48 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. in. 



Agassiz always disliked intrigue ; he was frank and 

 very earnest, and, although inclined to authority and 

 adverse to divided power, he was too little French, or 

 more correctly too little Parisian, in character, to like 

 living in a society in which intrigue was as necessary as 

 scientific knowledge to success. He had too high an 

 opinion of science to make compromises and con- 

 stantly bargain for position, influence, and honour. 



With the death of Cuvier vanished all his hopes of a 

 great journey beyond Europe, - - a desire which had pur- 

 sued him ever since he began the study of natural his- 

 tory at Zurich with Schink. What he heard in Paris 

 of the great success of Victor Jacquemont in India, and 

 of Alcide d'Orbigny in South America, had increased 

 tenfold his wish to be a travelling naturalist, and the 

 long account given to him by Humboldt of the equinoc- 

 tial regions of the New World increased, if possible, his 

 cherished determination to make an exploring journey. 

 Cuvier had told him that after the return of Jacquemont 

 and d'Orbigny, then daily expected, the annual appro- 

 priation at the disposal of the Museum would be in part 

 free, and might be bestowed on him. His dreams of 

 seeing the great Amazon River were revived, but were 

 not destined to be realized till more than thirty years 

 afterward, under other auspices, and under much more 

 fortunate conditions. 



If Agassiz had been able to make a great exploration 

 into the interior of a continent, or around the world, 

 when he was between twenty-five and thirty-five years 

 of age, what a harvest of facts he would have brought 







back with him ! It is much to be regretted, both for 



