82 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. XVH. 



The contemplated visit to the Aar glacier and to see 

 the ruins of the first "Hotel des Neuchatelois" on the 

 moraine was postponed. It was rather a disappoint- 

 ment to Mrs. Agassiz, who was always ready to yield 

 to her husband's wishes. Although Agassiz travelled 

 a great deal after 1859, and Mrs. Agassiz always 

 accompanied him, they did not pay a second visit to 

 Europe, and since the death of her husband she has 

 not revisited Switzerland. 1 



At the end of September Agassiz returned to Cam- 

 bridge, determined to spend his life in America, and at 

 the same time to consecrate all his energy and ability 

 to the creation of a great museum, according to his 

 own views of natural history, and, as he said to his most 

 intimate friends, " the best arranged and the most per- 

 fect in the world " ; for in the case of Agassiz we may 

 apply Sydney Smith's aphorism, that " Merit and 

 Modesty have no other connection, except in their first 

 letter." 



On the 1 4th of June, 1859, before leaving for Europe, 

 he had laid the corner-stone of his future great museum, 

 with appropriate ceremonies. It had always been the 

 custom of Agassiz to start any scheme having to do 

 with natural history, whether publications or researches, 

 without thought of the necessary means to carry it out, 

 always confident that the future would provide the 

 money required. He followed the same plan with his 

 museum. He found, on entering upon his duties as 

 professor of zoology and geology in the Lawrence 



1 Lately --November, 1894 Mrs. Agassiz left America with Mrs. 

 1'aulinc Shaw, to pass the winter in Italy. 



