INVITATION TO ZURICH. 513 



absence. But it soon became evident that 

 his health was seriously shaken, and that he 

 needed the tonic of the northern winter. He 

 was, indeed, never afterward as strong as he 

 had been before this illness. 



The winter of 1854 was passed in Cam- 

 bridge with such quiet and rest as the condi- 

 tions of his life would allow. In May of that 

 year he received an invitation to the recently 

 established University of Zurich, in Switzer- 

 land. His acceptance was urged upon the 

 ground of patriotism as well as on that of 

 a liberal endowment both for the professor, 

 and for the museum of which he was to have 

 charge. The offer was tempting, but Agas- 

 siz was in love (the word is not too strong) 

 with the work he had undertaken and the 

 hopes he had formed in America. He be- 

 lieved that by his own efforts, combined with 

 the enthusiasm for science which he had 

 aroused and constantly strove to keep alive 

 and foster in the community, he should at last 

 succeed in founding a museum after his own 

 heart in the United States, a museum which 

 should not be a mere accumulation, however 

 vast or extensive, of objects of natural his- 

 tory, but should have a well-combined and 

 clearly expressed educational value. . As we 



33 



