The next letter announces a new aspect of the projected journey. In explanation, it should be said that finding Agassiz might be prevented by his poverty from going, the prince had invited him to be his guest for a summer in the United States.
AGASSIZ TO THE PRINCE OF CANINO.
NEUCHATEL, January 7, 1845.
. . .I have received an excellent piece of news from Humboldt, which I hasten to share with you. I venture to believe that it will please you also. . .I had written to Humboldt of our plans, and of your kind offer to take me with you to the United States, telling him at the same time how much I regretted that I should be unable to visit the regions which attracted me the most from a geological point of view, and asking him if it would be possible to interest the king in this journey and obtain means from his majesty for a longer stay on the other side of the Atlantic. I have just received a delightful and most unexpected reply. The king will grant me 15, 000 francs for this object, so that I shall, in any event, be able to make the journey. All the more do I desire to make it in your society, and I think by combining our forces we shall obtain more important results; but I am glad that I can do it without being a burden to you. Before answering Humboldt, I am anxious to know whether your plans are definitely decided upon for this summer, and whether this arrangement suits you. . .
The pleasant plan so long meditated was not to be fulfilled. The prince was obliged to defer the journey and never accomplished it. This was a great disappointment to Agassiz.
"Am I then to go without you," he writes; "is this irrevocable? If I were to defer my departure till September would it then be possible for you to leave Rome? It would be too delightful if we could make this journey together. I wish also, before starting, to review everything that has been done of late in paleontology, zoology, and comparative anatomy, that I may, in behalf of all these sciences, take advantage of the circumstances in which I shall be placed. . .Whatever befalls me, I feel that I shall never cease to consecrate my whole energy to the study of nature; its all powerful charm has taken such possession of me that I shall always sacrifice everything to it; even the things which men usually value most."
Agassiz had determined, before starting on his journey, to complete all his unfinished works, and to put in order his correspondence and collections, including the vast amount of specimens sent him for identification or for his own researches. The task of "setting his house in order" for a change which, perhaps, he dimly felt to be more momentous than it seemed, proved long and laborious. From all accounts, he performed prodigies of work, but the winter and spring passed, and the summer of 1845 found him still at his post.
Humboldt writes him not without anxiety lest his determination to complete all the tasks he had undertaken, including the Nomenclator, should involve him in endless delays and perplexities.
HUMBOLDT TO AGASSIZ.
BERLIN, September 16, 1845.