NAHANT, Oct. 1, 1866.

DEAR SIR, I accept with great pleasure your invitation for next Wednesday at 5 o'clock, and shall be most happy to see you and Mrs. Winthrop at home. You say it is to meet Mr. G. Peabody, of London, and this induces me to write a few lines more. I have met Mr. P. before, but never made an allusion to his liberality that could look like begging, as I hate to bore rich men in that way; but I am told Mr. P. intends to benefit our public institutions, and that he has consulted with you upon this subject. Permit me, therefore, to lay before you a few thoughts which have lately occupied my mind, and indeed excited me much; and, if you see fit, communicate this letter to him.

The great boast of Monarchies is that they patronize letters, arts, and science as Republics never did and never can. Is there no way to remedy this difficulty? Can republics, and ours in particular, not be made to do as much, if not more, in that direction, than ever was done anywhere and at any time? And can it not be done in a truly republican spirit, relieving those that are benefited from the feeling of dependence, without depriving the patrons of any credit due to them? This is the theme which I have been discussing and which I think susceptible of solution. The man or men who carry out an efficient plan to solve this difficulty will have done more for the United States than the founders of some empires did for humanity.

To show the full extent of the difficulty, I will suppose a case. How could a work like Lepsius' Egypt be published in this country? The government would and should not undertake it, in accordance with the spirit of our institutions. No bookseller could do it without ruining himself. There remains the resort to a sub-cription by which rich men are expected to give money for what they do not care. This is an objectionable method, and one which may at any time be stopped after it has been carried too far. We want permanent arrangements to supply at all times the means for carrying out any great artistic, literary, or scientific undertaking, without boring anybody.

It might be thought that an immense fund millions of dollarswould be insufficient to establish a machinery that would do such work. I think not. I am even satisfied that one single organization which would assume such respon-ibilities would fail, even if it had money enough; as it would of necessity be under the supervision and guidance of a few men, who would foster what they like and leave what they do not like to take care of itself. It would, moreover, be local in its character and influence. I want something that shall work with equal intensity North and South, East and West; and that should go into operation at the rate of the advancing civilization of the whole country.

Suppose, now, we had all over the States two or three thousand associations akin in organization to those which the instincts of the people are so quick in establishing when politics are concerned, but intended to foster letters, arts, and science. Suppose that each of these associations could spend fifty or a hundred dollars a year for

these noble purposes, there is not a literary, or artistic, or scientific undertaking of any magnitude that need be given up from want of means, if these associations would co-operate, and in their disagreements they would support what single men or single institutions would allow to perish. The question is simply how to organize such associations and give them vitality. Time and proper stimulants may do it. And now I come to my special point. If what I propose is not a panacea, which I do not believe it to be, any more than any other Utopian plan, I am sure it would be a potent stimulus in the right direction.

Our people are greedy for knowledge; and if science does not make more rapid progress in this country, it is simply owing to the fact that knowledge is extensively circulated only in its cheap, elementary forms. Our academies, and even the Smithsonian Institution, publish only a few hundred copies of their transactions; the Smithsonian, about one thousand, most of which are distributed ABROAD. Great scientific works are never seen in our schools, hardly in our public libraries; and where they are on hand, it is difficult to secure access to them. I want to see such publications reach the whole population. And, as I understand scientific matters better than literary or artistic ones, I will limit my remarks to what I consider practicable for science in that direction. A series of handsomely illustrated original works on Natural History, printed in large editions, and distributed gratuitously to every association that would it-elf undertake to spend annually a small sum of money for the purchase of other costly books, would go far towards stimulating the organization of associations like those to which I have alluded above. But, even considered in itself, the plan of publishing a large series of costly original works, to be distributed gratuitously, is worth considering as a national benefit. In the first place, I know of the existence of numerous such works, which neither the Smithsonian Institution, nor any other learned society, have the means of publishing, and therefore remain in the authors' desks, as no bookseller will touch such works. The country and the world are the losers for this. I know that the authors of such investigations would gladly give them away, if they only could be published. I am certain that such works could be published in a manner to serve as models for other original researches, and to stimulate such researches where the methods of scientific investigations are not even dreamed of. Such publications could not fail to raise the character of the studies in every other department throughout the country. There are only two difficulties in the way of giving publicity to such intellectual labors: 1. There is no learned society so organized as to undertake the superintendence of such publications; 2. There are no means to carry out the publications, if anybody would undertake to superintend the work.

It is to this I would request you to call Mr. Peabody's attention. You need not mention my name in connection with the subject, unless he should wish to inquire in what manner the first of the above-named difficulties, that of superintending such publications, might be obviated, as I believe I could suggest a practicable plan; and there would be no

use in broaching the subject unless some gentleman looked with sufficient favor upon such a plan as to furnish the means of carrying it out. Hoping you may have the patience to read through this long epistle, I remain, With high regard,

Hon. ROBERT C. WINTHROP.

Yours very truly,

LS. AGASSIZ.

