CAMBRIDGE ,4 JOURNEY IN BRAZIL 107 



and the way in which he carried them out you will 

 understand what pleasure these things have given 

 me. Mr. Peirce writes to me, "It is elegant in style, 

 in the most refined good taste, and in all ways worthy 

 of science, our country and our age. But its highest 

 attraction is that it contains such a perfect portrait 

 of our beloved and great-hearted Agassiz. I did not 

 know that you were such an artist." Was n't it lovely 

 that this should come to me the very first thing? It 

 was perfectly spontaneous. I had never talked to the 

 Peirces of the plan of the book, or of my aims in it, 

 and I felt that the picture must be there or he would 

 not have found it. Longfellow's note is longer, but I 

 extract for you part: "The idea of mingling the two 

 Diaries is most felicitous. It is like the intermingling 

 of masculine and feminine rhymes in a French poem. 

 In fact the whole expedition is highly poetical and 

 honorable to all concerned. There is nothing like it 

 since Hipparchus sent his fifty oared galley to bring 

 Anacreon to Athens." 



Holmes writes to us together. "United in your 

 book," he says, "you shall not be divided in my note." 

 He writes after having read the whole and says, "It 

 is a new world to most of us, to me certainly, and I am 

 sure we all feel that it is a rare privilege to wander 

 through it, under the guidance of such explorers. So 

 exquisitely are your labors blended that as with the 

 mermaiden of ancient poets, it is hard to say where 

 the woman leaves off and the fish begins. The deli- 

 cate observation of nature from the picturesque side 

 relieves the grave scientific observations and discus- 



