FIRST RELATIONS WITH AMERICA. 253 



tutions or individuals, but do not venture to 

 promise anything more than my best exer- 

 tions. . . . 



Agassiz little dreamed, as he read this let- 

 ter, how familiar these far-off localities would 

 become to him, or how often, in after years, 

 he would traverse by day and by night the 

 four miles which lay between Boston and his 

 home in Cambrido^e. 



Agassiz still sought and received, as we see 

 by the following letter, Humboldt's sympathy 

 in every step of his work. 



HUMBOLDT TO LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



Berlin, May^ 1835. 



I am to blame for my neglect of you, my 

 dear friend, but when you consider the grief 

 which depresses me,^ and renders me unfit to 

 keep up my scientific connections, you will 

 not be so unkind as to bear me any ill-will 

 for my long silence. You are too well aware 

 of my high esteem for your talents and your 

 character — you know too well the affection- 

 ate friendship I bear you — to fear for a mo- 

 ment that you could be forgotten. 



I have seen the being I loved most, and 



* Owing to the death of his brother, William von Humboldt. 



