256 LOUIS AGASSrz. [CHAP. x. 



autres travaux, ont ajoute un nouvel eclat. Oui, en effet, parmi les 

 amis des Alpes, ne s'est pas interesse a cette petite reunion cThommes, 

 lies par Pamour de la science, transportant leur laboratoire dans ces 

 Hautes Regions Glacees, decrivant en artistes les beautes speciales 

 de ces vastes solitudes, y exercant une large hospitalite et deploy ant 

 dans leurs travaux une perseverance, une ardeur et quelquefois une 

 hardiesse bien faite pour captiver Tattention des plus indifferents ? 

 . . . Nous avons cherche a esquisser ici la vie deja si remplie de 

 notre savant compatriote, nous aurions voulu oser penetrer encore 

 plus avant, et raconter a ceux qui ne le connaissent pas, son carac- 

 tere aimable et attachant, son ardeur dans tout ce qi^il entreprend, 

 sa vivacite dans la discussion unie a la politesse du coeur et en un 

 mot toutes les qualites qui lui ont cree partout des amis et qui Pont 

 fait Tame de reunions des naturalistes suisses qull vivifie par sa 

 presence. 



Such appreciation, coming from so independent and 

 just a naturalist as Jules Pictet de la Rive, shows what 

 a strong hold Agassiz had upon his countrymen, when 

 hardly in middle life ; indeed, before he was forty years 

 old. Every one in Switzerland felt that so small and 

 modest a place as Neuchatel could not retain him 

 any longer. Even Swiss naturalists saw plainly that 

 Switzerland was too small a field for the indefatigable 

 activity of a man so gifted, and that his proper place 

 was either at Paris, or in a new and great country like 

 the United States of America ; and when he left, every- 

 body knew that it was a final departure, and that 

 Agassiz was lost to the fatherland. 



Agassiz's letter to Pictet is also most important, 

 because it gives an inside view of several occurrences, 

 more especially of the difficulty with de Charpentier. 

 Agassiz did not realize the impression made on many 

 by the impropriety of his publishing before de Gharpen- 



