy between

Agassiz and his students.

For this occasion also were written the well-known birthday verses

by Longfellow, which were read the next day at a dinner given to

Agassiz by the "Saturday Club." In speaking of Longfellow's

relation to this club, Holmes says "On one occasion he read a short

poem at the table. It was in honor of Agassiz's birthday, and I

cannot forget the very modest, delicate musical way in which he

read his charming verses." Although included in many collections of

Longfellow's Poems, they are reproduced here, because the story

seems incomplete without them.

THE FIFTIETH BIRTHDAY OF AGASSIZ.

It was fifty years ago,

In the pleasant month of May,

In the beautiful Pays de Vaud,

A child in its cradle lay.

And Nature, the old nurse, took

The child upon her knee,

Saying: "Here is a story-book

Thy Father has written for thee."

"Come wander with me," she said,

"Into regions yet untrod;

And read what is still unread

In the manuscripts of God."

And he wandered away and away

With Nature, the dear old nurse,

Who sang to him night and day

The rhymes of the universe.

And whenever the way seemed long,

Or his heart began to fail,

She would sing a more wonderful song,

Or tell a more marvelous tale.

So she keeps him still a child,

And will not let him go,

Though at times his heart beats wild

For the beautiful Pays de Vaud;

Though at times he hears in his dreams

The Ranz des Vaches of old,

And the rush of mountain streams

From glaciers clear and cold;

And the mother at home says, "Hark!

For his voice I listen and yearn;

It is growing late and dark,

And my boy does not return!"

May 28, 1857.

Longfellow had an exquisite touch for occasions of this kind,

whether serious or mirthful. Once, when some years after this

Agassiz was keeping Christmas Eve with his children and

grandchildren, there arrived a basket of wine containing six old

bottles of rare vintage. They introduced themselves in a charming

French "Noel" as pilgrims from beyond the sea who came to give

Christmas greeting to the master of the house. Gay pilgrims were

these six "gaillards," and they were accompanied by the following

note:--

"A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all the house of Agassiz!

"I send also six good wishes in the shape of bottles. Or is it

wine?

"It is both; good wine and good wishes, and kind memories of you on

this Christmas Eve."

H.W.L.

An additional word about the "Saturday Club," the fame of which has

spread beyond the city of its origin, may not be amiss here.

Notwithstanding his close habits of work Agassiz was eminently

social, and to this club he was especially attached. Dr. Holmes

says of it in his volume on Emerson, who was one of its most

constant members: "At one end of the table sat Longfellow, florid,

quiet, benignant, soft-voiced, a most agreeable rather than a

brilliant talker, but a man upon whom it was always pleasant to

look,--whose silence was better than many another man's

conversation. At the other end sat Agassiz, robust, sanguine,

animated, full of talk, boy-like in his laughter. The stranger who

should have asked who were the men ranged along the sides of the

table would have heard in answer the names of Hawthorne, Motley,

Dana, Lowell, Whipple, Peirce, the distinguished mathematician,

Judge Hoar, eminent at the bar and in the cabinet, Dwight, the

leading musical critic of Boston for a whole generation, Sumner,

the academic champion of freedom, Andrew, 'the great War Governor'

of Massachusetts, Dr. Howe, the philanthropist, William Hunt, the

painter, with others not unworthy of such company." We may complete

the list and add the name of Holmes himself, to whose presence the

club owed so much of its wit and wisdom. In such company the guests

were tempted to linger long, and if Holmes has described the circle

around the table, Lowell has celebrated the late walk at night

across the bridge as he and Agassiz returned to Cambridge on foot

together. To break the verse by quotation would mar the quiet scene

and interrupt the rambling pleasant talk it so graphically

describes. But we may keep the parting words:

"At last, arrived at where our paths divide,'Good night!' and, ere

the distance grew too wide, 'Good night!' again; and now with

cheated ear I half hear his who mine shall never hear."

(* See Memorial poem, entitled "Agassiz", by James Russell Lowell.)

Agassiz was now the possessor of a small laboratory by the

immediate sea-coast. It was situated on the northeastern shore of

Nahant, within a stone's throw of broken and bold rocks, where the

deep pools furnished him with ever fresh specimens from natural

aquariums which were re-stocked at every rise of the tide. This

laboratory, with a small cottage adjoining, which was shared during

the summer between his own family and that of Professor Felton, was

the gift of his father-in-law, Mr. Cary. So carefully were his

wishes considered that the microscope table stood on a flat rock

sunk in the earth and detached from the floor, in order that no

footstep or accidental jarring of door or window in other parts of

the building might disturb him at his work.

There, summer after summer, he pursued his researches on the

medusae; from the smaller and more exquisite kinds, such as the

Pleurobrachyias, Idyias, and Bolinas, to the massive Cyaneas, with

their large disks and heavy tentacles, many yards in length.

Nothing can be prettier than the smaller kinds of jellyfishes.

Their structure is so delicate, yet so clearly defined, their color

so soft, yet often so brilliant, their texture so transparent, that

you seek in vain among terrestrial forms for terms of comparison,

and are tempted to say that nature has done her finest work in the

sea rather than on land. Sometimes hundreds of these smaller

medusae might be seen floating together in the deep glass bowls, or

jars, or larger vessels with which Agassiz's laboratory at Nahant

was furnished. When the supply was exhausted, new specimens were

easily to be obtained by a row in a dory a mile or two from shore,

either in the hot, still noon, when the jelly-fish rise toward the

surface, or at night, over a brilliantly phosphorescent sea, when

they are sure to be abundant, since they themselves furnish much of

the phosphorescence. In these little excursions, many new and

interesting things came to his nets beside those he was seeking.

The fishermen, also, were his friends and coadjutors. They never

failed to bring him whatever of rare or curious fell into their

hands, sometimes even turning aside from their professional calling

to give the laboratory preference over the market.

Neither was his summer work necessarily suspended during winter,

his Cambridge and Nahant homes being only about fifteen miles

distant from each other. He writes to his friends, the Holbrooks,

at this time, "You can hardly imagine what a delightful place

Nahant is for me now. I can trace the growth of my little marine

animals all the year round without interruption, by going

occasionally over there during the winter. I have at this moment

young medusae budding from their polyp nurses, which I expect to

see freeing themselves in a few weeks." In later years, when his

investigations on the medusae were concluded, so far as any

teaching from the open book of Nature can be said to be concluded,

he pursued here, during a number of years, investigations upon the

sharks and skates. For this work, which should have made one of the

series of "Contributions," he left much material, unhappily not

ready for publication.

In August, 1857, Agassiz received the following letter from M.

Rouland, Minister of Public Instruction in France.

TO PROFESSOR AGASSIZ.

PARIS, August 19, 1857.

SIR,

By the decease of M. d'Orbigny the chair of paleontology in the

Museum of Natural History in Paris becomes vacant. You are French;

you have enriched your native country by your eminent works and

laborious researches. You are a corresponding member of the

Institute. The emperor would gladly recall to France a savant so

distinguished. In his name I offer you the vacant chair, and should

congratulate your country on the return of a son who has shown

himself capable of such devotion to science.

Accept the assurance of my highest esteem,

ROULAND.

Had it been told to Agassiz when he left Europe that in ten years

he should be recalled to fill one of the coveted places at the

Jardin des Plantes, the great centre of scientific life and

influence in France, he would hardly have believed himself capable

of refusing it. Nor does a man reject what would once have seemed

to him a great boon without a certain regret. Such momentary regret

he felt perhaps, but not an instant of doubt. His answer expressed

his gratitude and his pleasure in finding himself so remembered in

Europe. He pleaded his work in America as his excuse for declining

a position which he nevertheless considered the most brilliant that

could be offered to a naturalist. In conclusion he adds: "Permit me

to correct an error concerning myself. I am not French, although of

French origin. My family has been Swiss for centuries, and spite of

my ten years' exile I am Swiss still."

The correspondence did not end here. A few months later the offer

was courteously renewed by M. Rouland, with the express condition

that the place should remain open for one or even two years to

allow time for the completion of the work Agassiz had now on hand.

To this second appeal he could only answer that his work here was

the work not of years, but of his life, and once more decline the

offer. That his refusal was taken in good part is evident from the

fact that the order of the Legion of Honor was sent to him soon

after, and that from time to time he received friendly letters from

the Minister of Public Instruction, who occasionally consulted him

upon general questions of scientific moment.

This invitation excited a good deal of interest among Agassiz's old

friends in Europe. Some urged him to accept it, others applauded

his resolve to remain out of the great arena of competition and

ambition. Among the latter was Humboldt. The following extract is

from a letter of his (May 9, 1858) to Mr. George Ticknor, of

Boston, who had been one of Agassiz's kindest and best friends in

America from the moment of his arrival. "Agassiz's large and

beautiful work (the first two volumes) reached me a few days since.

It will produce a great effect both by the breadth of its general

views and by the extreme sagacity of its special embryological

observations. I have never believed that this illustrious man, who

is also a man of warm heart, a noble soul, would accept the

generous offers made to him from Paris. I knew that gratitude would

keep him in the new country, where he finds such an immense

territory to explore, and such liberal aid in his work."

In writing of this offer to a friend Agassiz himself says: "On one

side, my cottage at Nahant by the sea-shore, the reef of Florida,

the vessels of the Coast Survey at my command from Nova Scotia to

Mexico, and, if I choose, all along the coast of the Pacific,--and

on the other, the Jardin des Plantes, with all its accumulated

treasures. Rightly considered, the chance of studying nature must

prevail over the attractions of the (Paris) Museum. I hope I shall

be wise enough not to be tempted even by the prospect of a new

edition of the 'Poissons Fossiles.'"

To his old friend Charles Martins, the naturalist, he writes: "The

work I have undertaken here, and the confidence shown in me by

those who have at heart the intellectual development of this

country, make my return to Europe impossible for the present; and,

as you have well understood, I prefer to build anew here rather

than to fight my way in the midst of the coteries of Paris. Were I

offered absolute power for the reorganization of the Jardin des

Plantes, with a revenue of fifty thousand francs, I should not

accept it. I like my independence better."

The fact that Agassiz had received and declined this offer from the

French government seemed to arouse anew the public interest in his

projects and prospects here. It was felt that a man who was ready

to make an alliance so uncompromising with the interests of science

in the United States should not be left in a precarious and

difficult position. His collections were still heaped together in a

slight wooden building. The fact that a great part of them were

preserved in alcohol made them especially in danger from fire. A

spark, a match carelessly thrown down, might destroy them all in

half an hour, for with material so combustible, help would be

unavailing. This fear was never out of his mind. It disturbed his

peace by day and his rest by night. That frail structure, crowded

from garret to cellar with seeming rubbish, with boxes, cases,

barrels, casks still unpacked and piled one above the other, held

for him the treasure out of which he would give form and substance

to the dream of his boyhood and the maturer purpose of his manhood.

