184 ELIZABETH GARY AGASSIZ 



submitted to such competent critics as Professor Arnold 

 Guyot, Longfellow, and Horace E. Scudder, as well as to 

 Agassiz's cousin, Auguste Mayor, who Hved at Neuchatel. 

 The following letters written at intervals while the book 

 was preparing are of interest here. 



TO FRAU CECILE METTENIUS 



Cambridge, May 15, 1876 

 ... I THINK you would be disappointed in [a "Biog- 

 raphy," should I write one]. I should be especially 

 careful not to give it a controversial character. 

 I should let facts, dates, and the completeness and 

 coherence of the man's whole intellectual life tell its 

 own story. Time would do the rest, and claim and 

 assertion only awaken counter-claims and counter- 

 assertions. Another thing will disappoint you, I 

 think. I believe we should not be in haste about this 

 biography; as a general thing I believe biographies 

 are written too soon and have a certain crudeness 

 in consequence. ... I think it will be better to wait 

 till things take their true proportions. Do not think 

 that this conviction will delay my work in the least. 

 I give to it every day and hour I have at my command; 

 but to tell the truth it is my earnest hope, my prayer 

 before all other prayers almost, that I may leave 

 it for some one else to publish. . . . There has been 

 a great deal of preliminary work — thousands of 

 letters to look over, throw away, sort and arrange, 

 for Agassiz's correspondence had long since become 

 too voluminous for his management, and he had 

 taken the habit of putting away his papers with- 



