Part 19 (1/2)

Agassiz was evidently encouraged himself by his success, for toward the close of his Lowell Lectures he writes as follows:--

TO CHANCELLOR FAVARGEZ

BOSTON, December 31, 1846

Beside my lecture course, noithin a few days of its conclusion, and the ever-increasing hich grows on my hands in proportion as I become familiar with the environs of Boston, where I shall still re up my journals, notes, and observations that I have not found a moment to write you since the last steahter to et that I have a scientific mission to fulfill, to which I will never prove recreant, I could easily h by lectures which would be aded upon me, to put me completely at my ease hereafter But I will limit myself to what I need in order to repay those who have helped h a difficult crisis, and that I can do without even turning aside froain to science,--there lies my true mission I rejoice in what I have been able to do thus far, and I hope that at Berlin they will be satisfied with the results which I shall subes on un! You know my plans are not wont to be too closely restricted

Why do you not write to otten in your pleasant circle while hts are every day constantly with ht, January 1st A happy new year to you and to all members of the Tuesday Club Bonjour et bon an

Soassiz's correspondence with his European friends and colleagues during the winter and suive a clew to the occupations and interests of his new life, and keep up the thread of the old one

LOUIS AGassIZ TO M DECAISNE

February, 1847

I write only to thank you for the pleasure your note gavebelonging to one's past life, the n of friendly remembrance is a boon Do not infer from this that Ahted with h I do not quite understand all that surrounds me; or I should perhaps rather say that many principles which, theoretically, we have been wont to think perfect in themselves, seem in their application to involve results quite contrary to our expectations I a myself which is better,--our old Europe, where the ive hi thus a wider horizon for the huradation or at least in destitution; or this neorld, where the institutions tend to keep all on one level as part of the general mass,--but a mass, be it said, which has no noxious eleood All the world lives well, is decently clad, learns so, is awake and interested Instruction does not, as in some parts of Germany for instance, furnish a man with an intellectual tool and then deny hith of Aious number of individuals who think and work at the same time It is a severe test of pretentious inalityYou are right in believing that one works, or at least that one CAN work, better in Paris than elsewhere, and I should esteem myself happy if I had my nest there, but illefforts for anything but my work

AGassIZ TO MILNE EDWARDS

May 31, 1847

After six weeks of an illness which has renderedto be transported into the circle oftheof its tendency and influence Therefore I take my way quite naturally to the Rue Cuvier and mount your stairs, confident that there I shall find this chosen society Question upon question greetsthis neorld, on the shore of which I have but just landed, and yet about which I have so much to say that I fear to tire my listeners

Naturalist as I am, I cannot but put the people first,--the people who have opened this part of the American continent to European civilization What a people! But to understand the them Our education, the principles of our society, the reatly froive you an idea of this great nation, passing from childhood to maturity with the faults of spoiled children, and yet with the nobility of character and the enthusiasm of youth Their look is wholly turned toward the future; their social life is not yet irrevocably bound to exacting antecedents, and thus nothing holds them back, unless, perhaps, a consideration for the opinion in which they land (unhappily, to theland) is a curious fact in the life of the A land they receive their literature, and the scientific work of central Europe reaches the this kind of dependence upon England, in which American savans have voluntarily placed theh opinion of their acquirements, since I have learned to know them better, and I think we should render a real service to the the them also a little more toward ourselves Do not think that these relish savans, whoard with affection and estees, why not help theht? They need only confidence, and soive theists of this country I would place Mr Dana at the head He is still very young, fertile in ideas, rich in facts, equally able as geologist and ist When his work on corals is coe of him One of these days you will make him a correspondent of the Institute, unless he kills hieneralization Then there is Gould, author of theup the mollusks of the Wilkes Expedition De Kay and Lea, whose works have long been known, are rather specialists, I should say I do not yet know Holbrook personally Pickering, of the Wilkes Expedition, is a well of science, perhaps the asteropods of this country admirably well, and has published a work upon thehly fa in Europe In connection with Halde up the articulates of the Wilkes Expedition Wye, is an excellent comparative anatoanization of fishesThe botanists are less numerous, but Asa Gray and Dr Torrey are knoherever the study of botany is pursued Gray, with his indefatigable zeal, will gain upon his coists for the savans of the country The fact that every state has its corps of official geologists has tended to develop study in this direction to the detriment of other branches, and will later, I fear, tend to the detriment of science itself; for the utilitarian tendency thus iists will retard their progress With us, on the contrary, researches of this kind constantly tend to assume a more and eologists forent The names of Charles T Jackson, Jaers (two brothers), have long been faists, I would mention Dr Morton, of Philadelphia, well known as the author of several papers upon fossils, and still better by his great work upon the indigenous races of America He is a ards his knowledge and his activity He is the pillar of the Philadelphia Acadeain, form another utilitarian class of men in this country As with many of them purely scientific work is not their sole object, it is difficult for an outsider to distinguish between the clever her ai back to Bowditch, the translator of the ”Mecanique celeste,” and the author of a work on practical navigation He died in Boston, where they are now erecting a nificent e, is considered here the equal of our great mathematicians It is not for assiz was no mathematician, and Peirce no naturalist, they soon found that their intellectual aims were the same, and they became very close friends)

