June 14, SUNDAY. Today at Church; Higby. Professor Agassiz dined here. Made himself fascinating as I believe he always does, but he’s much pulled down by hard work on his forthcoming Opus Magnum, Vol. I, and depressed by the ill health of a daughter whom he’s sending off to Euorpe.*
* Louis Agassiz had projected a ten-volume work, Contributions to the Natural History of the United States, to which he had obtained subscriptions at twelve dollars a volume. Only four volumes were ever completed.
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
June 15. I dined downtown on six clams, and then went to College meeting. Met as usual in the subterranean crypt of the Lafayette Place Dutch Conventicle with a score of grim departed dominies looking down on us from the walls. . . . Tuition fees were reduced from $90 to $50. I expect no practical good, no increase of students from the reduction, but the board was nearly unanimous in its favor. Reference to the president, with the advice of the faculty, to settle practical details of the course of instruction; a very judicious move.
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas