The Unpublished Works of Joseph Le Coyite. 243 



unendurable to Southerners of pride. The loss of all of their 

 property and the unfortunate condition of the people was diffi- 

 cult to bear, but the Legislature, composed almost entirely of 

 negroes, voted that negroes should enter the University with- 

 out any qualifications. At this time the brothers John and 

 Joseph discussed emigrating to Brazil, or considered throwing 

 in their fortunes with those of Maximillian of Mexico. The 

 organization of the University of California, however, brought 

 them to Oakland in 1868. The facts of Professor Le Conte's 

 relation to the University of California are very well known. 

 Of California he writes: 



"I have said that my intellectual activity was powerfully 

 stimulated by coming to California. There are many causes 

 for this. First, the reaction from the long agony of the war. 

 Abstract thought was almost impossible during those anxious 

 times and in the presence of its serious results after the war. 

 Second, the splendid field for geological research opened here. 

 Third, contrary to my expectations, I found here an excep- 

 tionally active, energetic, and intelligent population. What 

 California wanted then (and still wants to some extent) was 

 a more thoroughly organized society." 



Professor and Mrs. Agassiz came to visit the Le Contes in 

 the fall of 1872. Judge Tompkins met the great scientist on 

 this visit, and, through his admiration for the master, estab- 

 lished the Agassiz Chair of Oriental Languages. 



Professor Le Conte made ten visits to the high Sierras 

 and the Yosemite Valley. The results of these trips have 

 been discussed in his scientific works and in pamphlets, besides 

 the autobiography. He says of his increasing enjoyment in 

 the scenery: 



"There is one kind of enjoyment of beauty and grandeur 

 heightened by novelty, and another enjoyment of the same, 

 mellowed and hallowed by association. The one afi"ects more 

 the imagination, the other the heart. I had been so often in 

 the Yosemite that I now loved it for the association of pre- 

 vious delights." 