You are familiar, no doubt, with the works of Captain Wilkes and the report of his journey around the world His charts are much praised The charts of the coasts and harbors of the United States, overnment expense, are ad his travels are alsoand instructive; to botanists especially so, on account of the scientific notes accoth ofthe winter I have been chiefly occupied incollections of fishes and birds, and also of the various woods The forests here differ greatly from ours in the same latitude I have even observed that they resely the forests of the Molasse epoch, and the analogy is heightened by that between the animals of this country and those of the eastern coasts of Asia as compared with those of the Molasse, such as the chelydras, andreas, etc I will send a report upon this to M Brongniart as soon as I have the time to prepare it On the erratic phenomena, also, I have made numerous observations, which I am anxious to send to M de Beaumont These phenomena, so difficult of explanation with us, become still more complicated here, both on account of their contact with the sea and of the vast stretches of flat country over which they extend

For the last few days I have been especially occupied with the develop the actiniae I have lad if you would communicate it to the Academy in advance of the illustrated paper on the sa their star-like appearance, the star-fishes have, like the sea-urchins, indications by no ans in pairs, and an anterior and posterior extrenized by the special for I have now satisfied ous to this in the arrangement of their partitions, so that I am teeuised by their radiating for sies and the ocelli I attach the more importance to these observations, because they may lead to a clearer perception than we have yet reached of the natural relations between the radiates and the other great types of the anidom

This summer I hope to explore the lower lakes of Canada, and also the regions lying to the eastward as far as Nova Scotia; in the autuhenies, and shall pass a part of the winter in the Carolinas

I will soon write to Monsieur Brongniart concerning my plans for next year If the Museus, I should like to make a journey of exploration next sulected by naturalists, the region, namely, of the small lakes to the west of Lake Superior, where the Mississippi takes its rise, and also of that lying between this great basin of fresh water and the southern arreat valley of the Mississippi, and would pass the winter on the borders of the Gulf of Mexico

To carry out such projects, however, I have need of larger resources than I can create by my own efforts, and I shall soon be at the end of the subsidy grantedof Prussia I shall, however, subordinate all these projects to the possibilities of which you kindly tellthe interest offered by the exploration of a country so rich as this, notwithstanding the gratifying welcome I have received here, I feel, after all, that nowhere can one work better than in our old Europe, and the friendshi+p you have shownme to return as soon as possible to Paris Remember me to our co collections which I shall forward to the Museum; they will show you that I have doneno one

In the suassiz established himself in a small house at East Boston, sufficiently near the sea to be a convenient station forcorps assembled about him, and it soon became, like every place he had ever inhabited, a hive of industry Chief a his companions were Count Francois de Pourtales, who had accompanied him to this country; Mr E Desor, who soon followed him to America; and Mr Jacques Burkhardt, who had preceded thehtsman in chief to the whole party To his labors were soon added those of Mr A Sonrel, the able lithographic artist, who illustrated the assiz To an exquisite skill in his art he added a quick, intelligent perception of structural features from the naturalist's point of viehich made his work doubly valuable Besides those above-mentioned, there were several assistants who shared the scientific work in one department or another