PREFACE vii 



comparatively few correspondents, for with the excep- 

 tion of her Swiss and German connections, she lived 

 so surrounded by her family and her most intimate 

 friends that she had little need for the exchange of 

 letters with them. Much of her correspondence has 

 been destroyed; much that remains is too personal 

 for publication or is not available. Consequently the 

 letters published here are addressed to a limited circle 

 and are by no means representative of her friendships. 

 In the narrative also there are gaps. The deepest 

 privacies of love and faith, joy and sorrow have the 

 most profound influence upon character, but they 

 are holy ground to be passed by in silence. The can- 

 vas, therefore, is unfinished in parts, but it serves to 

 depict the most important externals of Mrs. Agassiz's 

 life and to portray her character through the medium 

 of her own words. 



Two minor points remain to be mentioned. In the 

 account of Mrs. Agassiz's part in the growth and de- 

 velopment of Radcliffe College, it has seemed best, 

 for the sake of clearness and interest, to treat the 

 story as a unit, interrupted merely by a chapter con- 

 taining letters written by Mrs. Agassiz during a year 

 in Europe, although this necessitates a departure 

 from the chronological arrangement followed in the 

 rest of the book and anticipates some of the years that 

 form the subject of a later chapter. It should also be 

 said that many omissions from letters and other 

 quoted passages have been made, which in deference 

 to Miss Cary's wishes are in general not indicated by 

 the use of asterisks. 



