CHAPTER VIII 



CHANGED CONDITIONS THE BIOGRAPHY 

 OF AGASSIZ 



1873-1879 



THE life of Agassiz, though characterized by remark- 

 able unity, falls into two distinct periods, and with 

 only a little less precision the same may be said of that of 

 Mrs. Agassiz. In fact she might almost have been describ- 

 ing her own experience in 1873, when in her biography of 

 Agassiz she wrote of his departure from Europe for Amer- 

 ica in 1846, which formed the dividing line between the 

 two portions of his career, "So closed this period of 

 Agassiz's life. The next was to open under wholly different 

 conditions." For with his death Mrs. Agassiz entered upon 

 an essentially new existence. The end had come to the days 

 of wide travel, of engrossing and stimulating scientific in- 

 terests, and of absorption in the welfare and pursuits of 

 her husband. The character of this absorption has appeared 

 again and again in fragments of letters in the preced- 

 ing chapters, which, although they convey a mere passing 

 breath from years of devotion, serve to show how com- 

 pletely when companionship with him ceased, she was de- 

 prived of the controlling motive of her daily life. Moreover 

 the inexorable changes that follow such a loss did not come 

 unattended. Eight days after she had parted from Agassiz, 

 she saw the happiness of her dearly loved stepson shat- 

 tered by the death of his young wife, who left him with 

 three little sons, the youngest only two years old. In his 

 bereavement he turned to Mrs. Agassiz for the perfect 



