274 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xi. 



induced to settle there permanently. Nothing would 

 have been easier for the French government than to 

 secure his services, if not at once, at least after his 

 engagement with the Lowell Institute in Boston had 

 been filled, and his promises to send collections to 

 Berlin and Neuchatel, in return for the advance money 

 he had received from the king of Prussia, had been 

 accomplished. For several reasons, the idea of his per- 

 manent residence in Paris was not to the taste of the 

 leaders of natural history ; although they feasted him, 

 and gave him a Physiological prize of three hundred 

 dollars at the annual meeting of the Institute of France, 

 they feared, that if he became their colleague, he would 

 soon over-shadow them all. In fact, jealousy was at the 

 root of the affair ; and although they loudly professed 

 their admiration for the man himself and his work, and 

 were ready to help him in some of his scientific work, 

 they took no proper steps in the direction of keeping 

 him. Nothing was offered in a direct way by the 

 French government ; but indirectly it was hinted that 

 if he wanted to settle in Paris, official positions with 

 salary amounting to six thousand francs per annum 

 would be granted to him. Agassiz declined this doubt- 

 ful offer, and it was probably a great relief to the official 

 zoologists and geologists to know that he was not to 

 become their rival, and possibly their leader and master 

 as well. 



A Swiss artist of Neuchatel, Fritz Berthoud, then a 

 resident in Paris, took advantage of Agassiz's stay to 

 obtain a full-length portrait of him. The picture, now 

 in the museum at Neuchatel, represents Agassiz and 



