382 ELIZABETH GARY AGASSIZ 



January 2i, 1903. — There was a man who said, 

 "If it were not for my pleasures, I could get on very 

 well." Sometimes the same reflection in which wit 

 and wisdom are combined comes to me. Take Tues- 

 day next for example; — Lunch at Clem Crafts'. Re- 

 turn home for tea, 4-6. Go back to town to Ida's; with 

 her to see Julius Caesar in the evening. All are tempt- 

 ing, — one is rather much at eighty years of age — 

 unless one has a temperament like my dear Julia 

 Ward Howe. 



January 27. — Lunch at Clem Crafts' very pleas- 

 ant. Returned for afternoon tea at home. Then to 

 Ida's, went with her to see Mansfield as Brutus in 

 Julius Caesar. I did not care for him; stilted and 

 posing, with no distinction, nothing noble in bearing. 

 The actors of Shakespeare of my youth had much 

 elegance both in their reading and action. Their 

 diction and delivery were noticeably fine; witness 

 Macready, Booth, Wallack, Fechter — you could not 

 forget their phrasing of certain passages. 



February 6. — Brooks House tea this afternoon. 

 I really think these teas are going to help in bringing 

 the older and younger society of Cambridge together 

 — that is, the society of the College. After all what 

 is the life of Cambridge but the life of the students 

 and the cultivated men who make the background 

 of their academic education.'^ That forms the whole 

 community, and it surely ought to form a homogene- 

 ous one. This will go far to make it so. 



November 10. — Opening Germanic Museum, after- 

 noon. German play, evening. Ida and Henry to dine. 



