294 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xii. 



sionate and bitter discussions, which already agitated 

 and divided the South from the North, had no influence 

 on him, and he never took part in them, directly or in- 

 directly. It is true that several politicians of the time 

 made use of his opinions for their own selfish interests, 

 but it was impossible for Agassiz to prevent it. Con- 

 fining himself to a zoological point of view, he admitted 

 with great sincerity and frankness, that although once 

 a believer in the unity of the races of man, he had found 

 out that this was an error, and that his studies among 

 large numbers of negroes and Indians had led him, as a 

 zoologist, to conclude that it was impossible to consider 

 them as simple varieties or races of the white man. In 

 his view, they were entirely distinct species, each, 

 negroes, American Indians, and Circassians or Euro- 

 peans, - - possessing its peculiar varieties or races. 



But as regards the servitude of one species to another, 

 and the right of one man to sell another, Agassiz never, 

 for an instant, justified such a proceeding, either mor- 

 ally, socially, or religiously. Science had nothing to do 

 with such an iniquity ; to deal with it was the work of 

 morality, philanthropy, politics, and religion, but not 

 of a savant, whose domain is entirely outside of all 

 institutions of society. 



In early spring Agassiz returned to New York, where 

 he met his assistants, Edward Desor and Charles Girard, 

 who had left Paris in February, and had embarked 

 on a sailing-ship at Havre, the 2d of March, 1847. It 

 now became needful to have a permanent establishment 

 somewhere ; and Agassiz did not hesitate to choose 

 Boston as his headquarters, on account of the great 