P.S.- Perhaps a few hints as to how and where may be of practical use. Suppose Mr. Peabody should feel inclined to give the necessary money to carry out such a plan, I would propose that all the works or papers so publishing should appear in the form of quarto volumes or parts of volumes, with numerous, most finished, and, if necessary, colored plates, of uniform size, under the title of " Peabody's Contributions to the Natural Sciences:" An edition of 2500 or more copies to be printed, and the successive volumes to be distributed gratuitously: First, to the first 2000 associations which would furnish the evidence that they spend a certain sum annually in the purchase of serious books, and are prepared to spend another smaller sum in the support of the publication of costly works, which could not be published by the ordinary means of the book trade: Second, 500 copies to be reserved for future use, or to be in part given to the authors for private circulation, or as a compensation to the institution or men who would superintend the publication and distribution of the volumes as they can be brought out. With sufficient means, I am certain that one large quarto volume could easily be published annually, of such high value as to be not only an equivalent for the co-operation of scientific associations in this great work, but even to stimulate the organization of other similar associations where none exist thus far, gradually calling into existence a sufficient number of such associations as would relieve science from all necessity of future government or individual patronage.

As soon as the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge is fully organized, according to the plans which I have laid before the Faculty, that Institution could easily undertake the superintendence and publication of such a series of Works and Papers without any expense to the founder of the future "Contributions to the Natural Sciences." It should be amply compensated for its co-operation by appearing upon the title as "published under the supervision of the Museum of Comp. Z. in Cambridge;" nobody's name there except that of the founder of the contributions.

The President continued:

The great idea of this letter, as you will have perceived, is the importance and necessity, for Science, Literature, and the Arts, and we may well add for History also, of Publication Funds, through which Works which have no element of popularity in them, and which could not command a publisher or a remunerating sale, may not be allowed to perish in the manuscript, or be suffered to die unwritten in the brains of discour

aged students, but may be printed and circulated for the benefit of mankind.

I did not fail to communicate the letter to Mr. Peabody, and, possibly, we may have in some degree owed to its suggestions the Publication Fund of $20,000, with which he not long afterwards endowed our own Society. But his plans were already too nearly matured for him to adopt the idea of Agassiz in its full comprehensive scope. That idea, however, I have always considered as of great interest and value; and I cannot help hoping that the very Memorial Fund, for which his lamented death has given occasion, may be so far extended as to include what was so near his own heart, as a Publication Fund for the purposes of his great Museum, if not of Science in general.

Meantime, I present the original letter as a precious autograph for our Collections. He once reclaimed it for the purpose of making a copy for his own keeping, thus showing the importance he attached to it; but he soon returned the original, and left it at my disposal.

I cannot part from the subject of Agassiz, Gentlemen, without giving you an anecdote which has been recalled to my mind during my preparations for another ocean voyage. In 1859, I was a fellow passenger of his across the Atlantic, and, of course, I enjoyed not a little of his charming society and conversation. We sailed from Boston on the 15th of June, and for several days we were enveloped in a dense fog. On the sixth day out, June 20th, the fog continued till nearly 7 o'clock in the evening, when it suddenly vanished, and we had the full glory of a setting sun at sea. Meanwhile, however, the lifting mist had unveiled two enormous Icebergs, one on our larboard and the other on our starboard, ten or twelve miles distant from the ship,-near enough to be exquisitely beautiful, but, happily, not near enough to be immediately dangerous. Yet we might easily have run on one of them, had not the cloudy curtain been seasonably withdrawn, as it was, by an unseen Hand. Agassiz had never before encountered an Iceberg, and I shall not soon forget his exclamations of delight. "O Captain," he cried out, "if I could only have a boat to go and examine one of those icy masses! I could find out all about it, and tell you exactly where it came from." "But one of these days," he added, "I will go out in a Coast Survey steamer, and make a special examination of an Iceberg for myself." We passed safely through the crystal gateway, leaving both its columns astern, before bed-time; but hardly had I reached my state-room when Agassiz was calling out to me to come up again and see the wonderful phosphorescence of our

wake. We were passing through a field of Medusa, and they seemed to have put on an unwonted sparkle and splendor, as their great observer and investigator stood watching them over the taffrail.

It was during this voyage, too, that, knowing I was about to spend a few weeks in Switzerland, he was eager to tell me exactly how to get a first view of the Alps to the best advantage. "Enter Switzerland," said he, " by Dijon, Besançon, and Pontarlier, taking a private carriage through the pass of the Jura to a height called La Tourne, and so by Val Travers to Neufchâtel." "The view which bursts upon you at La Tourne," said he, "is the finest view in all Switzerland."

And here is a little map of the route, which he made with his own pencil at the moment, for fear I should forget his instructions.

But there was one other brief conversation of his, which was worth all the rest. Humboldt had recently died, and I had called his attention to the fact, that some European Naturalist, whose name I will not attempt to recall, had said of Humboldt, by way of distinction and eulogy, that he had fairly ruled God out of the universe. "Yes," said Agassiz, with all his characteristic energy and emphasis, " and I have just written to a friend, to tell that man that he has uttered an infamous slander on Humboldt."

Humboldt, you may all remember, was one of our early Honorary Members, elected when our Society embraced Natural, as well as Civil, History in its designs. Had we not abandoned that field of research to other Associations more expressly adapted for its culture, I need not say how proudly we should have included Agassiz on our roll. And I am sure that it will give us all pleasure to have found an occasion, this evening, for remembering, as a Society, one whom so many of us will never forget as the most charming and cherished of friends, whom Massachusetts and our whole country will ever count among the grandest and noblest of our adopted sons, and whom Science throughout the world has long ago enrolled among its most illustrious votaries.

I turn now, Gentlemen, without further delay, to what I am sure will prove the most interesting and gratifying feature of this occasion.

Having heard, for a year or two past, from no unauthentic source, that a well-known confidential and devoted friend of a former illustrious member of our Society, Mr. Webster, was proposing, and had indeed decided, to commit to our safe-keep