vi PREFACE 



Her heirs kindly placed at the disposal of Radcliffe 

 College her material for the biography and thus made 

 it possible for the book to be written. The title that 

 Miss Cary had expected to give to her part of the 

 work — "Memories of Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, by 

 One who Looked On" — expresses very well the 

 character of the brief portion that she had prepared. 

 This consisted largely of a description of the Boston 

 of her own and Mrs. Agassiz's youth, for memories 

 crowded so thick and fast upon her as she wrote that 

 she w^as diverted from the account of Mrs. Agassiz 's 

 individual girlhood, and had herself concluded that 

 probably much of her narrative might prove irrele- 

 vant to the memoir. I have, therefore, selected from 

 her manuscript the sections that convey an impres- 

 sion of Mrs. Agassiz's immediate environment in her 

 earlier years and have published these with very few 

 and unimportant verbal changes. Of the material 

 dealing with Mrs. Agassiz's ancestry Miss Cary left 

 too incomplete a draft for publication, but her notes 

 have served as a basis for the first chapter and have 

 been amplified from other family papers. From the 

 letters that she had collected for possible use I have 

 made a selection and have added to these many from 

 other sources. If Miss Cary could have finished her 

 part, the book would have had a unique character 

 that would have enhanced its interest. As it is, the 

 admission must sadly be made that it contains but 

 little of her writing. 



The resources for the biography have been ample 

 for some chapters, scanty for others. Mrs. Agassiz had 