The hope of creating a great museum intelligently related in all

its parts, reflecting nature, and illustrating the history of the

animal kingdom in the past and the present, had always tempted his

imagination. Nor was it merely as a comprehensive and orderly

collection that he thought of it. From an educational point of view

it had an even greater value for him. His love of teaching prompted

him no less than his love of science. Indeed, he hoped to make his

ideal museum a powerful auxiliary in the interests of the schools

and teachers throughout the State, and less directly throughout the

country. He hoped it would become one of the centres for the

radiation of knowledge, and that the investigations carried on

within its walls would find means of publication, and be a fresh,

original contribution to the science of the day. This hope was

fully realized. The first number of the Museum Bulletin was

published in March, 1863, the first number of the Illustrated

Catalogue in 1864, and both publications have been continued with

regularity ever since.* (* At the time of Agassiz's death nearly

three volumes of the Bulletin had been published, and the third

volume of the "Memoirs" (Illustrated Catalogue Number 7) had been

begun.)

In laying out the general plan, which was rarely absent from his

thought, he distinguished between the demands which the specialist

and the general observer might make upon an institution intended to

instruct and benefit both. Here the special student should find in

the laboratories and work rooms all the needed material for his

investigations, stored in large collections, with duplicates enough

to allow for that destruction of specimens which is necessarily

involved in original research. The casual visitor meanwhile should

walk through exhibition rooms, not simply crowded with objects to

delight and interest him, but so arranged that the selection of

every specimen should have reference to its part and place in

nature; while the whole should be so combined as to explain, so far

as known, the faunal and systematic relations of animals in the

actual world, and in the geological formations; or, in other words,

their succession in time, and their distribution in space.

A favorite part of his plan was a room which he liked to call his

synoptic room. Here was to be the most compact and yet the fullest

statement in material form of the animal kingdom as a whole, an

epitome of the creation, as it were. Of course the specimens must

be few in so limited a space, but each one was to be characteristic

of one or other of the various groups included under every large

division. Thus each object would contribute to the explanation of

the general plan. On the walls there were to be large, legible

inscriptions, serving as a guide to the whole, and making this room

a simple but comprehensive lesson in natural history. It was

intended to be the entrance room for visitors, and to serve as an

introduction to the more detailed presentation of the same vast

subject, given by the faunal and systematic collections in the

other exhibition rooms.

The standard of work involved in this scheme is shown in many of

his letters to his students and assistants, to whom he looked for

aid in its execution. To one he writes: "You will get your synoptic

series only after you have worked up in detail the systematic

collection as a whole, the faunal collections in their totality,

the geological sequence of the entire group under consideration, as

well as its embryology and geographical distribution. Then alone

will you be able to know the representatives in each series which

will best throw light upon it and complete the other series."

He did not live to fill in this comprehensive outline with the

completeness which he intended, but all its details were fully

explained by him before his death, and since that time have been

carried out by his son, Alexander Agassiz. The synoptic room, and

in great part the systematic and faunal collections, are now

arranged and under exhibition, and the throngs of visitors during

all the pleasant months of the year attest the interest they

excite.

This conception, of which the present Museum is the expression, was

matured in the brain of the founder before a brick of the building

was laid, or a dollar provided for the support of such an

institution. It existed for him as his picture does for the artist

before it lives upon the canvas. One must have been the intimate

companion of his thoughts to know how and to what degree it

possessed his imagination, to his delight always, yet sometimes to

his sorrow also, for he had it and he had it not. The thought alone

was his; the means of execution were far beyond his reach.

His plan was, however, known to many of his friends, and especially

he had explained it to Mr. Francis C. Gray, whose intellectual

sympathy made him a delightful listener to the presentation of any

enlightened purpose. In 1858 Mr. Gray died, leaving in his will the

sum of fifty thousand dollars for the establishment of a Museum of

Comparative Zoology, with the condition that this sum should be

used neither for the erection of buildings nor for salaries, but

for the purely scientific needs of such an institution. Though this

bequest was not connected in set terms with the collections already

existing in Cambridge, its purpose was well understood; and Mr.

Gray's nephew, Mr. William Gray, acting upon the intention of his

uncle as residuary legatee, gave it into the hands of the President

and Fellows of Harvard University. In passing over this trust, the

following condition, among others, was made, namely: "That neither

the collections nor any building which may contain the same shall

ever be designated by any other name than the Museum of Comparative

Zoology at Harvard." This is worth noting, because the title was

chosen and insisted upon by Agassiz himself in opposition to many

who would have had it called after him. To such honor as might be

found in connecting his own name with a public undertaking of any

kind he was absolutely indifferent. It was characteristic of him to

wish, on the contrary, that the name should be as impersonal and as

comprehensive as the uses and aims of the institution itself. Yet

he could not wholly escape the distinction he deprecated. The

popular imagination, identifying him with his work, has

re-christened the institution; and, spite of its legal title, its

familiar designation is almost invariably the "Agassiz Museum."

Mr. Gray's legacy started a movement which became every day more

active and successful. The university followed up his bequest by a

grant of land suitable for the site of the building, and since the

Gray fund provided for no edifice, an appeal was made to the

Legislature of Massachusetts to make good that deficiency. The

Legislature granted lands to the amount of one hundred thousand

dollars, on condition that a certain additional contribution should

be made by private subscription. The sum of seventy-one thousand

one hundred and twenty-five dollars, somewhat exceeding that

stipulated, was promptly subscribed, chiefly by citizens of Boston

and Cambridge, and Agassiz himself gave all the collections he had

brought together during the last four or five years, estimated,

merely by the outlay made upon them, at ten thousand dollars. The

architects, Mr. Henry Greenough and Mr. George Snell, offered the

plan as their contribution. The former had long been familiar with

Agassiz's views respecting the internal arrangements of the

building. The main features had been discussed between them, and

now, that the opportunity offered, the plan was practically ready

for execution. These events followed each other so rapidly that

although Mr. Gray's bequest was announced only in December, 1858,

the first sod was turned and the corner-stone of the future Museum

was laid on a sunny afternoon in the following June, 1859.* (* The

plan, made with reference to the future increase as well as the

present needs of the Museum, included a main building 364 feet in

length by 64 in width, with wings 205 feet in length by 64 in

width, the whole enclosing a hollow square. The structure erected

1859-60 was but a section of the north wing, being two fifths of

its whole length. This gave ample space at the time for the

immediate requirements of the Museum. Additions have since been

made, and the north wing is completed, while the Peabody Museum

occupies a portion of the ground allotted to the south wing.)

This event, so full of significance for Agassiz, took place a few

days before he sailed for Europe, having determined to devote the

few weeks of the college and school vacation to a flying visit in

Switzerland. The incidents of this visit were of a wholly domestic

nature and hardly belong here. He paused a few days in Ireland and

England to see his old friends, the Earl of Enniskillen and Sir

Philip Egerton, and review their collections. A day or two in

London gave him, in like manner, a few hours at the British Museum,

a day with Owen at Richmond, and an opportunity to greet old

friends and colleagues called together to meet him at Sir Roderick

Murchison's. He allowed himself also a week in Paris, made

delightful by the cordiality and hospitality of the professors of

the Jardin des Plantes, and by the welcome he received at the

Academy, when he made his appearance there. The happiest hours of

this brief sojourn in Paris were perhaps spent with his old and

dear friend Valenciennes, the associate of earlier days in Paris,

when the presence of Cuvier and Humboldt gave a crowning interest

to scientific work there.

From Paris he hastened on to his mother in Switzerland, devoting to

her and to his immediate family all the time which remained to him

before returning to his duties in Cambridge. They were very happy

weeks, passed, for the most part, in absolute retirement, at

Montagny, near the foot of the Jura, where Madame Agassiz was then

residing with her daughter. The days were chiefly spent in an

old-fashioned garden, where a corner shut in by ivy and shaded by

trees made a pleasant out-of-door sitting-room. There he told his

mother, as he had never been able to tell her in letters, of his

life and home in the United States, and of the Museum to which he

was returning, and which was to give him the means of doing for the

study of nature all he had ever hoped to accomplish. His quiet stay

here was interrupted only by a visit of a few days to his sister at

Lausanne, and a trip to the Diablerets, where his brother, then a

great invalid, was staying. He also passed a day or two at Geneva,

where he was called to a meeting of the Helvetic Society, which

gave him an opportunity of renewing old ties of friendship, as well

as scientific relations, with the naturalists of his own country,

with Pictet de la Rive, de Candolle, Favre, and others.

CHAPTER 19.

1860-1863: AGE 53-56.

Return to Cambridge.

Removal of Collection to New Museum Building.

Distribution of Work.

Relations with his Students.

Breaking out of the War between North and South.

Interest of Agassiz in the Preservation of the Union.

Commencement of Museum Publications.

Reception of Third and Fourth Volumes of "Contributions."

Copley Medal.

General Correspondence.

Lecturing Tour in the West.

Circular Letter concerning Anthropological Collections.

Letter to Mr. Ticknor concerning Geographical Distribution of Fishes

in Spain.

On his return to Cambridge at the end of September, Agassiz found

the Museum building well advanced. It was completed in the course

of the next year, and the dedication took place on the 13th

November, 1860. The transfer of the collections to their new and

safe abode was made as rapidly as possible, and the work of

developing the institution under these more favorable conditions

moved steadily on. The lecture rooms were at once opened, not only

to students but to other persons not connected with the university.

Especially welcome were teachers of schools for whom admittance was

free. It was a great pleasure to Agassiz thus to renew and

strengthen his connection with the teachers of the State, with

whom, from the time of his arrival in this country, he had held

most cordial relations, attending the Teachers' Institutes,

visiting the normal schools, and associating himself actively, as

far as he could, with the interests of public education in

Massachusetts. From this time forward his college lectures were

open to women as well as to men. He had great sympathy with the

desire of women for larger and more various fields of study and

work, and a certain number of women have always been employed as

assistants at the Museum.

The story of the next three years was one of unceasing but

seemingly uneventful work. The daylight hours from nine or ten

o'clock in the morning were spent, with the exception of the hour

devoted to the school, at the Museum, not only in personal

researches and in lecturing, but in organizing, distributing, and

superintending the work of the laboratories, all of which was

directed by him. Passing from bench to bench, from table to table,

with a suggestion here, a kindly but scrutinizing glance there, he

made his sympathetic presence felt by the whole establishment. No

man ever exercised a more genial personal influence over his

students and assistants. His initiatory steps in teaching special

students of natural history were not a little discouraging.

Observation and comparison being in his opinion the intellectual

tools most indispensable to the naturalist, his first lesson was

one in LOOKING. He gave no assistance; he simply left his student

with the specimen, telling him to use his eyes diligently, and

report upon what he saw. He returned from time to time to inquire

after the beginner's progress, but he never asked him a leading

question, never pointed out a single feature of the structure,

never prompted an inference or a conclusion. This process lasted

sometimes for days, the professor requiring the pupil not only to

distinguish the various parts of the animal, but to detect also the

relation of these details to more general typical features. His

students still retain amusing reminiscences of their despair when

thus confronted with their single specimen; no aid to be had from

outside until they had wrung from it the secret of its structure.

