ENCOURAGING PROSPECTS. 431 



proportion as I become familiar with the envi- 

 rons of Boston, where I shall still remain a few 

 weeks longer, I have so much to do in keeping 

 up my journals, notes, and observations that I 

 have not found a moment to write you since 

 the last steamer. . . . Never did the future 

 look brighter to me than now. If I could for 

 a moment forget that I have a scientific mis- 

 sion to fulfill, to which I will never prove rec- 

 creant, I could easily make more than enough 

 by lectures which would be admirably paid 

 and are urged upon me, to put me completely 

 at my ease hereafter. But I will limit myself 

 to what I need in order to repay those who 

 have helped me through a difficult crisis, and 

 that I can do without even turning aside from 

 my researches. Beyond that all must go again 

 to science, there lies my true mission. I 

 rejoice in what I have been able to do thus 

 far, and I hope that at Berlin they will be 

 satisfied with the results which I shall submit 

 to competent judges on my return. If I only 

 have time to finish what I have begun ! You 

 know my plans are not wont to be too closely 

 restricted. 



Why do you not write to me ? Am I then 

 wholly forgotten in your pleasant circle while 

 my thoughts are every day constantly with my 

 Neuchatel friends ? . 



