PREFACE. 



MORE than twenty years have passed since the death 

 of Louis Agassiz, and although many biographies were 

 published directly after his death, no true life of him 

 has yet appeared : nearly all have been too eulogistic, 

 while, on the other hand, some rather severe strictures 

 and criticisms have incidentally appeared in articles 

 purporting to give the life of some of his associates, 

 or dealing with some special questions of natural his- 

 tory. Agassiz occupied too large and important a place 

 in natural history not to have left both a certain num- 

 ber of critics and a larger number of enthusiastic ad- 

 mirers ready to see in him only faults or perfection. 

 Truth lies between the two. As one of the reviewers 

 of Agassiz's life by his wife says : " The true history 

 of Agassiz has not yet been written." 



To meet this want, I have made during the last 

 twenty years a large collection of material in the form 

 of letters, recollections of friends and contemporaries, 

 and rare pamphlets, with the design of presenting to 

 the public the man himself ; his origin, his character, 

 his public life, his private life, his passions, his weak- 

 nesses, his faults, his errors, his genius ; what he did 

 and what he left undone ; above all, to put him in his 



