94 ELIZABETH CARY AGASSIZ 
exceed all the rest. But I am not going to be discour- 
aged. This most valuable and really most extraor- 
dinary collection (for with the facilities Agassiz has 
had from the Brazilian government he has had it in 
his power to do things on a scale such as no other 
naturalist has ever been able to attempt) will put the 
Museum at one stride far in advance of all other Mu- 
seums in some departments. This is what was contem- 
plated when the Museum was started, though no one 
could have dreamed of its being done so rapidly; and 
now if people grumble because it will cost five or 
six thousand dollars to secure the safety of such a col- 
lection, which could not under ordinary circumstances 
be had for ten times that sum, I must say I think 
the complaint is unreasonable. With such a spirit the 
Museum must always remain a third or fourth rate 
establishment and is not worth the care of a man 
of first-rate ability. Perhaps I am climbing a hill be- 
fore I come to it, but I infer these difficulties from 
Alex’s last letter. It never seems to have occurred to 
the friends of the Museum that it was to be a living 
thing, — to increase and develop, and therefore to be 
fed and nourished. If any institution of that kind 
does not grow and require every year larger means, it 
is dead, — and what is dead had better be buried 
forthwith. But you are not the wife of a scientific 
man (“thanks be to praise,” perhaps you say, in’ 
Grandma’s favorite ejaculation), and so perhaps this 
will not appeal to your inmost soul. 
Pauline writes me that Louis is grown such an 
obedient little man, and gives up a great deal to the 
