80 LOUIS AGASSIZ 



out hurting his scientific work. We 

 note an occasion when his hopeful ex- 

 pectations were actually surpassed by 

 the event. The King of Prussia (always 

 through Humboldt) came to his help 

 again with a timely offer of some three 

 thousand dollars to be spent in travel 

 for scientific purposes ; and the Lowell 

 Institute, to which America has been 

 indebted for so many visits from eminent 

 men, never did a better thing than when 

 it brought Agassiz to Boston. 



He promised to return to Neuch&tel 

 still, he speaks of preparation for "a 

 journey of several years' duration/* and 

 he spent his last winter in the unusual 

 task of finishing and setting in order 

 everything with which he was concerned. 

 The BiUiograpJiia and Nomendator upon 

 which he worked that last year seem like 

 the indices to a finished first volume of 

 his life. During some months at Paris 

 the JEchinoderms was put into final shape, 

 so that an assistant could attend to its 



