CHAPTER III 



CAIVIBRIDGE — CHARLESTON — THE AGASSIZ 

 SCHOOL — EUROPE 



1850-1865 



THE girlhood of Elizabeth Gary as we have followed 

 it in the preceding pages differed Uttle from the usual 

 existence of a Boston girl of the time, growing up in a large 

 circle of relatives linked by intermarriage with other Bos- 

 ton families whose names were more or less conspicuous in 

 the commercial interests of the place — especially trade 

 with East India or China. Into this provincial community 

 there flashed a brilliant element in 1846 with the arrival 

 of Louis Agassiz, already well known as an able naturalist 

 and a gifted professor in the University of Neuchatel. He 

 had left his delicate German wife with their two daugh- 

 ters at Garlsruhe and his son at school in Neuchatel, and 

 had come to America with scientific exploration as his prim- 

 ary object, for which he had received a grant of money 

 from the King of Prussia. But previous to sailing, in order 

 to eke out his slender income, he had arranged under the 

 auspices of Mr. John Lowell to deliver a course of lectures 

 for the Lowell Institute in Boston. The effect that he pro- 

 duced upon his audience, composed of scientific and cul- 

 tivated hearers side by side with working-men, is best 

 described by Mrs. Agassiz in his biography: 



Never was Agassiz's power as a teacher, or the charm 

 of his personal presence more evident than in his first 



