536 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



subscribers to the " Poissons Fossiles," among 

 them the King of Prussia, who still continued, 

 under the influence of Humboldt, to feel an 

 interest in his work. 



FROM HUMBOLDT TO AGASSIZ. 



September 1, 1856. 



... I hear that by some untoward circum- 

 stances, no doubt accidental, you have never 

 received, my dear Agassiz, the letter express- 

 ing the pleasure which I share with all true 

 lovers of science respecting your important 

 undertaking, " Contributions to the Natural 

 History of the United States." You must 

 have been astonished at my silence, remember- 

 ing, not only the affectionate relations we have 

 held to each other ever since your first sojourn 

 at Paris, but also the admiration I have never 

 ceased to feel for the great and solid works 

 which we owe to your sagacious mind and 

 your incomparable intellectual energy. ... I 

 approve especially the general conceptions 

 which lie at the base of the plan you have 

 traced. I admire the long series of physio- 

 logical investigations, beginning with the em- 

 bryology of the so-called simple and lower 

 organisms and ascending by degrees to the 

 more complicated. I admire that ever-renewed 