But all of them have recognized the fact that this one lesson in

looking, which forced them to such careful scrutiny of the object

before them, influenced all their subsequent habits of observation,

whatever field they might choose for their special subject of

study. One of them who was intending to be an entomologist

concludes a very clever and entertaining account of such a first

lesson, entirely devoted to a single fish, with these words: "This

was the best entomological lesson I ever had,--a lesson whose

influence has extended to the details of every subsequent study; a

legacy the professor has left to me, as he left it to many others,

of inestimable value, which we could not buy, with which we could

not part."* (* "In the Laboratory with Agassiz", by S.H. Scudder.)

But if Agassiz, in order to develop independence and accuracy of

observation, threw his students on their own resources at first,

there was never a more generous teacher in the end than he. All his

intellectual capital was thrown open to his pupils. His original

material, his unpublished investigations, his most precious

specimens, his drawings and illustrations were at their command.

This liberality led in itself to a serviceable training, for he

taught them to use with respect the valuable, often unique, objects

intrusted to their care. Out of the intellectual good-fellowship

which he established and encouraged in the laboratory grew the

warmest relations between his students and himself. Many of them

were deeply attached to him, and he was extremely dependent upon

their sympathy and affection. By some among them he will never be

forgotten. He is still their teacher and their friend, scarcely

more absent from their work now than when the glow of his

enthusiasm made itself felt in his personal presence.

But to return to the distribution of his time in these busy days.

Having passed, as we have seen, the greater part of the day in the

Museum and the school, he had the hours of the night for writing,

and rarely left his desk before one or two o'clock in the morning,

or even later. His last two volumes of the "Contributions," upon

the Acalephs, were completed during these years. In the mean time,

the war between North and South had broken out, and no American

cared more than he for the preservation of the Union and the

institutions it represented. He felt that the task of those who

served letters and science was to hold together the intellectual

aims and resources of the country during this struggle for national

existence, to fortify the strongholds of learning, abating nothing

of their efficiency, but keeping their armories bright against the

return of peace, when the better weapons of civilization should

again be in force. Toward this end he worked with renewed ardor,

and while his friends urged him to suspend operations at the Museum

and husband his resources until the storm should have passed over,

he, on the contrary, stimulated its progress by every means in his

power. Occasionally he was assisted by the Legislature, and early

in this period an additional grant of ten thousand dollars was made

to the Museum. With this grant was begun the series of illustrated

publications already mentioned, known as the "Bulletin of the

Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge."

During this period he urged also the foundation of a National

Academy of Sciences, and was active in furthering its organization

and incorporation (1863) by Congress. With respect to this effort,

and to those he was at the same time making for the Museum, he was

wont to recall the history of the University of Berlin. In an

appeal to the people in behalf of the intellectual institutions of

the United States during the early years of the war he says: "A

well known fact in the history of Germany has shown that the moment

of political danger may be that in which the firmest foundations

for the intellectual strength of a country may be laid. When in

1806, after the battle of Jena, the Prussian monarchy had been

crushed and the king was despairing even of the existence of his

realm, he planned the foundation of the University of Berlin, by

the advice of Fichte, the philosopher. It was inaugurated the very

year that the despondent monarch returned to his capital. Since

that time it has been the greatest glory of the Prussian crown, and

has made Berlin the intellectual centre of Germany."

It may be added here as an evidence of Agassiz's faith in the

institutions of the United States and in her intellectual progress

that he was himself naturalized in the darkest hour of the war,

when the final disruption of the country was confidently prophesied

by her enemies. By formally becoming a citizen of the United States

he desired to attest his personal confidence in the stability of

her Constitution and the justice of her cause.

Some light is thrown upon the work and incidents of these years by

the following letters:--

FROM SIR PHILIP DE GREY EGERTON.

LONDON, ALBEMARLE ST., April 16, 1861.

MON CHER AGASS,* (* An affectionate abbreviation which Sir Philip

often used for him.)

I have this morning received your handsome and welcome present of

the third volume of your great undertaking, and this reminds me how

remiss I have been in not writing to you sooner. In fact, I have

had nothing worth writing about, and I know your time is too

valuable to be intrenched upon by letters of mere gossip. I have

not of course had time to peruse any portion of the monograph, but

I have turned over the pages and seen quite enough to sharpen my

appetite for the glorious scientific feast you have so liberally

provided. And now that the weight is off your mind, I hope shortly

to hear that you are about to fulfill this year the promise you

made of returning to England for a good long visit, only postponed

by circumstances you could not have foreseen. Now that you have

your son as the sharer of your labors, you will be able to leave

him in charge during your absence, and so divest your mind of all

care and anxiety with reference to matters over the water. Here we

are all fighting most furiously about Celts and flint implements,

struggle for life, natural selection, the age of the world, races

of men, biblical dates, apes, and gorillas, etc., and the last duel

has been between Owen and Huxley on the anatomical distinction of

the pithecoid brain compared with that of man. Theological

controversy has also been rife, stirred up by the "Essays and

Reviews," of which you have no doubt heard much. For myself, I have

been busy preparing, in conjunction with Huxley, another decade of

fossil fishes, all from the old red of Scotland. . .Enniskillen is

quite well. He is now at Lyme Regis. . .

At about this time the Copley Medal was awarded to Agassiz, a

distinction which was the subject of cordial congratulation from

his English friends.

FROM SIR RODERICK MURCHISON.

BELGRAVE SQUARE, March, 1862.

MY DEAR AGASSIZ,

Your letter of the 14th February was a great surprise to me. I

blamed myself for not writing you sooner than I did on the event

which I had long been anxious to see realized; but I took it for

granted that you had long before received the official announcement

from the foreign secretary that you were, at the last anniversary

of the Royal Society, the recipient of the highest honor which our

body can bestow, whether on a foreigner or a native. . .On going to

the Royal Society to-day I found that the President and Secretaries

were much surprised that you had never answered the official letter

sent to you on the 1st or 2nd December by the Foreign Secretary,

Professor Muller, of Cambridge. He wrote to announce the award, and

told you the Copley Medal was in his safe keeping till you wrote to

say what you wished to have done with it. I have now recommended

him to transmit it officially to you through the United States

Minister, Mr. Adams. In these times of irritation, everything which

soothes and calms down angry feelings ought to be resorted to; and

I hope it may be publicly known that when our newspapers were

reciprocating all sorts of rudenesses, the men of science of

England thought of nothing but honoring a beloved and eminent

savant of America.

I thank you for your clear and manly view of the North and South,

which I shall show to all our mutual friends. Egerton, who is now

here, was delighted to hear of you, as well as Huxley, Lyell, and

many others. . .

In a paper just read to the Geological Society Professor Ramsay has

made a stronger demand on the powers of ice than you ever did. He

imagines that every Swiss lake north and south (Geneva, Neuchatel,

Como, etc.) has been scooped out, and the depressions excavated by

the abrading action of the glaciers.

FROM SIR PHILIP DE GREY EGERTON.

ALBEMARLE ST., LONDON, March 11, 1862.

MON CHER AGASS,

As I am now settled in London for some months, I take the first

opportunity of writing to congratulate you on the distinction which

has been conferred upon you by the Royal Society, and I will say

that you have most fully earned it. I rejoice exceedingly in the

decision the Council have arrived at. I only regret I was not on

the Council myself to have advocated your high claims and taken a

share in promoting your success. It is now long since I have heard

from you, but this terrible disruption between the North and South

has, I suppose, rendered the pursuit of science rather difficult,

and the necessary funds also difficult of attainment. I should like

very much to hear how you are getting on, and whether there is any

likelihood of your being able to come over in the course of the

summer or autumn. I fully expected you last year, and was very much

disappointed that you could not realize your intention. I have this

day sent to you through Bailliere, the last decade of the Jermyn

St. publications.* (* Publications of the Geological Survey of

England.) You will see that Huxley has taken up the subject of the

Devonian fishes in a truly scientific spirit. . .

FROM OWEN TO AGASSIZ.

BRITISH MUSEUM, August 30, 1862.

MY DEAR AGASSIZ,

I have received, and since its reception have devoted most of my

spare moments to the study of, your fourth volume of the "Natural

History of the United States,"--a noble contribution to our

science, and worthy of your great name.

The demonstration of the unity of plan pervading the diversities of

the Polyps, Hydroids, Acalephal and Echinodermal modifications of

your truly natural group of Radiates, is to my mind perfect, and I

trust that the harsh and ugly and essentially error-breeding name

of Coelenterata may have received its final sentence of exile from

lasting and rational zoological terminology.

I shall avail myself of opportunities for bringing myself to your

recollection by such brochures as I have time for. One of them will

open to your view something of the nature of the contest here

waging to obtain for England a suitable Museum of Natural History,

equivalent to her wealth and colonies and maritime business. In

this I find you a valuable ally, and have cited from the Reports of

your Museum of Comparative Zoology in support of my own claims for

space.

I was glad to hear from Mr. Bates that the Megatherium had not gone

to the bottom, but had been rescued, and that it was probably ere

this in your Museum at Cambridge. I trust it may be so.

A line from you or the sight of any friend of yours is always

cheering to me. Our friends Enniskillen and Egerton are both

well. . .

I remain ever truly yours,

RICHARD OWEN.

As has been seen by a previous letter from Sir Roderick Murchison,

Agassiz tried from time to time to give his English friends more

just views of our national struggle. The letter to which the

following is an answer is missing, but one may easily infer its

tenor, and the pleasure it had given him.

TO SIR PHILIP DE GREY EGERTON.

NAHANT, MASSACHUSETTS, August 15, 1862.

. . .I feel so thankful for your words of sympathy, that I lose not

an hour in expressing my feeling. It has been agonizing week after

week to receive the English papers, and to see there the noble

devotion of the men of the North to their country and its

government, branded as the service of mercenaries. You know I am

not much inclined to meddle with politics; but I can tell you that

I have never seen a more generous and prompt response to the call

of country than was exhibited last year, and is exhibiting now, in

the loyal United States. In the last six weeks nearly 300,000 men

have volunteered, and I am satisfied that the additional 300,000

will be forthcoming without a draft in the course of the next

month. And believe me, it is not for the sake of the bounty they

come forward, for our best young men are the first to enlist; if

anything can be objected to these large numbers of soldiers, it is

that it takes away the best material that the land possesses. I

thank you once more for your warm sympathy. I needed it the more,

as it is almost the first friendly word of that kind I have

received from England, and I began to question the humanity of your

civilization. . .Under present circumstances, you can well imagine

that I cannot think of leaving Cambridge, even for a few weeks,

much as I wish to take some rest, and especially to meet your kind

invitation. But I feel that I have a debt to pay to my adopted

country, and all I can now do is to contribute my share toward

maintaining the scientific activity which has been awakened during

the last few years, and which even at this moment is on the

increase.

