ii4 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vi. 



Up to that time, he had worked entirely alone. The 

 only collaboration he had ever had was in his Neu- 

 chatel address before the Swiss naturalists, when he 

 combined, as he said, his views with those of Karl 

 Schimper, on the explanation of the great ice cover- 

 ing, which, according to his view, had extended from 

 the north pole as far at least as the Mediterranean 

 Sea. It was not a success, as he had occasion at once 

 to see before the meeting was adjourned ; for " Schimp- 

 erizing ' - as it was familiarly called among Agassiz's 

 friends --was anything but congenial to his audience. 

 It is true that he abandoned, little by little, all the ideas 

 put forward so boldly and rashly, retaining only the 

 word "Ice-period" (Eisnetz)\ and he returned quietly to 

 the teaching he had received so liberally from de Char- 

 pentier and Venetz. But the difficulties which arose 

 from this collaboration, and which broke out soon after, 

 as we shall see, were a hint that collaboration was not 

 suited to him, and a warning to him to be on his guard 

 in future against scientific help and associates. Instead 

 of heeding the warning, Agassiz, on the contrary, from 

 that time until almost the end of his life, accepted col- 

 laboration of some sort, and entered into a succession 

 of very serious difficulties, from which he was never 

 able entirely to extricate himself, falling from one into 

 another, and suffering greatly through his own fault. 



It is pleasant to say that until 1837 Agassiz had 

 really committed no fault of any consequence. At the 

 early age of thirty years he had attained the zenith of 

 his reputation, entirely by his own exertion and his un- 

 aided works. The address of 1837, on the glacial ques- 



