176 ELIZABETH GARY AGASSIZ 



Cambridge^ January 9, 1876 

 ... Oh, won't it be nice ever to be where anxiety 

 does not come ! I wonder how far off it is, for I Ve an 

 idea that to leave this earth is not at once to enter 

 Heaven. The CathoHc idea of purgatory (not in 

 a material sense) seems to me to be founded on a 

 reasonable idea. There seems no reason why the fact 

 of death should absolve you at once from all your 

 faults and errors and their consequences. But I 

 think somewhere in the far future there must be a 

 time when all is made right for us, and the happi- 

 ness of which we have such lovely glimpses here 

 becomes a safe and permanent possession. 



Cambridgey April 9, 1876 

 ... I MUST tell you about our baby. My delight is 

 to go in and take my place in the room adjoining 

 [his mother's], where the baby lies, and watch my 

 chances. Sometimes if he is awake I have him for 

 a long time, and I think there is nothing like the 

 peace that creeps in upon you with a baby in your 

 arms. There's something in the httle soft roll of 

 warm flannel, something in the quiet shaded room 

 from wliich all the bustle of the w^orld outside is 

 excluded, that takes away all the pain and sting 

 of life by some subtle power. 



The following letter was written after a visit of the Em- 

 peror and Empress of Brazil to Cambridge. 



