TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES. 211 



in Dublin. He is certainly a man of extraordinary genius, 

 great energy, and with the most rapid inductive powers 1 have 

 ever known. I could not help saying to myself, as I sat and 

 listened, Well, it is pleasant to be hearing all this, as it is 

 uttered, and for the first time. If one lives to be an old man, 

 one will have to say, " I remember to have heard Agassiz say 

 so and so," and then every one will listen, just as we should do 

 to a person who had conversed with Linnaeus or Cuvier. He is 

 withal a most simple-minded unaffected man, and one cannot 

 help loving him. We have fraternized. 



I sat out all the meetings, which ended at 8 r.M., when we 

 adjourned to conversaziones, which generally lasted till mid- 

 night, so I had no time to see any more of the neighbourhood 

 of Charleston. I am now moving too rapidly north for the 

 season, and I rather regret not seeing more of the approach of 

 spring. Crocuses are in blossom, and the fields are full of 

 Draha verna, a little atom, which in some places is so abundant 

 as to whiten the ground, from which you may infer that the 

 soil is not very fertile. 



I am staying here with my friend Professor H y, who is 



very kind and pleasant. His family are a homely circle, in 

 which I am quite at my ease. I have twice been at sittings 

 of the senate, and have heard a good sensible speech on the 

 Union question, which is now agitating folk here. The whole 

 session has been a stormy one, scarcely anything else discussed 

 but questions affecting union or disunion of North and South. 

 The bone of contention is Slavery. 



