490 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
laboratory was in operation. The rude shed on the shore and 
the small wooden building at Cambridge developed under his 
hand into the Museum of Zoology, — if not as we see it now, 
yet into one of the foremost collections. Who can say what 
it would have been if his plans and ideas had obtained full 
recognition, and “ expenditure ” had seemed to the trustees, 
as it seemed to him, “ the best investment,” or if efficient filial 
aid, not then to be dreamed of, had not given solid realization 
to the high paternal aspirations! In like manner grew large 
under his hand the Brazilian exploration so generously pro- 
vided for by a Boston citizen and fostered by an enlightened 
emperor; and on a similar scale was planned, and partly car- 
ried out, the “ Contributions to the Natural History of the 
United States,” as the imperial quarto work was modestly en- 
titled, which was to be published “ at the rate of one volume 
a year, each volume to contain about three hundred pages and 
twenty plates,” with simple reliance upon a popular subscrip- 
tion ; — and so, indeed, of everything which this large-minded 
man undertook. 
While Agassiz thus was a magnanimous man, in the literal 
as well as the accepted meaning of the word, he was also, as 
we have seen, a truly fortunate one. Honorable assistance 
came to him at critical moments, such as the delicate gift 
from Humboldt at Paris, which perhaps saved him to science ; 
such as the Wollaston prize from the Geological Society in 
1834, when he was struggling for the means of carrying on 
the Fossil Fishes. The remainder of the deficit of this under- 
taking he was able to make up from his earliest earnings in 
America. For the rest, we all know how almost everything 
he desired — and he wanted nothing except for science — was 
cheerfully supplied to his hand by admiring givers. Those 
who knew the man during the twenty-seven years of his 
American life can quite understand the contagious enthusiasm 
and confidence which he evoked. The impression will in 
some degree be transmitted by these pleasant and timely vol- 
umes, which should make the leading lines of the life of 
Agassiz clear to the newer generation, and deepen them in 
the memory of an older one. 