I am now at Nahant, on the sea-shore, studying embryology chiefly

with reference to paleontology, and the results are most

satisfactory. I have had an opportunity already of tracing the

development of the representatives of three different families,

upon the embryology of which we had not a single observation thus

far, and of making myself familiar with the growth of many others.

With these accessions I propose next winter seriously to return to

my first scientific love. . .

I have taken with me to the sea-shore your and Huxley's

"Contributions to the Devonian Fishes," and also your notice of

Carboniferous fish-fauna; but I have not yet had a chance to study

them critically, from want of time, having been too successful with

the living specimens to have a moment for the fossils. The season

for sea-shore studies is, however, drawing rapidly to an end, and

then I shall have more leisure for my old favorites.

I am very sorry to hear such accounts of the sufferings of the

manufacturing districts in England. I wish I could foretell the end

of our conflict; but I do not believe it can now be ended before

slavery is abolished, though I thought differently six months ago.

The most conservative men at the North have gradually come to this

conviction, and nobody would listen for a moment to a compromise

with the southern slave power. Whether we shall get rid of it by

war measures or by an emancipation proclamation, I suppose the

President himself does not yet know. I do not think that we shall

want more money than the people are willing to give. Private

contributions for the comfort of the army are really unbounded. I

know a gentleman, not among the richest in Boston, who has already

contributed over 30,000 dollars; and I heard yesterday of a

shop-boy who tendered all his earnings of many years to the relief

committee,--2,000 dollars, retaining NOTHING for himself,--and so

it goes all round. Of course we have croakers and despondent

people, but they no longer dare to raise their voices; from which I

infer that there is no stopping the storm until by the natural

course of events the atmosphere is clear and pure again.

Ever truly your friend,

LOUIS AGASSIZ.

Agassiz had now his time more at his own disposal since he had

given up his school and had completed also the fourth volume of his

"Contributions." Leisure time he could never be said to have, but

he was free to give all his spare time and strength to the Museum,

and to this undivided aim, directly or indirectly, the remainder of

his life was devoted. Although at intervals he received generous

aid from the Legislature or from private individuals for the

further development of the Museum, its growth outran such

provision, and especially during the years of the war the problem

of meeting expenses was often difficult of solution. To provide for

such a contingency Agassiz made in the winter of 1863 the most

extensive lecturing tour he had ever undertaken, even in his

busiest lecturing days. He visited all the large cities and some of

the smaller towns from Buffalo to St. Louis. While very

remunerative, and in many respects delightful, since he was

received with the greatest cordiality, and lectured everywhere to

enthusiastic crowds, this enterprise was, nevertheless, of doubtful

economy even for his scientific aims. Agassiz was but fifty-six,

yet his fine constitution began to show a fatigue hardly justified

by his years, and the state of his health was already a source of

serious anxiety to his friends. He returned much exhausted, and

passed the summer at Nahant, where the climate always benefited

him, while his laboratory afforded the best conditions for work. If

this summer home had a fault, it was its want of remoteness. He was

almost as much beset there, by the interruptions to which a man in

his position is liable, as in Cambridge.

His letters show how constantly during this nominal vacation his

Museum and its interests occupied his thoughts. One is to his

brother-in-law, Thomas G. Cary, whose residence was in San

Francisco, and who had been for years his most efficient aid in

obtaining collections from the Pacific Coast.

TO MR. THOMAS G. CARY.

CAMBRIDGE, March 23, 1863.

DEAR TOM,

For many years past your aid in fostering the plans of the Museum

in Cambridge has greatly facilitated the progress of that

establishment in everything relating to the Natural History of

California, and now that it has become desirable to extend our

scheme to objects which have thus far been neglected I make another

appeal to you.

Every day the history of mankind is brought into more and more

intimate connection with the natural history of the animal

creation, and it is now indispensable that we should organize an

extensive collection to illustrate the natural history of the

uncivilized races. Your personal acquaintance with business friends

in almost every part of the globe has suggested to me the propriety

of addressing to you a circular letter, setting forth the objects

wanted, and requesting of you the favor to communicate it as widely

as possible among your friends.

To make the most instructive collections relative to the natural

history of mankind, two classes of specimens should be brought

together, one concerning the habits and pursuits of the races, the

other concerning the physical constitution of the races themselves.

With reference to the first it would be desirable to collect

articles of clothing and ornaments of all the races of men, their

implements, tools, weapons, and such models or drawings of their

dwellings as may give an idea of their construction; small canoes

and oars as models of their vessels, or indications of their

progress in navigation; in one word, everything that relates to

their avocations, their pursuits, their habits, their mode of

worship, and whatever may indicate the dawn or progress of the arts

among them. As to articles of clothing, it would be preferable to

select such specimens as have actually been worn or even cast off,

rather than new things which may be more or less fanciful and not

indicate the real natural condition and habits of a race.

With regard to the collections intended to illustrate the physical

constitution of the races it is more difficult to obtain

instructive specimens, as the savage races are generally inclined

to hold sacred all that relates to their dead; yet whenever an

opportunity is afforded to obtain skulls of the natives of

different parts of the world, it should be industriously improved,

and good care taken to mark the skulls in such a way that their

origin cannot be mistaken. Beside this, every possible effort

should be made to obtain perfect heads, preserved in alcohol, so

that all their features may be studied minutely and compared. Where

this cannot be done portraits or photographs may be substituted.

Trusting that you may help me in this way to bring together in

Cambridge a more complete collection, illustrative of the natural

history of mankind than exists thus far anywhere,* (* All the

ethnographical collections of the Museum of Comparative Zoology

have now been transferred to the Peabody Museum, where they more

properly belong.)

I remain, ever truly your friend and brother,

LOUIS AGASSIZ.

The following letter to Mr. Ticknor is in the same spirit as

previous ones to Mr. Haldeman and others, concerning the

distribution of fishes in America. It is given at the risk of some

repetition, because it illustrates Agassiz's favorite idea that a

key to the original combination of faunae in any given system of

fresh waters, might be reached through a closer study than has yet

been possible of the geographical or local circumscription of their

inhabitants.

TO MR. GEORGE TICKNOR.

NAHANT, October 24, 1863.

MY DEAR SIR,

Among the schemes which I have devised for the improvement of the

Museum, there is one for the realization of which I appeal to your

aid and sympathy. Thus far the natural productions of the rivers

and lakes of the world have not been compared with one another,

except what I have done in comparing the fishes of the Danube with

those of the Rhine and of the Rhone, and those of the great

Canadian lakes with those of the Swiss lakes.

I now propose to resume this subject on the most extensive scale,

since I see that it has the most direct bearing upon the

transmutation theory. . .First let me submit to you my plan.

Rivers and lakes are isolated by the land and sea from one another.

The question is, then, how they came to be peopled with inhabitants

differing both from those on land and those in the sea, and how

does it come that every hydrographic basin has its own inhabitants

more or less different from those of any other basin? Take the

Ganges, the Nile, and the Amazons. There is not a living being in

the one alike to any one in the others, etc. Now to advance the

investigation to the point where it may tell with reference to the

scientific doctrines at present under discussion, it is essential

to know the facts in detail, with reference to every fresh-water

basin on earth. I have already taken means to obtain the tenants of

all the rivers of Brazil, and partly of Russia, and I hope you may

be able to put me in the way of getting those of Spain, if not of

some other country beside. The plan I propose for that country

would be worthy of the Doctors of Salamanca in her brightest days.

If this alone were carried out, it would be, I believe, sufficient

to settle the whole question.

My idea is to obtain separate collections from all the principal

rivers of Spain and Portugal, and even to have several separate

collections from the larger rivers, one from their lower course,

one from their middle course, and another from their head-waters.

Take, for instance, the Douro. One collection ought to be made at

Oporto, and several higher up, among its various tributaries and in

its upper course; say, one at Zamora and Valladolid, one at

Salamanca from the Tormes River, one at Leon from the Esla River,

one at Burgos and Palencia from the northern tributaries, one at

Soria and Segovia from the southern tributaries. If this could be

done on such a scale as I propose, it would in itself be a work

worthy of the Spanish government, and most creditable to any man

who should undertake it. The fact is that nothing of the kind has

ever been done yet anywhere. A single collection from the Minho

would be sufficient, say from Orense or Melgaco. From the northern

rivers along the gulf of Biscay all that would be necessary would

be one thoroughly complete collection from one of the little rivers

that come down from the mountains of Asturias, say from Oviedo.

The Ebro would require a more elaborate survey. From its upper

course, one collection would be needed from Haro or Frias or

Miranda; another from Saragossa, and one from its mouth, including

the minnows common among the brackish waters near the mouth of

large rivers. In addition to this, one or two of the tributaries of

the Ebro, coming down from the Pyrenees, should be explored in the

same manner; say one collection from Pampeluna, and one from Urgel,

or any other place on the southern slope of the Pyrenees. A

collection made at Barcelona from the river and the brackish

marshes would be equally desirable; another from the river at

Valencia, and, if possible, also from its head-waters at Ternel;

another from the river Segura at Murcia, and somewhere in the

mountains from its head-waters. Granada would afford particular

interest as showing what its mountain streams feed. A collection

from the Almeria River at Almeria, or from any of the small rivers

of the southern coast of Spain, would do; and it would be the more

interesting if another from the river Xenil could be obtained at or

near Granada, to compare with the inhabitants of the waters upon

the southern slope of the Sierra Nevada.

Next would come the Guadalquivir, from which a collection should be

made at San Lucar, with the brackish water species; another at

Seville or Cordova, one among the head-waters from the Sierra

Nevada, and another from the mountains of the Mancha. From the

Guadiana a collection from Villa Real, with the brackish species;

one from Badajoz, and one from the easternmost headwaters, and

about where the river is lost under ground.

The Tagus would again require an extensive exploration. In the

first place a thorough collection of all the species found in the

great estuary ought to be made with the view of ascertaining how

far marine Atlantic species penetrate into the river basin; then

one from Santarem, and another either from Talavera or Toledo or

Aranjuez, and one from the head-waters in Guadalaxara, and another

in Molina.

The collections made at different stations ought carefully to be

kept in distinct jars or kegs, with labels so secure that no

confusion or mistake can arise. But the specimens collected at the

same station may be put together in the same jar. These collections

require, in fact, very little care. (Here some details about mode

of putting up specimens, transportation, etc.) If the same person

should collect upon different stations, either in the same or in

different hydrographic basins, the similarity of the specimens

should not be a reason for neglecting to preserve them. What is

aimed at is not to secure a variety of species, but to learn in

what localities the same species may occur again and again, and

what are the localities which nourish different species, no matter

whether these species are in themselves interesting or not, new to

science or known for ages, whether valuable for the table or unfit

to eat. The mere fact of their distribution is the point to be

ascertained, and this, as you see, requires the most extensive

collections, affording in themselves comparatively little interest,

but likely to lead, by a proper discussion of the facts, to the

most unexpected philosophical results. . .Do, please, what you can

in this matter. Spain alone might give us the materials to solve

the question of transmutation versus creation. I am going to make a

similar appeal to my friends in Russia for materials from that

country, including Siberia and Kamschatka. Our own rivers are not

easily accessible now.

