634 TRAVEL IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. [1873, 



TO C. W. ELIOT. 



BOTANIC GARDEN, CAMBRIDGE, January 1, 1873. 



MY DEAR PRESIDENT ELIOT, Will you kindly 

 present the inclosed communication to the corpora- 

 tion at its next meeting. 



I need not say to you that I could not take so seri- 

 ous a step as this without much consideration, and 

 that I would not do it if I were not confident that the 

 department which I have served in the university for 

 almost thirty-one years need not now suffer by my 

 withdrawal. I am warned also by growing experience 

 of the fact that the needful work which I could for- 

 merly do with ease can now be done only by effort, 

 followed by exhaustion and other unpleasant effects, 

 which may be expected to increase ; and it is clear 

 that I have left to me, at best, barely time enough, 

 when rigorously economized, to complete the works 

 for which I have long been pledged, and without the 

 accomplishment of which my life will have been 

 largely a failure. The corporation will perceive that 

 I do not intend to be idle, but to concentrate what 

 energies remain to me upon the kind of work for 

 which I am best and indeed peculiarly fitted, 

 both by disposition and by more than forty years of 

 preparation. As this work proceeds, the herbarium 

 of the university, always requiring attention during 

 its continued increase, will be put into the condition 

 in which I should leave it, with its value greatly 

 enhanced. In view of this, and of the fact that 

 the herbarium forms an important part of the appa- 

 ratus of instruction here, I trust the corporation 

 will think it reasonable to allow me the possession of 

 the house I live in, in recompense of my services as 

 curator of the herbarium. 



