298 NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER 



yourself bound to do year after year what you are willing to do 

 this year in order to make a right beginning." 



And again: "After what N told me just now of your 



days I beseech you not to undertake more than you can carry. 

 Take my example as a warning; and look out for assistance, 

 active and efficient, sooner than I did. You might at once 

 prepare the ways with some of those working at the Museum. " 



Later, in regard to the arrangement of fossil collections sent 

 to Dom Pedro II and a number of distinguished scientific 

 men, Agassiz writes, " I have only praises and thanks for such 

 work." Mrs. Agassiz, in the letters which she wrote for her hus- 

 band, again and again speaks of "the comfort and peace your 

 efficient and affectionate sympathy gives the Professor." 



The letters of 1870 written by Agassiz close the correspond- 

 ence so far as Museum matters are concerned. During this 

 period Mr. Shaler went frequently at Agassiz 's request to Deer- 

 field, where he was staying, to talk over plans for the instruc- 

 tion of natural history, and other matters. One of these letters 

 is significant, since the closing sentence reflects Mr. Shaler's, 

 as well as Agassiz 's, mind in regard to a subject of high 

 import. Agassiz writes: "... I cannot tell you how much 

 comfort your sympathy for my plan gives me. ... I shall 

 have upon the wall cases of the main room busts or portraits 

 of Aristotle, Rondelet, Linnaeus, Pallas, Cuvier, and Humboldt. 

 I should like to have Moses there as the man who wrote the 

 first geological essay and rescue him from the false position 

 in which Jews and Christians hold him. This little room will 

 oblige physicists and geologists to remember that our earth is 

 the home of spiritual and intellectual beings. . . ." 



