160 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE 



sultriness of an intensely hot mid-summer, to the work of preparation. Few are prob- 

 ably aware what a mind like his would, under such circumstances, consider requisite. 

 Nothing was to be taken for granted ; not even the memory of former investigations 

 would be accepted without passing through the process of examination. Every step was 

 to be measured, with critical exactness, through the long progress of Humboldt's scientific 

 career. 



Is there not exemplified in this fact, one of the marked characteristics of Prof. Agas- 

 siz's mind ? Absolute thoroughness ; sifting every question and principle down to its first 

 elements ; tracing every thought, from its earliest germ through each successive develop- 

 ment, until the final result is reached. 



In order to secure freedom from all interruption during these researches, he asked for a 

 room at the City Library, which was readily granted. Here he could gather about him 

 papers and books, which during his absence would remain undisturbed. Mr. Winsor, the 

 efficient and obliging Superintendent, tells me that for more than a month Prof. Agassiz 

 passed at least three or four days of each week, from nine o'clock in the morning until 

 generally three o'clock in the afternoon, and that during this time he called for more than 

 two hundred volumes in different languages, always desiring to read each work as it orig- 

 inally came from the mind of the author. Thus every work which Alexander von Hum- 

 boldt ever wrote passed under careful review ; not only every volume, but every pam- 

 phlet, with the exception of one, which could not be found in this country. 



On the 4th of September he wrote me, 



" I have only yesterday finished gathering my materials, and have not yet begun pre- 

 paring my address." 



He adds " My friends will never know what anxieties I have to go through on this 

 occasion." 



Six days after this I received the following : 



" Nahant, Sept. IQth, 1869. 

 " MY DEAR SIR : 



" I have succeeded this evening in bringing to a close my draft of an address ; not 

 exactly as I would like to deliver it, but such as I may be compelled to read should the 

 occurrences of the day unfit me for an extemporized discourse, which I believe might be 

 more effective." 



It would thus appear that even after the address was written, he hoped to give, not 

 what he had embodied in manuscript, but the result of which that would be the basis, in 

 the form of an extemporized discourse, for which, as all know from his constant habit of 

 speaking without notes, he possessed the very highest qualifications. 



However, to meet every contingency, he adds : 



" As I go to-morrow to Cambridge, I will try to have my illegible manuscript set in 

 type, that I may myself be able to read it. At the same time I shall see how my dia- 

 grams are progressing, and if satisfactory, forward them at once to the Music Hall. 



" Very truly yours, 



" L. AGASSIZ." 



