LOUIS AGASSIZ. 205 



Boston, i^^as at tMs moment opened, and a bequest of |oO,000 was 

 found for the museum. This was the first ray of morning, showing 

 that the day was coming from behind the mountains. 



Agassiz seemed filled with a xjrophet's enthusiasm and assurance ; 

 his face shone brighter and brighter as the day advanced. Seventy 

 thousand dollars were raised by subscrii)tion in Boston and its vicinity in 

 a few months, and the next winter the great scientist, with the faith of 

 a saint and the prospect of a martyr, went .before the Massachusetts 

 legislature of fanners and mechanics to ask for $100,000 to aid him 

 in his work! Eem ember this was immediately after the universal 

 bankruptcy of 1857. What a hopeless mission, to ask, under such cii'- 

 cumstances and of such men, an appropriation of one hundred thousand 

 dollars to promote purely scientific inquiries ; to aid in gathering rocks 

 and bones and fishes and shells and insects, and erecting a building 

 in which to store them ! But Agassiz's enthusiasm was so great that 

 there was no room for doubt; he could not disbelieve; he would net 

 hesitate. He met the committee of the legislature appointed to hear 

 him explain his proposition. The hearing was in the hall of the house of 

 representatives, and all the members of both bodies of the legislature, 

 allured by his fame, crowded to hear him. Incarnate science stands in 

 the presence of incarnate expediency, thrift, and palpabl e economy ! What 

 could he say? The great interpreter of nature made no ai)peal to love 

 of gain. He could promise no golden treasures in return for their bounty. 

 He did not tell them that he could make the crops more abundant, 

 the soil more fertile, the fabrics more marketable. He said that he 

 would have the wonderful works of nature, of God, better illustrated, 

 more carefully studied. He would have Massachusetts — and here with 

 consummate adroitness he touched the tenderest spot in the sensibilities 

 of the old Bay State — Icee]) the lead in the great educational movements 

 of the century. He had determined to give his life to that end if she 

 tcould, aid him ! '' My great object," these are his very words, " is to 

 have a museum founded here which will be equal to the great museums 

 of the Old World. We have a continent before us for exploration, which 

 has as yet been only slammed on the surface. My earnest desire has 

 always been, and is now, to put our universities on a footing with those 

 of Europe or even ahead of them." Science was honored in the presen- 

 tation of her representative. Neither party nor pelf soiled the whiteness 

 of her robes. But when the question came before the house for con- 

 sideration an attempt was made to throw ridicule on the proposition by 

 designating tbe establishment where science was to be honored a " Pal- 

 ace for Bugs." But this attack was repelled; the appropriation asked 

 for was granted, and Agassiz triumphant, with over two hundred thou- 

 sand dollars at his command, broke ground for his "Museum of Comx^ar- 

 ative Zoology." 



At this period I became personally acquainted with him. His hands, 

 his heart, his head, were full. Fortunately he had matured his plan for 