Ever truly your friend,

L. AGASSIZ.

CHAPTER 20.

1863-1864: AGE 56-57.

Correspondence with Dr. S.G. Howe.

Bearing of the War on the Position of the Negro Race.

Affection for Harvard College.

Interest in her General Progress.

Correspondence with Emerson concerning Harvard.

Glacial Phenomena in Maine.

AGASSIZ'S letters give little idea of the deep interest he felt in

the war between North and South, and its probable issue with

reference to the general policy of the nation, and especially to

the relation between the black and white races. Although any

judgment upon the accuracy of its conclusions would now be

premature, the following correspondence between Agassiz and Dr. S.

G. Howe is nevertheless worth considering, as showing how the

problem presented itself to the philanthropist and the naturalist

from their different stand-points.

FROM DR. S.G. HOWE.

PORTSMOUTH, August 3, 1863.

MY DEAR AGASSIZ,

You will learn by a glance at the inclosed circular the object of

the commission of which I am a member.

The more I consider the subject to be examined and reported upon,

the more I am impressed by its vastness; the more I see that its

proper treatment requires a consideration of political,

physiological, and ethnological principles. Before deciding upon

any political policy, it is necessary to decide several important

questions, which require more knowledge for their solution than I

possess.

Among these questions, this one occupies me most now. Is it

probable that the African race, represented by less than two

million blacks and a little more than two million mulattoes,

unrecruited by immigration, will be a persistent race in this

country? or will it be absorbed, diluted, and finally effaced by

the white race, numbering twenty-four millions, and continually

increased by immigration, beside natural causes.

Will not the general practical amalgamation fostered by slavery

become more general after its abolition? If so, will not the

proportion of mulattoes become greater and that of the pure blacks

less? With an increase and final numerical prevalence of mulattoes

the question of the fertility of the latter becomes a very

important element in the calculation. Can it be a persistent race

here where pure blacks are represented by 2, and the whites by

20-24?

Is it not true that in the Northern States at least the mulatto is

unfertile, leaving but few children, and those mainly lymphatic and

scrofulous?

In those sections where the blacks and mulattoes together make from

seventy to eighty and even ninety per cent of the whole population

will there be, after the abolition of slavery, a sufficiently large

influx of whites to counteract the present numerical preponderance

of blacks?

It looks now as if the whites would EXPLOITER the labors of the

blacks, and that social servitude will continue long in spite of

political equality.

You will see the importance of considering carefully the natural

laws of increase and their modification by existing causes before

deciding upon any line of policy.

If there be irresistible natural tendencies to the growth of a

persistent black race in the Gulf and river States, we must not

make bad worse by futile attempts to resist it. If, on the other

hand, the natural tendencies are to the diffusion and final

disappearance of the black (and colored) race, then our policy

should be modified accordingly.

I should be very glad, my dear sir, if you could give me your views

upon this and cognate matters. If, however, your occupations will

not permit you to give time to this matter, perhaps you will assist

me by pointing to works calculated to throw light upon the subject

of my inquiry, or by putting me in correspondence with persons who

have the ability and the leisure to write about it.

I remain, dear sir, faithfully,

SAMUEL G. HOWE.

TO DR. S.G. HOWE.

NAHANT, August 9, 1863.

MY DEAR DOCTOR,

When I acknowledged a few days ago the receipt of your invitation

to put in writing my views upon the management of the negro race as

part of the free population of the United States, I stated to you

that there was a preliminary question of the utmost importance to

be examined first, since whatever convictions may be formed upon

that point must necessarily influence everything else relating to

the subject. The question is simply this: Is there to be a

permanent black population upon the continent after slavery is

everywhere abolished and no inducement remains to foster its

increase? Should this question be answered in the negative, it is

evident that a wise policy would look to the best mode of removing

that race from these States, by the encouragement and acceleration

of emigration. Should the question be answered, on the contrary, in

the affirmative, then it is plain that we have before us one of the

most difficult problems, upon the solution of which the welfare of

our own race may in a measure depend, namely, the combination in

one social organization of two races more widely different from one

another than all the other races. In effecting this combination it

becomes our duty to avoid the recurrence of great evils, one of

which is already foreshadowed in the advantage which unscrupulous

managers are taking of the freedmen, whenever the latter are

brought into contact with new social relations.

I will, for the present, consider only the case of the unmixed

negroes of the Southern States, the number of which I suppose to be

about two millions. It is certainly not less,--it may be a little

more. From whatever point of view you look upon these people you

must come to the conclusion that, left to themselves, they will

perpetuate their race ad infinitum where they are. According to the

prevalent theory of the unity of mankind it is assumed that the

different races have become what they are in consequence of their

settlement in different parts of the world, and that the whole

globe is everywhere a fit abode for human beings who adapt

themselves to the conditions under which they live. According to

the theory of a multiple origin of mankind the different races have

first appeared in various parts of the globe, each with the

peculiarities best suited to their primitive home. Aside from these

theoretical views the fact is, that some races inhabit very

extensive tracts of the earth's surface, and are now found upon

separate continents, while others are very limited in their range.

This distribution is such that there is no reason for supposing

that the negro is less fitted permanently to occupy at least the

warmer parts of North and South America, than is the white race to

retain possession of their more temperate portions. Assuming our

pure black race to be only two millions, it is yet larger than the

whole number of several races that have held uninterrupted

possession of different parts of the globe ever since they have

been known to the white race. Thus the Hottentots and the

Abyssinians have maintained themselves in their respective homes

without change ever since their existence has been known to us,

even though their number is less than that of our pure black

population. The same, also, is the case with the population of

Australia and of the Pacific islands. The Papuan race, the Negrillo

race, the Australian race proper, distinct from one another, as

well as from all other inhabitants of the earth, number each fewer

inhabitants than already exist of the negro race in the United

States alone, not to speak of Central and South America.

This being the case there is, it seems to me, no more reason to

expect a disappearance of the negro race from the continent of

America without violent interference, than to expect a

disappearance of the races inhabiting respectively the South Sea

Islands, Australia, the Cape of Good Hope, or any other part of the

globe tenanted by the less populous races. The case of the American

Indians, who gradually disappear before the white race, should not

mislead us, as it is readily accounted for by the peculiar

character of that race. The negro exhibits by nature a pliability,

a readiness to accommodate himself to circumstances, a proneness to

imitate those among whom he lives,--characteristics which are

entirely foreign to the Indian, while they facilitate in every way

the increase of the negro. I infer, therefore, from all these

circumstances that the negro race must be considered as permanently

settled upon this continent, no less firmly than the white race,

and that it is our duty to look upon them as co-tenants in the

possession of this part of the world.

Remember that I have thus far presented the case only with

reference to the Southern States, where the climate is particularly

favorable to the maintenance and multiplication of the negro race.

Before drawing any inference, however, from my first assertion that

the negro will easily and without foreign assistance maintain

himself and multiply in the warmer parts of this continent, let us

consider a few other features of this momentous question of race.

Whites and blacks may multiply together, but their offspring is

never either white or black; it is always mulatto. It is a

half-breed, and shares all the peculiarities of half-breeds, among

whose most important characteristics is their sterility, or at

least their reduced fecundity. This shows the connection to be

contrary to the normal state of the races, as it is contrary to the

preservation of species in the animal kingdom. . .Far from

presenting to me a natural solution of our difficulties, the idea

of amalgamation is most repugnant to my feelings. It is now the

foundation of some of the most ill-advised schemes. But wherever it

is practiced, amalgamation among different races produces shades of

population, the social position of which can never be regular and

settled. From a physiological point of view, it is sound policy to

put every possible obstacle to the crossing of the races, and the

increase of half-breeds. It is unnatural, as shown by their very

constitution, their sickly physique, and their impaired fecundity.

It is immoral and destructive of social equality as it creates

unnatural relations and multiplies the differences among members of

the same community in a wrong direction.

From all this it is plain that the policy to be adopted toward the

miscellaneous colored population with reference to a more or less

distant future should be totally different from that which applies

to the pure black; for while I believe that a wise social economy

will foster the progress of every pure race, according to its

natural dispositions and abilities, and aim at securing for it a

proper field for the fullest development of all its capabilities, I

am convinced also that no efforts should be spared to check that

which is inconsistent with the progress of a higher civilization

and a purer morality. I hope and trust that as soon as the

condition of the negro in the warmer parts of our States has been

regulated according to the laws of freedom, the colored population

in the more northern parts of the country will diminish. By a

natural consequence of unconquerable affinities, the colored people

in whom the negro nature prevails will tend toward the South, while

the weaker and lighter ones will remain and die out among us.

Entertaining these views upon the fundamental questions concerning

the races, the next point for consideration is the policy to be

adopted under present circumstances, in order to increase the

amount of good which is within our grasp and lessen the evil which

we may avert. This will be for another letter.

Very truly yours,

LOUIS AGASSIZ.

FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME.

August 10, 1863.

MY DEAR DOCTOR,

I am so deeply impressed with the dangers awaiting the progress of

civilization, should the ideas now generally prevalent about

amalgamation gain sufficient ascendancy to exert a practical

influence upon the management of the affairs of the nation, that I

beg leave to urge a few more considerations upon that point.

In the first place let me insist upon the fact that the population

arising from the amalgamation of two races is always degenerate,

that it loses the excellences of both primitive stocks to retain

the vices or defects of both, and never to enjoy the physical vigor

of either. In order clearly to appreciate the tendencies of

amalgamation, it is indispensable to discriminate correctly between

the differences distinguishing one race from another and those

existing between different nationalities of the same race. For

while the mixture of nationalities of the same race has always

proved beneficial as far as we are taught by history, the mixture

of races has produced a very different result. We need only look at

the inhabitants of Central America, where the white, the negro, and

the Indian races are more or less blended, to see the baneful

effects of such an amalgamation. The condition of the Indians on

the borders of civilization in the United States and in Canada, in

their contact with the Anglo-Saxons as well as with the French,

testifies equally to the pernicious influence of amalgamation of

races. The experience of the Old World points in the same direction

at the Cape of Good Hope, in Australia; everywhere, in fact,

history speaks as loudly in favor of the mixture of clearly related

nations as she does in condemnation of the amalgamation of remote

races. We need only think of the origin of the English nation, of

that of the United States, etc. The question of breeding in-and-in,

that of marriage among close relations, is again quite distinct. In

fact, there is hardly a more complicated subject in physiology, or

one requiring nicer discriminations, than that of the

multiplication of man, and yet it is constantly acted upon as if it

needed no special knowledge. I beseech you, therefore, while you

are in a position to exert a leading influence in the councils of

the nation upon this most important subject to allow no

preconceived view, no favorite schemes, no immediate object, to

bias your judgment and mislead you. I do not pretend to be in

possession of absolute truth. I only urge upon you the

consideration of unquestionable facts before you form a final

opinion and decide upon a fixed policy. Conceive for a moment the

difference it would make in future ages for the prospects of

republican institutions, and our civilization generally, if instead

of the manly population descended from cognate nations the United

States should be inhabited by the effeminate progeny of mixed

races, half Indian, half negro, sprinkled with white blood. Can you

devise a scheme to rescue the Spaniards of Mexico from their

degradation? Beware, then, of any policy which may bring our own

race to their level.

