PREFACE. ix 



type. It is impossible to group round him other natu- 

 ralists, and to form a special class of spirits related 

 to his. He surprised every one by his constant watch- 

 fulness, and his quickness to get at the truth of nature. 

 Agassiz himself was more interesting than his works. 

 His life is a rare study. 



Until 1838, he wrote with his own hand an enormous 

 amount of manuscript; nothing discouraged him, and 

 he was always ready to use his pen, even to copy 

 papers or books which he was too poor to purchase, or 

 which it was impossible to procure otherwise. He kept 

 a private journal, in which he wrote with great naivete 

 everything which occurred to him, or came under his 

 eyes, when at Bienne, Lausanne, Zurich, Heidelberg, 

 Orbe, Munich, Concise, Paris, and during the first two 

 years of his life at Neuchatel. He showed me this 

 journal, and I had the privilege of reading in it some 

 of his student adventures and escapades. I do not 

 know what has become of the manuscript. 



Agassiz, from his youth until his last illness, was over- 

 flowing with intellectual spirit and vitality. He is a 

 rare example of manly qualities and activities. His 

 influence on the progress and diffusion of natural his- 

 tory is second to none. 



I have tried to bring him before the reader as I have 

 known him. If I do not produce an exact portrait of 

 the man and his life, it is due simply to my inability to 

 express my feeling for the man and his works. Born 

 at the foot of the Jura Mountains like Agassiz, and not 

 far from his birthplace, I passed my youth and was 

 educated under much the same circumstances as he, 



