404 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



the Atlantic, and be everywhere in reach of 

 Boston in a very short time. . . . With your 

 approbation, I would give to my course the 

 title of " Lectures on the Plan of the Crea- 

 tion, especially in the Animal Kingdom." 



Thus was Agassiz introduced to the insti- 

 tution under whose auspices he first made 

 acquaintance with his American audiences. 

 There he became a familiar presence during 

 more than a quarter of a century. The 

 enthusiastic greeting accorded to him, as a 

 stranger whose reputation had preceded him, 

 ripened with years into an affectionate wel- 

 come from friends and fellow-citizens, when- 

 ever he appeared on the platform. In the 

 director of the institution, Mr. John A. Low- 

 ell, he found a friend upon whose sympathy 

 and wise counsels he relied in all his after 

 years. The cordial reception he met from 

 him and his large family circle made him at 

 once at home in a strange land. 



Never was Agassiz' s power as a teacher, or 

 the charm of his personal presence more evi- 

 dent than in his first course of Lowell Lectures. 

 He was unfamiliar with the language, to the 

 easy use of which his two or three visits in 

 England, where most of his associates under- 