These considerations lead me naturally to the inquiry into the

peculiarities of the two races, in order to find out what may be

most beneficial for each. I rejoice in the prospect of universal

emancipation, not only from a philanthropic point of view, but also

because hereafter the physiologist and ethnographer may discuss the

question of the races and advocate a discriminating policy

regarding them, without seeming to support legal inequality. There

is no more one-sided doctrine concerning human nature than the idea

that all men are equal, in the sense of being equally capable of

fostering human progress and advancing civilization, especially in

the various spheres of intellectual and moral activity. If this be

so, then it is one of our primary obligations to remove every

obstacle that may retard the highest development, while it is

equally our duty to promote the humblest aspirations that may

contribute to raise the lowest individual to a better condition in

life.

The question is, then, what kind of common treatment is likely to

be the best for all men, and what do the different races, taken

singly, require for themselves? That legal equality should be the

common boon of humanity can hardly be matter for doubt nowadays,

but it does not follow that social equality is a necessary

complement of legal equality. I say purposely legal equality, and

not political equality, because political equality involves an

equal right to every public station in life, and I trust we shall

be wise enough not to complicate at once our whole system with new

conflicting interests, before we have ascertained what may be the

practical working of universal freedom and legal equality for two

races, so different as the whites and negroes, living under one

government. We ought to remember that what we know of the negro,

from the experience we have had of the colored population of the

North, affords but a very inadequate standard by which to judge of

the capabilities of the pure blacks as they exist in the South. We

ought, further, to remember that the black population is likely at

all times to outnumber the white in the Southern States. We should

therefore beware how we give to the blacks rights, by virtue of

which they may endanger the progress of the whites before their

temper has been tested by a prolonged experience. Social equality I

deem at all times impracticable,--a natural impossibility, from the

very character of the negro race. Let us consider for a moment the

natural endowments of the negro race as they are manifested in

history on their native continent, as far as we can trace them

back, and compare the result with what we know of our own

destinies, in order to ascertain, within the limits of probability,

whether social equality with the negro is really an impossibility.

We know of the existence of the negro race, with all its physical

peculiarities, from the Egyptian monuments, several thousand years

before the Christian era. Upon these monuments the negroes are so

represented as to show that in natural propensities and mental

abilities they were pretty much what we find them at the present

day,--indolent, playful, sensual, imitative, subservient,

good-natured, versatile, unsteady in their purpose, devoted and

affectionate. From this picture I exclude the character of the

half-breeds, who have, more or less, the character of their white

parents. Originally found in Africa, the negroes seem at all times

to have presented the same characteristics wherever they have been

brought into contact with the white race; as in Upper Egypt, along

the borders of the Carthaginian and Roman settlements in Africa, in

Senegal in juxtaposition with the French, in Congo in juxtaposition

with the Portuguese, about the Cape and on the eastern coast of

Africa in juxtaposition with the Dutch and the English. While Egypt

and Carthage grew into powerful empires and attained a high degree

of civilization; while in Babylon, Syria, and Greece were developed

the highest culture of antiquity, the negro race groped in

barbarism and NEVER ORIGINATED A REGULAR ORGANIZATION AMONG

THEMSELVES. This is important to keep in mind, and to urge upon the

attention of those who ascribe the condition of the modern negro

wholly to the influence of slavery. I do not mean to say that

slavery is a necessary condition for the organization of the negro

race. Far from it. They are entitled to their freedom, to the

regulation of their own destiny, to the enjoyment of their life, of

their earnings, of their family circle. But with all this nowhere

do they appear to have been capable of rising, by themselves, to

the level of the civilized communities of the whites, and therefore

I hold that they are incapable of living on a footing of social

equality with the whites in one and the same community without

becoming an element of social disorder.* (* I fear the expression

"social equality" may be misunderstood in this connection. It means

here only the relations which would arise from the mixture of the

two races, and thus affect the organization of society as a whole.

It does not refer to any superficial or local social rules, such as

sharing on common ground public conveyances, public accommodations,

and the like.--ED.)

I am not prepared to state what political privileges they are fit

to enjoy now; though I have no hesitation in saying that they

should be equal to other men before the law. The right of owning

property, of bearing witness, of entering into contracts, of buying

and selling, of choosing their own domicile, would give them ample

opportunity of showing in a comparatively short time what political

rights might properly and safely be granted to them in successive

installments. No man has a right to what he is unfit to use. Our

own best rights have been acquired successively. I cannot,

therefore, think it just or safe to grant at once to the negro all

the privileges which we ourselves have acquired by long struggles.

History teaches us what terrible reactions have followed too

extensive and too rapid changes. Let us beware of granting too much

to the negro race in the beginning, lest it become necessary

hereafter to deprive them of some of the privileges which they may

use to their own and our detriment. All this I urge with reference

to the pure blacks of the South. As to the half-breeds, especially

in the Northern States, I have already stated it to be my opinion

that their very existence is likely to be only transient, and that

all legislation with reference to them should be regulated with

this view, and so ordained as to accelerate their disappearance

from the Northern States.

Let me now sum up my answer to some of your direct questions.

1st. Is it probable that the African race will be a persistent race

in this country, or will it be absorbed, diluted, and finally

effaced by the white race?

I believe it will continue in the Southern States, and I hope it

may gradually die out at the North, where it has only an artificial

foothold, being chiefly represented by half-breeds, who do not

constitute a race by themselves.

2nd. Will not the practical amalgamation fostered by slavery become

more general after its abolition?

Being the result of the vices engendered by slavery, it is to be

hoped that the emancipation of the blacks, by securing to them a

legal recognition of their natural ties, will tend to diminish this

unnatural amalgamation and lessen everywhere the number of these

unfortunate half-breeds. My reason for believing that the colored

population of the North will gradually vanish is founded in great

degree upon the fact that that population does not increase where

it exists now, but is constantly recruited by an influx from the

South. The southern half-breeds feel their false position at the

South more keenly than the blacks, and are more inclined to escape

to the North than the individuals of purer black blood. Remove the

oppression under which the colored population now suffers, and the

current will at once be reversed; blacks and mulattoes of the North

will seek the sunny South. But I see no cause which should check

the increase of the black population in the Southern States. The

climate is genial to them; the soil rewards the slightest labor

with a rich harvest. The country cannot well be cultivated without

real or fancied danger to the white man, who, therefore, will not

probably compete with the black in the labors of the field, thus

leaving to him an opportunity for easy and desirable support.

3rd. In those sections where the blacks and mulattoes together make

from seventy to eighty and even ninety per cent of the population

will there be, after the abolition of slavery, a sufficiently large

influx of whites to counteract the present numerical preponderance

of blacks?

To answer this question correctly we must take into consideration

the mode of distribution of the white and of the colored population

in the more Southern States. The whites inhabit invariably the

sea-shores and the more elevated grounds, while the blacks are

scattered over the lowlands. This peculiar localization is rendered

necessary by the physical constitution of the country. The lowlands

are not habitable in summer by the whites between sunset and

sunrise. All the wealthy whites, and in the less healthy regions

even the overseers, repair in the evening to the sea-shore or to

the woodlands, and return only in the morning to the plantation,

except during the winter months, after the first hard frost, when

the country is everywhere habitable by all. This necessarily limits

the area which can be tenanted by the whites, and in some States

that area is very small as compared with that habitable by the

blacks. It is therefore clear that with a free black population,

enjoying identical rights with the whites, these States will sooner

or later become negro States, with a comparatively small white

population. This is inevitable; we might as soon expect to change

the laws of nature as to avert this result. I believe it may in a

certain sense work well in the end. But any policy based upon

different expectations is doomed to disappointment.

4th. How to prevent the whites from securing the lion's share of

the labor of the blacks?

This is a question which my want of familiarity with the operations

of the laboring classes prevents me from answering in a manner

satisfactory to myself. Is it not possible to apply to the

superintendence of the working negroes something like the system

which regulates the duties of the foreman in all our manufacturing

establishments?

I should like to go on and attempt to devise some scheme in

conformity with the convictions I have expressed in these letters.

But I have little ability in the way of organizing, and then the

subject is so novel that I am not prepared to propose anything very

definite.

Ever truly yours,

LOUIS AGASSIZ.

FROM DR. S.G. HOWE.

NEW YORK, August 18, 1863.

MY DEAR AGASSIZ,

I cannot refrain from expressing my thanks for your prompt

compliance with my request, and for your two valuable letters.

Be assured I shall try to keep my mind open to conviction and to

forbear forming any theory before observing a wide circle of facts.

I do not know how you got the idea that I had decided in favor of

anything about the future of the colored population. I have

corresponded with the founders of "La Societe Cosmopolite pour la

fusion des races humaines" in France,--an amalgamation society,

founded upon the theory that the perfect man is to be the result of

the fusion of all the races upon earth. I have not, however, the

honor of being a member thereof. Indeed, I think it hardly exists.

I hear, too, that several of our prominent anti-slavery gentlemen,

worthy of respect for their zeal and ability, have publicly

advocated the doctrines of amalgamation; but I do not know upon

what grounds.

I do, indeed, hold that in this, as in other matters, we are to do

the manifest right, regardless of consequences. If you ask me who

is to decide what is the manifest right, I answer, that in morals,

as well as in mathematics, there are certain truths so simple as to

be admitted at sight as axioms by every one of common intelligence

and honesty. The right to life is as clear as that two and two make

four, and none dispute it. The right to liberty and to ownership of

property fairly earned is just as clear to the enlightened mind as

that 5 x 6 = 30; but the less enlightened may require to reflect

about it, just as they may want concrete signs to show that five

times six do really make thirty. As we ascend in numbers and in

morals, the intuitive perceptions become less and less; and though

the truths are there, and ought to be admitted as axiomatic, they

are not at once seen and felt by ordinary minds.

Now so far as the rights of blacks and the duties of whites are

manifest to common and honest minds, so far would I admit the first

and perform the second, though the heavens fall. I would not only

advocate entire freedom, equal rights and privileges, and open

competition for social distinction, but what now seems to me the

shocking and downward policy of amalgamation. But the heavens are

not going to fall, and we are not going to be called upon to favor

any policy discordant with natural instincts and cultivated tastes.

