LOUIS AGASSIZ. 339 



This school opened by the helpful wife made 

 Agassiz a free man no longer shackled by that 

 worst form of slavery, debt. Well said John 

 Ruskin : " My first word to all men and boys who 

 care to hear me is, don't get into debt. Starve 

 and go to heaven, but don't borrow. . . . Don't 

 buy things you can't pay for ! " 



Indefatigable, versatile, comprehensive in mind, 

 Agassiz at once planned another great work, to be 

 published in ten volumes, though it was finally re- 

 duced to four : " Contributions to the Natural 

 History of the United States." Mr. Francis C. 

 Gray of Boston, a personal friend and a lover of 

 letters and science, set the subscription before the 

 public. Very soon, to Agassiz's great delight, he 

 received the names of seventeen hundred subscri- 

 bers, at twelve dollars a volume. 



He had now reached his fiftieth birthday, com- 

 pleting his first volume of the new work on that 

 day. His students serenaded him, and Longfellow 

 wrote, to be read at the " Saturday Club," com- 

 posed of Hawthorne, Holmes, Lowell, Dana, and 

 others, this exquisite poem : 



It was fifty years ago, 



In the pleasant month of May, 

 In the beautiful Pays de Vaud, 



A child in its cradle lay. 



And Nature, the old nurse, took 



The child upon her knee, 

 Saying: " Here is a story-book 



Thy Father has written for thee." 



