Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, Louis Agassiz: his life and correspondence, third edition

‘ [316] Fragments,’ but a new and wholly different work. The thirty-five sheets of the last volume are printed, but the two volumes will only be issued together. You can judge of the difficulty of printing at Paris and correcting proofs here,—at Poretz or at Toplitz. I am just now beginning to print the first number of my physics of the world, under the title of ‘Cosmos:’ in German, ‘Ideen zur einer physischen Weltbeschreibung.’ It is in no sense a reproduction of the lectures I gave here. The subject is the same, but the presentation does not at all recall the form of a popular course. As a book, it has a somewhat graver and more elevated style. A ‘spoken book’ is always a poor book, just as lectures read are poor however well prepared. Published courses of lectures are my detestation. Cotta is also printing a volume of mine in German, ‘Physikalische geographische Erinnerungen.’ Many unpublished things concerning the volcanoes of the Andes, about currents, etc. And all this at the age when one begins to petrify! It is very rash! May this letter prove to you and to Madame Agassiz that I am petrifying only at the extremities,—the heart is still warm. Retain for me the affection which I hold so dear.