A case may be supposed in which the higher race ought to submit to

the sad fate of dilution and debasement of its blood,--as on an

island, and where long continued wrong and suffering had to be

atoned for. But this is hardly conceivable, because, even in what

seems punishment and atonement, the law of harmonious development

still rules. God does not punish wrong and violence done to one

part of our nature, by requiring us to do wrong and violence to

another part. Even Nemesis wields rather a guiding-rod than a

scourge. We need take no step backward, but only aside, to get

sooner into the right path.

Slavery has acted as a disturbing force in the development of our

national character and produced monstrous deformities of a bodily

as well as moral nature, for it has impaired the purity and lowered

the quality of the national blood. It imported Africans, and, to

prevent their extinction by competition with a more vigorous race,

it set a high premium on colored blood. It has fostered and

multiplied a vigorous black race, and engendered a feeble mulatto

breed. Many of each of these classes have drifted northward, right

in the teeth of thermal laws, to find homes where they would never

live by natural election. Now, by utterly rooting out slavery, and

by that means alone, shall we remove these disturbing forces and

allow fair play to natural laws, by the operation of which, it

seems to me, the colored population will disappear from the

Northern and Middle States, if not from the continent, before the

more vigorous and prolific white race. It will be the duty of the

statesman to favor, by wise measures, the operation of these laws

and the purification and elevation of the national blood.

In the way of this is the existence of the colored population of

the Northern and Middle States. Now, while we should grant to every

human being all the rights we claim for ourselves, and bear in mind

the cases of individual excellence of colored people, we must, I

think, admit that mulattoism is hybridism, and that it is unnatural

and undesirable. It has been brought to its present formidable

proportions by several causes,--mainly by slavery. Its evils are to

be met and lessened as far as may be, by wise statesmanship and by

enlightenment of public opinion. These may do much.

Some proclaim amalgamation as the remedy, upon the theory that by

diluting black blood with white blood in larger and larger

proportions, it will finally be so far diluted as to be

imperceptible and will disappear. They forget that we may not do

the wrong that right may come of it. They forget that no amount of

diffusion will exterminate whatever exists; that a pint of ink

diffused in a lake is still there, and the water is only the less

pure.

Others persist that mulattoism is not and cannot be persistent

beyond four generations. In other words, that like some other

abnormal and diseased conditions it is self-limiting, and that the

body social will be purged of it.

In the face of these and other theories, it is our duty to gather

as many facts and as much knowledge as is possible, in order to

throw light upon every part of the subject; nobody can furnish more

than you can.

Faithfully yours,

SAMUEL G. HOWE.* (* In this correspondence with Dr. Howe, one or

two phrases in Agassiz's letters are interpolated from a third

unfinished letter, which was never forwarded to Dr. Howe. These

sentences connect themselves so directly with the sense of the

previous letters that it seemed worth while to add them.--ED.)

The Museum and his own more immediate scientific work must

naturally take precedence in any biography of Agassiz, and perhaps,

for this reason, too little prominence has been given in these

pages to his interest in general education, and especially in the

general welfare and progress of Harvard College. He was deeply

attached to the University with which he had identified himself in

America. While he strained every nerve to develop his own

scientific department, which had no existence at Harvard until his

advent there, no one of her professors was more concerned than

himself for the organization of the college as a whole. A lover of

letters as well as a devotee of nature, he valued every provision

for a well proportioned intellectual training. He welcomed the

creation of an Academic Council for the promotion of free and

frequent interchange of opinion between the different heads of

departments, and, when in Cambridge, he was never absent from the

meetings. He urged, also, the introduction of university lectures,

to the establishment of which he largely contributed, and which he

would fain have opened to all the students. He advocated the

extension of the elective system, believing that while it might

perhaps give a pretext for easy evasion of duty to the more

inefficient and lazy students, it gave larger opportunities to the

better class, and that the University should adapt itself to the

latter rather than the former. "The bright students," he writes to

a friend, "are now deprived of the best advantages to be had here,

because the dull or the indifferent must still be treated as

children."

The two following letters, from their bearing on general university

questions, are not out of place here. Though occasioned by a slight

misconception, they are so characteristic of the writers, and of

their relation to each other, that it would be a pity to omit them.

TO RALPH WALDO EMERSON.

December 12, 1864.

MY DEAR EMERSON,

If your lecture on universities, the first of your course, has been

correctly reported to me, I am almost inclined to quarrel with you

for having missed an excellent chance to help me, and advance the

true interests of the college. You say that Natural History is

getting too great an ascendancy among us, that it is out of

proportion to other departments, and hint that a check-rein would

not be amiss on the enthusiastic professor who is responsible for

this.

Do you not see that the way to bring about a well-proportioned

development of all the resources of the University is not to check

the natural history department, but to stimulate all the others?

not that the zoological school grows too fast, but that the others

do not grow fast enough? This sounds invidious and perhaps somewhat

boastful; but it is you and not I who have instituted the

comparison. It strikes me you have not hit upon the best remedy for

this want of balance. If symmetry is to be obtained by cutting down

the most vigorous growth, it seems to me it would be better to have

a little irregularity here and there. In stimulating, by every

means in my power, the growth of the Museum and the means of

education connected with it, I am far from having a selfish wish to

see my own department tower above the others. I wish that every one

of my colleagues would make it hard for me to keep up with him, and

there are some among them, I am happy to say, who are ready to run

a race with me. Perhaps, after all, I am taking up the cudgels

against you rather prematurely. If I had not been called to New

Haven, Sunday before last, by Professor Silliman's funeral, I

should have been present at your lecture myself. Having missed it,

I may have heard this passage inaccurately repeated. If so, you

must forgive me, and believe me always, whatever you did or did not

say,

Ever truly your friend,

LOUIS AGASSIZ.

FROM RALPH WALDO EMERSON.

CONCORD, December 13, 1864.

DEAR AGASSIZ,

I pray you have no fear that I did, or can, say any word unfriendly

to you or to the Museum, for both of which blessings--the cause and

the effect--I daily thank Heaven! May you both increase and

multiply for ages!

I cannot defend my lectures,--they are prone to be clumsy and

hurried botches,--still less answer for any report,--which I never

dare read; but I can tell you the amount of my chiding. I vented

some of the old grudge I owe the college now for forty-five years,

for the cruel waste of two years of college time on mathematics

without any attempt to adapt, by skillful tutors, or by private

instruction, these tasks to the capacity of slow learners. I still

remember the useless pains I took, and my serious recourse to my

tutor for aid which he did not know how to give me. And now I see

to-day the same indiscriminate imposing of mathematics on all

students during two years,--ear or no ear, you shall all learn

music,--to the waste of time and health of a large part of every

class. It is both natural and laudable in each professor to magnify

his department, and to seek to make it the first in the world if he

can. But of course this tendency must be corrected by securing in

the constitution of the college a power in the head (whether

singular or plural) of coordinating all the parts. Else, important

departments will be overlaid, as in Oxford and in Harvard, natural

history was until now. Now, it looks as if natural history would

obtain in time to come the like predominance as mathematics have

here, or Greek at Oxford. It will not grieve me if it should, for

we are all curious of nature, but not of algebra. But the necessity

of check on the instructors in the head of the college, I am sure

you will agree with me, is indispensable. You will see that my

allusion to naturalists is only incidental to my statement of my

grievance.

But I have made my letter ridiculously long, and pray you to

remember that you have brought it on your own head. I do not know

that I ever attempted before an explanation of any speech.

Always with entire regard yours,

R.W. EMERSON.

At about this time, in September, 1864, Agassiz made an excursion

into Maine, partly to examine the drift phenomena on the islands

and coast of that State, and partly to study the so-called

"horse-backs." The journey proved to be one of the most interesting

he had made in this country with reference to local glacial

phenomena. Compass in hand, he followed the extraordinary ridges of

morainic material lying between Bangor and Katahdin, to the Ebeene

Mountains, at the foot of which are the Katahdin Iron Works.

Returning to Bangor, he pursued, with the same minute

investigation, the glacial tracks and erratic material from that

place to the seacoast and to Mount Desert. The details of this

journey and its results are given in one of the papers contained in

the second volume of his "Geological Sketches." In conclusion, he

says; "I suppose these facts must be far less expressive to the

general observer than to one who has seen this whole set of

phenomena in active operation. To me they have been for many years

so familiar in the Alpine valleys, and their aspect in those

regions is so identical with the facts above described, that

paradoxical as the statement may seem, the presence of the ice is

now an unimportant element to me in the study of glacial phenomena;

no more essential than is the flesh to the anatomist who studies

the skeleton of a fossil animal."

This journey in Maine, undertaken in the most beautiful season of

the American year, when the autumn glow lined the forest roads with

red and gold, was a great refreshment to Agassiz. He had been far

from well, but he returned to his winter's work invigorated and

with a new sense of hope and courage.

CHAPTER 21.

1865-1868: AGE 58-61.

Letter to his Mother announcing Journey to Brazil.

Sketch of Journey.

Kindness of the Emperor.

Liberality of the Brazilian Government.

Correspondence with Charles Sumner.

Letter to his Mother at Close of Brazil Journey.

Letter from Martius concerning Journey in Brazil.

Return to Cambridge.

Lectures in Boston and New York.

Summer at Nahant.

Letter to Professor Peirce on the Survey of Boston Harbor.

Death of his Mother.

Illness.

Correspondence with Oswald Heer.

Summer Journey in the West.

Cornell University.

Letter from Longfellow.

THE next important event in the life of Agassiz, due in the first

instance to his failing health, which made some change of scene and

climate necessary, is best announced by himself in the following

letter.

TO HIS MOTHER.

CAMBRIDGE, March 22, 1865.

DEAR MOTHER,

You will shed tears of joy when you read this, but such tears are

harmless. Listen, then, to what has happened. A few weeks ago I was

thinking how I should employ my summer. I foresaw that in going to

Nahant I should not find the rest I need after all the fatigue of

the two last years, or, at least, not enough of change and

relaxation. I felt that I must have new scenes to give me new life.

But where to go and what to do?

Perhaps I wrote you last year of the many marks of kindness I have

received from the Emperor of Brazil, and you remember that at the

time of my debut as an author, my attention was turned to the

natural history of that country. Lately, also, in a course of

lectures at the Lowell Institute, I have been led to compare the

Alps, where I have passed so many happy years, with the Andes,

which I have never seen. In short, the idea came to me gradually,

that I might spend the summer at Rio de Janeiro, and that, with the

present facilities for travel, the journey would not be too

fatiguing for my wife. . .Upon this, then, I had decided, when most

unexpectedly, and as the consummation of all my wishes, my pleasure

trip was transformed into an important scientific expedition for

the benefit of the Museum, by the intervention of one of my

friends, Mr. Nathaniel Thayer. By chance I met him a week ago in

Boston. He laughed at me a little about my roving disposition, and

then asked me what plans I had formed for the Museum, in connection

with my journey. I answered that, thinking especially of my health,

I had provided only for the needs of myself and my wife during an

absence of six or eight months. Then ensued the following

conversation.

