202 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xxm. 



and maintenance of the school. To a man of the 

 optimistic and enthusiastic temperament of Agassiz, 

 the offer was too great a temptation to resist, notwith- 

 standing his age and his broken health. Those near 

 him knew that he was not in a condition to accept such 

 a heavy burden, in addition to the many engagements 

 already assumed. But remonstrances were of no avail ; 

 he answered all objections, and after a few weeks of 

 hesitation accepted the gift. As his son says : "It 

 is a new povipc added to the many already in activity." 

 Mr. Alexander Agassiz, above all a business man, was 

 justly alarmed at the anticipated expenses of the 

 Museum, without the addition of another burden, the 

 extent of which it was impossible to foresee. Knowing 

 his father's propensity to " faire grand " in everything 

 relating to science, without any regard to expenditure, 

 it is not surprising that he was opposed to the accept- 

 ance of the gift. But it was impossible to restrain 

 Agassiz when he had started on any special scheme, 

 and a summer school of natural history had been for 

 years one of his pet desires. 



In March, 1873, he wrote to Mr. John Anderson: "It 

 seems to me impossible to do otherwise than accept the 

 great gift you offer. It changes at once an experiment 

 without fixed location or stable foundation into a perma- 

 nent school for the study of nature, such as the world 

 has not seen before. ... I am overwhelmed by your 

 generosity [the additional endowment of fifty thousand 

 dollars]. Such a gift, following so close upon the 

 donation of an island, admirably adapted by its position 

 for the purposes of a practical school for natural his- 



