382 ELIZABETH CARY AGASSIZ 
January 24, 1903. — There was a man who said, 
“Tf it were not for my pleasures, I could get on very 
well.”” Sometimes the same reflection in which wit 
and wisdom are combined comes to me. Take Tues- 
day next for example; — Lunch at Clem Crafts’. Re- 
turn home for tea, 4-6. Go back to town to Ida’s; with 
her to see Julius Caesar in the evening. All are tempt- 
ing, — one is rather much at eighty years of age — 
unless one has a temperament like my dear Julia 
Ward Howe. 
January 27. — Lunch at Clem Crafts’ very pleas- 
ant. Returned for afternoon tea at home. Then to 
Ida’s, went with her to see Mansfield as Brutus in 
Julius Caesar. I did not care for him; stilted and 
posing, with no distinction, nothing noble in bearing. 
The actors of Shakespeare of my youth had much 
elegance both in their reading and action. Their 
diction and delivery were noticeably fine; witness 
Macready, Booth, Wallack, Fechter — you could not 
forget their phrasing of certain passages. 
February 6. — Brooks House tea this afternoon. 
I really think these teas are going to help in bringing 
the older and younger society of Cambridge together 
— that is, the society of the College. After all what 
is the life of Cambridge but the life of the students 
and the cultivated men who make the background 
of their academic education? That forms the whole 
community, and it surely ought to form a homogene- 
ous one. This will go far to make it so. 
November 10. — Opening Germanic Museum, after- 
noon. German play, evening. Ida and Henry to dine. 
