THE BIOGRAPHY OF AGASSIZ 181 



The three friends of mine never seem to me dead, 

 but only absent for a while, and hardly so much 

 as that, so living and present are their forms and 

 faces. And yet not really to see them and speak 

 with them is always a great sorrow to me, and 

 I constantly think and feel how much greater it 

 must be to you. 



Pardon me for laying my hand on such a wound, 

 and believe me, 



Ever yours very truly, 



Henry W. Longfellow 



During these years of which we are speaking Mrs. 

 Agassiz was engaged in preparing a biography of Agassiz. 

 There is no record of the exact date when she began the task 

 of collecting and arranging her material, but by March, 

 1877, the work had advanced so far that she was finishing 

 the second chapter, which contains the account of Agassiz 's 

 student days in Munich. How she came to undertake the 

 book, and her aim in doing so she has explained in the 

 Preface: "My chief object was to prevent the dispersion 

 and final loss of scattered papers which had an unques- 

 tionable family value. But, as my work grew upon my 

 hands, I began to feel that the story of an intellectual life, 

 which was marked by such rare coherence and unity of 

 aim, might have a wider interest and usefulness; might, 

 perhaps, serve as a stimulus and an encouragement to 

 others. For this reason, and also because I am inclined to 

 believe that the European portion of the life of Louis 

 Agassiz is little known in his adopted country, while its 

 American period must be imfamiliar to many in his native 



