MORE WANDERINGS AND WORK 241 



In 1890, finding himself more than ever out of sym- 

 pathy with the administration of the University, feeling 

 that his influence had not accomplished what he had 

 hoped, and especially that the wider interests of the 

 University were being sacrificed to the undergraduate 

 department, he again tendered his resignation from the 

 Corporation. In a letter to his old friend, Mr. John 

 Quincy Adams, also a member of the Board, explaining 

 his reasons for this action, Agassiz says : " I might go 

 on indefinitely, and show you that we are very nearly 

 at the same stage as when we began to take an interest 

 in the College. That is the discouraging part for a man 

 who is accustomed to accomplish something." 



TO CHARLES W. ELIOT 



Newport, June 1, 1890. 

 While I fully appreciate the consideration shown me 

 by the Corporation in laying on the table my proposi- 

 tion to be on the lookout for my successor, and will 

 not press my resignation at this moment, it does not 

 change my view of the position. It is impossible for me 

 to be hereafter much more than a dummy in the Cor- 

 poration. I am carrying altogether too much sail, and am 

 unfortunately too much of a foreigner to take things 

 as they come, and cannot help taking things to heart 

 so far as to produce a state of mind wasteful in the 

 extreme, both of energy and time. I have allowed my 

 interest in Cambridge completely to overshadow my own 

 plans and have been drawn little by little into a position 

 which is no longer tenable. Put yourself in my place. 



1. I am expected to run the largest Department of 

 the College with the exception of the Observatory. 



2. To supply the means practically for doing this. 



