94 ELIZABETH GARY AGASSIZ 



exceed all the rest. But I am not going to be discour- 

 aged. This most valuable and really most extraor- 

 dinary collection (for with the facilities Agassiz has 

 had from the Brazilian government he has had it in 

 his power to do things on a scale such as no other 

 naturalist has ever been able to attempt) will put the 

 Museum at one stride far in advance of all other Mu- 

 seums in some departments. This is what was contem- 

 plated when the Museum was started, though no one 

 could have dreamed of its being done so rapidly; and 

 now if people grumble because it will cost five or 

 six thousand dollars to secure the safety of such a col- 

 lection, which could not under ordinary circumstances 

 be had for ten times that sum, I must say I think 

 the complaint is unreasonable. With such a spirit the 

 Museum must always remain a third or fourth rate 

 establishment and is not worth the care of a man 

 of first-rate ability. Perhaps I am climbing a hill be- 

 fore I come to it, but I infer these difficulties from 

 Alex's last letter. It never seems to have occurred to 

 the friends of the Museum that it was to be a living 

 thing, — to increase and develop, and therefore to be 

 fed and nourished. If any institution of that kind 

 does not grow and require every year larger means, it 

 is dead, — and what is dead had better be buried 

 forthwith. But you are not the wife of a scientific 

 man ("thanks be to praise," perhaps you say, in 

 Grandma's favorite ejaculation), and so perhaps this 

 will not appeal to your inmost soul. 



Pauline writes me that Louis is grown such an 

 obedient little man, and gives up a great deal to the 



