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of Germany has shown that the moment of political danger may be that in which the firmest foundations for the intellectual strength of a country may be laid.
When in 1806, after the battle of Jena, the Prussian monarchy had been crushed and the king was despairing even of the existence of his realm, he planned the foundation of the University of Berlin, by the advice of Fichte, the philosopher.
It was inaugurated the very year that the despondent monarch returned to his capital.
Since that time it has been the greatest glory of the Prussian crown, and has made Berlin the intellectual centre of Germany.’
It may be added here as an evidence of Agassiz's faith in the institutions of the United States and in her intellectual progress that he was himself naturalized in the darkest hour of the war, when the final disruption of the country was confidently prophesied by her enemies.
By formally becoming a citizen of the United States he desired to attest his personal confidence in the stability of her Constitution and the justice of her cause.
Some light is thrown upon the work and incidents of these years by the following letters:—
Houghton, Mifflin and company, New York, Boston, 1885.
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