1836-37-] GREAT REPUTATION'. 113 



was before very favourable to Agassiz, became an oppo- 

 nent, and there is no doubt that Agassiz's very fair 

 prospect of an offer of a professorship at the Berlin 

 University was absolutely ruined from that day. 



The great value of Agassiz's address lies in his more 

 graphic description of the action of glaciers on rocks, 

 than that given before by de Charpentier, in his paper 

 of 1834, and in the idea of the universality of the glacial 

 action over half a hemisphere. Besides, it drew atten- 

 tion more vividly to the question, and in a^way which 

 obliged every one opposed to the view of glacial action 

 to give his reasons. 



There is no other example of such a rapid rise to 

 great scientific reputation as Agassiz enjoyed in his 

 thirtieth year. At the age of twenty-one, when he 

 was still a student, he laid the foundation by his pub- 

 lication in 1828 of Spix's Brazilian fishes; and the 

 first numbers or " livraisons ' of his " Fossil Fishes ' 

 attracted the attention of naturalists the world over. 

 Everything he published from 1828 to 1837 is remark- 

 able, showing a rare power of description and classifica- 

 tion, and a facility in handling the most difficult problem 

 of natural history. His memoirs are entirely his own 

 work, except the illustrations ; and any one who reads 

 them will see a difference between them and similar 

 work produced after 1837. His power of classifying 

 fossils and his success in reducing to order thousands of 

 specimens of fishes, a great many of which were perfect 

 puzzles to every one, were simply marvellous ; and he 

 worked at his herculean task as no man but a man of 

 genius could have done. 