"But, Agassiz, that is hardly like you; you have never been away

from Cambridge without thinking of your Museum."

"True enough; but I am tired,--I need rest. I am going to loaf a

little in Brazil."

"When you have had a fortnight of that kind of thing you will be as

ready for work as ever, and you will be sorry that you have not

made some preparation to utilize the occasion and the localities in

the interest of the Museum."

"Yes, I have some such misgiving; but I have no means for anything

beyond my personal expenses, and it is no time to ask sacrifices

from any one in behalf of science. The country claims all our

resources.

"But suppose some one offered you a scientific assistant, all

expenses paid, what would you say?"

"Of that I had never thought."

"How many assistants could you employ?"

"Half a dozen."

"And what would be the expense of each one?"

"I suppose about twenty-five hundred dollars; at least, that is

what I have counted upon for myself."

After a moment's reflection he resumed:--

"If it suits you then, Agassiz, and interferes in no way with the

plans for your health, choose your assistants among the employees

of your Museum or elsewhere, and I will be responsible for all the

scientific expenses of the expedition.". . .

My preparations are made. I leave probably next week, from New

York, with a staff of assistants more numerous, and, I think, as

well chosen, as those of any previous undertaking of the kind.* (*

Beside the six assistants provided for by Mr. Thayer, there were a

number of young volunteer aids who did excellent work on the

expedition.)

. . .All those who know me seem to have combined to heighten the

attraction of the journey, and facilitate it in every respect. The

Pacific Mail Steamship Company has invited me to take passage with

my whole party on their fine steamer, the Colorado. They will take

us, free of all expense, as far as Rio de Janeiro,--an economy of

fifteen thousand francs at the start. Yesterday evening I received

a letter from the Secretary of the Navy, at Washington, desiring

the officers of all vessels of war stationed along the coasts I am

to visit, to give me aid and support in everything concerning my

expedition. The letter was written in the kindest terms, and

gratified me the more because it was quite unsolicited. I am really

touched by the marks of sympathy I receive, not only from near

friends, but even from strangers. . .I seem like the spoiled child

of the country, and I hope God will give me strength to repay in

devotion to her institutions and to her scientific and intellectual

development, all that her citizens have done for me.

I am forgetting that you will be anxious to know what special work

I propose to do in the interest of science in Brazil. First, I hope

to make large collections of all such objects as properly belong in

a Museum of Natural History, and to this end I have chosen from

among the employees of our Museum one representative from each

department. My only regret is that I must leave Alex in Cambridge

to take care of the Museum itself. He will have an immense amount

of work to do, for I leave him only six out of our usual staff of

assistants. In the second place, I intend to make a special study

of the habits, metamorphoses, anatomy, etc., of the Amazonian

fishes. Finally, I dream sometimes of an ascension of the Andes, if

I do not find myself too old and too heavy for climbing. I should

like to see if there were not also large glaciers in this chain of

mountains, at the period when the glaciers of the Alps extended to

the Jura. . .But this latter part of my plan is quite uncertain,

and must depend in great degree upon our success on the Amazons.

Accompanied as I am with a number of aides naturalistes, we ought

to be able among us to bring together large collections, and even

to add duplicates, which I can then, on my return, distribute to

the European Museums, in exchange for valuable specimens.

We leave next week, and I hope to write you from Rio a letter which

will reach you about the date of my birthday. A steamer leaves

Brazil once a month for England. If my arrival coincides with her

departure you shall not be disappointed in this.

With all my heart,

YOUR LOUIS.

The story of this expedition has been told in the partly

scientific, partly personal diary published after Agassiz's return,

under the title of "A Journey in Brazil," and therefore a full

account of it here would be mere repetition. He was absent sixteen

months. The first three were spent in Rio de Janeiro, and in

excursions about the neighborhood of her beautiful bay and the

surrounding mountains. For greater efficiency and promptness he

divided his party into companies, each working separately, some in

collecting, others in geological surveys, but all under one

combined plan of action.

The next ten months were passed in the Amazonian region. This part

of the journey had the charm of purely tropical scenery, and

Agassiz, who was no less a lover of nature than a naturalist,

enjoyed to the utmost its beauty and picturesqueness. Much of the

time he and his companions were living on the great river itself,

and the deck of the steamer was by turns laboratory, dining-room,

and dormitory. Often, as they passed close under the banks of the

river, or between the many islands which break its broad expanse

into narrow channels, their improvised working room was

overshadowed by the lofty wall of vegetation, which lifted its

dense mass of trees and soft drapery of vines on either side. Still

more beautiful was it when they left the track of the main river

for the water-paths hidden in the forest. Here they were rowed by

Indians in "montarias," a peculiar kind of boat used by the

natives. It has a thatched hood at one end for shelter from rain or

sun. Little sun penetrates, however, to the shaded "igarape"

(boat-path), along which the montaria winds its way under a vault

of green. When traveling in this manner, they stopped for the

night, and indeed sometimes lingered for days, in Indian

settlements, or in the more secluded single Indian lodges, which

are to be found on the shores of almost every lake or channel. In

this net-work of fresh waters, threading the otherwise impenetrable

woods, the humblest habitation has its boat and landing-place. With

his montaria and his hammock, his little plantation of bananas and

mandioca, and the dwelling, for which the forest about him supplies

the material, the Amazonian Indian is supplied with all the

necessities of life.

Sometimes the party were settled, for weeks at a time, in more

civilized fashion, in the towns or villages on the banks of the

main river, or its immediate neighborhood, at Manaos, Ega, Obydos,

and elsewhere. Wherever they sojourned, whether for a longer or a

shorter time, the scientific work went on uninterruptedly. There

was not an idle member in the company.

From the time he left Rio de Janeiro, Agassiz had the companionship

of a young Brazilian officer of the engineer corps, Major Coutinho.

Thoroughly familiar with the Amazons and its affluents, at home

with the Indians, among whom he had often lived, he was the pearl

of traveling companions as well as a valuable addition to the

scientific force. Agassiz left the Amazonian valley in April, and

the two remaining months of his stay in Brazil were devoted to

excursions along the coast, especially in the mountains back of

Ceara, and in the Organ mountains near Rio de Janeiro.

From beginning to end this journey fulfilled Agassiz's brightest

anticipations. Mr. Thayer, whose generosity first placed the

expedition on so broad a scientific basis, continued to give it his

cordial support till the last specimen was stored in the Museum.

The interest taken in it by the Emperor of Brazil, and the

liberality of the government toward it, also facilitated all

Agassiz's aims and smoothed every difficulty in the path. On

starting he had set before himself two subjects of inquiry. These

were, first, the fresh-water fauna of Brazil, of the greater

interest to him, because of the work on the Brazilian Fishes, with

which his scientific career had opened; and second, her glacial

history, for he believed that even these latitudes must have been,

to a greater or less degree, included in the ice-period. The first

three months spent in Rio de Janeiro and its environs gave him the

key to phenomena connected with both these subjects, and he

followed them from there to the head-waters of the Amazons, as an

Indian follows a trail. The distribution of life in the rivers and

lakes of Brazil, the immense number of species and their local

circumscription, as distinct faunae in definite areas of the same

water-basin, amazed him; while the character of the soil and other

geological features confirmed him in his preconceived belief that

the glacial period could not have been less than cosmic in its

influence. He was satisfied that the tropical, as well as the

temperate and arctic regions, had been, although in a less degree,

fashioned by ice.

Just before leaving the United States he received a letter of

friendly farewell from Charles Sumner, and his answer, written on

the Rio Negro, gives some idea of the conditions under which he

traveled, and of the results he had obtained. As the letters

explain each other, both are given here.

FROM CHARLES SUMNER.

WASHINGTON, March 20, 1865.

MY DEAR AGASSIZ,

It is a beautiful expedition that you are about to commence,--in

contrast with the deeds of war. And yet you are going forth to

conquer new realms, and bring them under a sway they have not yet

known. But science is peaceful and bloodless in her conquests. May

you return victorious! I am sure you will. Of course you will see

the Emperor of Brazil, whose enlightened character is one of the

happy accidents of government. . .You are a naturalist; but you are

a patriot also. If you can take advantage of the opportunities

which you will surely enjoy, and plead for our country, to the end

that its rights may be understood, and the hardships it has been

obliged to endure may be appreciated, you will render a service to

the cause of international peace and good-will.

You are to have great enjoyment. I imagine you already very happy

in the scenes before you. I, too, should like to see Nature in her

most splendid robes; but I must stay at home and help keep the

peace. Good-by--Bon voyage!

Ever sincerely yours,

CHARLES SUMNER.

TO CHARLES SUMNER.

RIO NEGRO; ON BOARD THE BRAZILIAN WAR STEAMER IBICUHY, December 26,

1865.

MY DEAR SUMNER,

The heading of these lines tells a long and interesting story. Here

I am, sailing on the Rio Negro, with my wife and a young Brazilian

friend, provided with all the facilities which modern improvements,

the extraordinary liberality of the Brazilian government, and the

kindness of our commander can bestow, and pursuing my scientific

investigations with as much ease as if I were in my study, or in

the Museum at Cambridge,--with this enormous difference, that I am

writing on deck, protected by an awning from the hot sun, and

surrounded by all the luxuriance of the richest tropical

vegetation.

The kind reception I met at the hands of the emperor on my arrival

at Rio has been followed by every possible attention and mark of

good-will toward me personally, but usually tendered in such a way

as to show that an expression of cordiality toward the United

States was intended also in the friendly feeling with which

everything was done to facilitate my researches. In the first

place, the emperor gave me as a traveling companion an extremely

intelligent and well-educated Brazilian, the man of all others whom

I should have chosen had I been consulted beforehand; and for the

six months during which we have been on our journey here, I have

not been able to spend a dollar except for my personal comfort, and

for my collections. All charges for transportation of persons and

baggage in public conveyances, as well as for specimens, have

everywhere been remitted by order of the government. This is not

all; when we reached Para the Brazilian Steamship Company placed a

steamer at my disposal, that I might stop where I pleased on the

way, and tarry as long as I liked instead of following the ordinary

line of travel. In this way I ascended the Amazons to Manaos, and

from there, by the ordinary steamer, reached the borders of Peru,

making prolonged stays at Manaos and at Ega, and sending out

exploring parties up the Javary, the Jutay, the Ica, etc. On my

return to Manaos, at the junction of the Rio Negro and the Amazons,

I found the Ibicuhy awaiting me with an order from the Minister of

Public Works, placing her at my disposal for the remainder of my

stay in the waters of the Amazons.