374 ELIZABETH CARY AGASSIZ 
mas. [Christmas Eve at Shady Hill, the residence of 
Professor Charles Eliot Norton, became a Harvard 
institution after 1886, when Professor Norton inau- 
gurated the custom of receiving informally all stu- 
dents from a distance, who were passing the holidays 
in Cambridge.] 
January 1, 1901. — The new century began last 
night at midnight. I am so sorry that I did not hear 
and see the celebration at the State House. It seems 
to have been so beautiful in spirit and so impressive. 
The trumpets from the State House, the singing 
joined in by the multitude, the Lord’s Prayer in 
which the crowd joined. It was all serious and the 
crowds of people quiet and serious. Today I have 
been at home, and indeed yesterday, for much as I 
wished to see and hear what went on at the State 
House I did not dare. 
January 30. — Reading all day — Barrett Wendell; 
a very readable book, especially for one who has 
lived as I have through the greater part of the cen- 
tury. His short sketches of the authors whom he 
associates with the growth of the history of America 
amount to brief memoirs. His generalizations go too 
far, perhaps, in the parallelism of the literary, social 
and political development of the country, but it is a 
very thoughtful, suggestive book. 
February 20. — A rather full day. Dentist. Lunch 
with the “Queens.”’ French lecture, M. Deschamps 
— delightful. Sallie Whitman to dine. Evening, meet- 
ing of the Associates of Radcliffe. 
March 22.— To my dear Lizzie [Cabot] Lee. So 
