iv PREFA CE. 



serve as a stimulus and an encouragement 

 to others. For this reason, and also because 

 I am inclined to believe that the European 

 portion of the life of Louis Agassiz is little 

 known in his adopted country, while its Amer- 

 ican period must be unfamiliar to many in his 

 native land, I have determined to publish the 

 material here collected. 



The book labors under the disadvantage of 

 being in great part a translation. The cor- 

 respondence for the first volume was almost 

 wholly in French and German, so that the 

 choice lay between a patch-work of several 

 languages or the unity of one, burdened as it 

 must be with the change of version. I have 

 accepted what seemed to me the least of these 

 difficulties. 



Besides the assistance of my immediate fami- 

 ly, including the revision of the text by my son 

 Alexander Agassiz, I have been indebted to my 

 friends Dr. and Mrs. Hagen and to the late 

 Professor Guyot for advice on special points. 



