LOUIS AGASSIZ 137 



his face with his hands, and weep. After 

 the worst breakdown there were months 

 of slow recovery, when the doctors had 

 forbidden him either to work or to think. 

 This last terrible condition seemed more 

 than he could bear. " Nobody knows 

 what tortures I endure in trying to stop 

 thinking," he burst out to a pupil 

 and then again, with a sort of despairing 

 cry, " Oh, my Museum ! my Museum ! 

 always uppermost, by day and by night, 

 in health and in sickness, always al- 

 ways ! J ? 



In 1871, when the Hassler was fitted 

 out, his strength had returned in part, 

 and along with it his hopefulness. It 

 was decided that the sea voyage would 

 do him good rather than harm ; and 

 Agassiz's letter to Professor Peirce, ac- 

 cepting provisionally, sounds like him- 

 self : "I am overjoyed at the prospect 

 your letter opens before me. Of course, 

 I will go unless Brown-Sequard orders 

 me positively to stay on terra firma. But 



