48 ELIZABETH GARY AGASSIZ 



hour was anticipated as the brightest of the whole 

 morning. It soon became a habit with friends and 

 neighbors, and especially with the mothers of the 

 scholars, to drop in for the lectures, and thus the 

 school audience was increased by a small circle of 

 older listeners. The corps of teachers was also gradu- 

 ally enlarged. The neighborhood of the university was 

 a great advantage in this respect, and Agassiz had 

 the cooperation not only of his brother-in-law, Pro- 

 fessor Felton, but of others among his colleagues, 

 who took classes in special departments, or gave lec- 

 tures in history and Hterature. 



It has seemed worth while to quote the above passage not 

 merely because it describes the school to which Mrs. Agassiz 

 devoted eight busy years and from which she regarded 

 Radcliffe College as an outcome, but especially because 

 her effacement of herself in the description is peculiarly 

 characteristic. That it is a case of Hamlet with Hamlet 

 left out, so far as she is concerned, is apparent from Mrs. 

 Curtis's narrative, which serves as a supplement to the 

 above passage: 



Lizzie's own share, as I remember it, was to hold 

 the position of the head of the school with a general 

 oversight of the pupils in all the branches. Even with- 

 out teaching much care devolved upon her with the 

 sense of responsibility in the schoolroom, added to 

 the direction of her own household under these novel 

 conditions. But all inconveniences were met by her 

 with tact and sweet temper, and when at my father's 

 death in 1859, she found that my mother dreaded 



