CHAPTER VIII 
CHANGED CONDITIONS — THE BIOGRAPHY 
OF AGASSIZ 
1873-1879 
HE life of Agassiz, though characterized by remark- 
able unity, falls into two distinct periods, and with 
only a little less precision the same may be said of that of 
Mrs. Agassiz. In fact she might almost have been describ- 
ing her own experience in 1873, when in her biography of 
Agassiz she wrote of his departure from Europe for Amer- 
ica in 1846, which formed the dividing line between the 
two portions of his career, — “So closed this period of 
Agassiz’s life. The next was to open under wholly different 
conditions.” For with his death Mrs. Agassiz entered upon 
an essentially new existence. The end had come to the days 
of wide travel, of engrossing and stimulating scientific in- 
terests, and of absorption in the welfare and pursuits of 
her husband. The character of this absorption has appeared 
again and again in fragments of letters in the preced- 
ing chapters, which, although they convey a mere passing 
breath from years of devotion, serve to show how com- 
pletely when companionship with him ceased, she was de- 
prived of the controlling motive of her daily life. Moreover 
the inexorable changes that follow such a loss did not come 
unattended. Eight days after she had parted from Agassiz, 
she saw the happiness of her dearly loved stepson shat- 
tered by the death of his young wife, who left him with 
three little sons, the youngest only two years old. In his 
bereavement he turned to Mrs. Agassiz for the perfect 
