ATTACHMENT TO HARVARD, 617 



Kght upon every part of the subject ; nobody 

 can furnish more than you can. 

 Faithfully yours, 



Samuel G. Howe.^ 



The Museum and his own more immediate 

 scientific work must naturally take precedence 

 in any biography of Agassiz, and perhaps, 

 for this reason, too little prominence has been 

 given in these pages to his interest in gen- 

 eral education, and especially in the general 

 welfare and progress of Harvard College. He 

 was deeply attached to the University with 

 which he had identified himself in America. 

 While he strained every nerve to develop his 

 own scientific department, which had no exist- 

 ence at Harvard until his advent there, no 

 one of her professors was more concerned 

 than himself for the organization of the col- 

 lege as a whole. A lover of letters as well 

 as a devotee of nature, he valued every provi- 

 sion for a well proportioned intellectual train- 

 ing. He welcomed the creation of an Aca- 

 demic Council for the promotion of free and 



^ In this correspondence with Dr. Howe, one or two phrases 

 in Agassiz's letters are interpolated from a third unfinished 

 letter, which was never forwarded to Dr. Howe. These sen- 

 tences connect themselves so directly with the sense of the 

 previous letters that it seemed worth while to add them. — Ei>. 



