558 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



entire group under consideration, as well as 

 its embryology and geographical distribution. 

 Then alone will you be able to know the 

 representatives in each series which will best 

 throw light upon it and complete the other 

 series." 



He did not live to fill in this comprehen- 

 sive outline with the completeness which he 

 intended, but all its details were fully ex- 

 plained by him before his death, and since 

 that time have been carried out by his son, 

 Alexander Agassiz. The synoptic room, and 

 in great part the systematic and faunal col- 

 lections, are now arranged and under exhibi- 

 tion, and the throngs of visitors during all 

 the pleasant months of the year attest the in- 

 terest they excite. 



This conception, of which the present Mu- 

 seum is the expression, was matured in the 

 brain of the founder before a brick of the 

 building was laid, or a dollar provided for the 

 support of such an institution. It existed for 

 him as his picture does for the artist before it 

 lives upon the canvas. One must have been 

 the intimate companion of his thoughts to 

 know how and to what degree it possessed his 

 imagination, to his delight always, yet some- 

 times to his sorrow also, for he had it and he 



