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This account fairly tallies with the statement of Prof. Forbes in his "Travels," quoted in his "Life" (p. 503):

Incomparably greater than Forbes in his own field, the want of physical knowledge, to which Agassiz refers at the conclusion of the foregoing letter, rendered him, on this particular ground, a mere child in comparison with his guest. Still, if the statement which I have italicised in Agassiz's letter express a fact, then, while entertaining no doubt that Prof. Forbes justified his conduct to his own mind, I leave it to others to judge whether it would not be an evil day for the frankness of scientific intercourse if such conduct should become general.

It is difficult at the present day and hour to convey an idea of the stir caused by the communication of our joint paper to the Royal Society by Mr. Huxley and myself; but many of us remember the violent discharge of letters which followed that event. Had I in those days a tendency to be puffed up, the circumstances were certainly such as might exalt my self-importance. But, as a matter of fact, the whole business was exceedingly saddening to me. For two years I endeavored, while not flinching from what I held to be the duty of a