PREFACE vii 
comparatively few correspondents, for with the excep- 
tion of her Swiss and German connections, she lived 
so surrounded by her family and her most intimate 
friends that she had little need for the exchange of 
letters with them. Much of her correspondence has 
been destroyed; much that remains is too personal 
for publication or is not available. Consequently the 
letters published here are addressed to a limited circle 
and are by no means representative of her friendships. 
In the narrative also there are gaps. The deepest 
privacies of love and faith, joy and sorrow have the 
most profound influence upon character, but they 
are holy ground to be passed by in silence. The can- 
vas, therefore, is unfinished in parts, but it serves to 
depict the most important externals of Mrs. Agassiz’s 
life and to portray her character through the medium 
of her own words. 
Two minor points remain to be mentioned. In the 
account of Mrs. Agassiz’s part in the growth and de- 
velopment of Radcliffe College, it has seemed best, 
for the sake of clearness and interest, to treat the 
story as a unit, interrupted merely by a chapter con- 
taining letters written by Mrs. Agassiz during a year 
in Europe, although this necessitates a departure 
from the chronological arrangement followed in the 
rest of the book and anticipates some of the years that 
form the subject of a later chapter. It should also be 
said that many omissions from letters and other 
quoted passages have been made, which in deference 
to Miss Cary’s wishes are in general not indicated by 
the use of asterisks. 
