684 TRAVEL IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. [1873, 
TO C. W. ELIOT. 
Boranic GARDEN, CAMBRIDGE, January 1, 1873. 
My pear Prestmpent Exior, — Will you kindly 
present the inclosed communication to the corpora- 
tion at its next meeting. 
I need not say to you that I could not take so seri- 
ous a step as this without much consideration, and 
that I would not do it if I were not confident that the 
department which I have served in the university for 
almost thirty-one years need not now suffer by my 
withdrawal. Jam warned also by growing experience 
of the fact that the needful work which I could for-_ 
merly do with ease can now be done only by effort, 
followed by exhaustion and other unpleasant effects, 
which may be expected to increase; and it is clear 
that I have left to me, at best, barely time enough, 
when rigorously economized, to complete the works 
for which I have long been pledged, and without the 
accomplishment of which my life will have been 
largely a failure. The corporation will perceive that 
I do not intend to be idle, but to concentrate what 
energies remain to me upon the kind of work for 
which I am best—and indeed peculiarly — fitted, 
both by disposition and by more than forty years of 
preparation. As this work proceeds, the herbarium 
of the university, always requiring attention during 
its continued increase, will be put into the condition 
in which I should leave it, with its value greatly 
enhanced. In view of this, and of the fact that 
the herbarium forms an important part of the appa- 
ratus of instruction here, I trust the corporation 
will think it reasonable to allow me the possession of 
the house I live in, in recompense of my services as 
curator of the herbarium. 
