THE BIOGRAPHY OF AGASSIZ 181 
The three friends of mine never seem to me dead, 
but only absent for a while, and hardly so much 
as that, so living and present are their forms and 
faces. And yet not really to see them and _ speak 
with them is always a great sorrow to me, and 
I constantly think and feel how much greater it 
must be to you. 
Pardon me for laying my hand on such a wound, 
and believe me, 
Ever yours very truly, 
Henry W. LoncretLow 
During these years of which we are speaking Mrs. 
Agassiz was engaged in preparing a biography of Agassiz. 
There is no record of the exact date when she began the task 
of collecting and arranging her material, but by March, 
1877, the work had advanced so far that she was finishing 
the second chapter, which contains the account of Agassiz’s 
student days in Munich. How she came to undertake the 
book, and her aim in doing so she has explained in the 
Preface: “‘My chief object was to prevent the dispersion 
and final loss of scattered papers which had an unques- 
tionable family value. But, as my work grew upon my 
hands, I began to feel that the story of an intellectual life, 
which was marked by such rare coherence and unity of 
aim, might have a wider interest and usefulness; might, 
perhaps, serve as a stimulus and an encouragement to 
others. For this reason, and also because I am inclined to 
believe that the European portion of the life of Louis 
Agassiz is little known in his adopted country, while its 
American period must be unfamiliar to many in his native 
