1836-37-] CONVERSION- TO GLACIAL THEORY. 85 



to the Valais. With his power of quiek perception, 

 his unmatched memory, his perspicacity and acuteness, 

 his way of classifying, judging, and marshalling facts, 

 Agassiz promptly learned the whole mass of irresistible 

 arguments collected patiently during seven years by 

 de Charpentier and Venetz, and with his insatiable 

 appetite and that faculty of assimilation which he pos- 

 sessed in such a wonderful degree, he digested the 

 whole doctrine of the glaciers in a few weeks. 



Agassiz saw also that de Charpentier was a true 

 " scientific epicurean ' in the best and most elevated 

 sense of the word, as he had been characterized by 

 Dr. Lebert, not only without ambition for fame, but 

 even indifferent as to the diffusion of his discoveries 

 among scientific men. Lebert calls de Charpentier 

 " une Belle au bois dormant " ; and it was for Agassiz 

 to play the role of the prince in awaking him, and 

 obliging him to publish his researches ; which he finally 

 did in October, 1840, under the title of " Essai sur les 

 Glaciers." 



Agassiz, with his extraordinary imagination, saw that 

 the phenomenon of the extension of old glaciers had not 

 been confined to the Rhone valley, but must have been 

 general, and formed a special period in the history of 

 the earth, during which cold prevailed all over the 

 world. In a word, Agassiz's sojourn at Bex, under the 

 teaching of de Charpentier, had taught him, with his 

 far-reaching thoughts, to add an entirely unexpected, 

 and, at that time generally very unacceptable, stage to 

 the various periods which the earth had passed through ; 

 namely, the Ice-age. 



