LETTER FROM HUMBOLDT. 381 



should involve him in endless delays and per- 

 plexities. 



HUMBOLDT TO AGASSIZ. 



BERLIN, September 16, 1845. 



. . . Your Nomenclator frightens me with 

 its double entries. The Milky Way must have 

 crossed your path, for you seem to be dealing 

 with nebulas which you are trying to resolve 

 into stars. For pity's sake husband your 

 strength. You treat this journey as if it 

 were for life. As to finishing, alas ! my 

 friend, one does not finish. Considering all 

 that you have in your well-furnished brain 

 beside your accumulated papers, half the con- 

 tents of which you do not yourself know, 

 your expression " aufraumen," to put in 

 final order, is singularly inappropriate. There 

 will always remain some burdensome residue, 

 last things not yet accounted for. I beg 

 you, then, not to abuse your strength. Be 

 content to finish only what seems to you near- 

 est completion, the most advanced of your 

 work. 



Your letter reached me, unaccompanied, 

 however, by the books it announces. They 

 are to come, no doubt, in some other way. 

 Spite of the demands made upon me by the 

 continuation of my " Cosmos," I shall find 



