1871-72.] HIS SCIENTIFIC DIPLOMACY. 199 



tunity of understanding the scheme of creation as thor- 

 oughly as he 'understood his multiplication table. He 

 had the tact to adapt his explanations and his description 

 of the absolute poverty of the institution, to the listener 

 and his official position in the state. Then, after weeks 

 of such preparatory work at the state house, came the 

 annual visit of the whole Legislative body, with the 

 Governor at its head, to the Museum. Everything was 

 in readiness for the reception when the six or ten street 

 cars, filled with legislators, arrived at the University 

 grounds. Agassiz conducted them at once into the 

 various exhibition halls, showing the treasures of each, 

 and briefly describing the departments. Afterward, in 

 the lecture-room, in an informal conversation, he de- 

 tailed the methods and needs of the institution. He 

 always succeeded in winning to his side farmers, trades- 

 men, and politicians. After such a visit, the Legis- 

 lature always voted a new appropriation of public 

 money ; it was only necessary for the President of the 

 Senate and the Speaker of the House to make speeches 

 in its favour, and the resolution would easily pass the 

 three readings without further debate. 



Agassiz made stupendous efforts, during the last four- 

 teen years of his life, to obtain seven hundred thousand 

 dollars to found his Museum. Less than half of it was 

 furnished by the state of Massachusetts, and the rest 

 by private subscriptions, a great part of it coming from 

 his own family and relatives. If he had gone to Wash- 

 ington and made only half the exertion he did in Bos- 

 ton, he would have easily obtained from Congress ten 

 and even twenty millions of dollars to found the United 



