222 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAT. 



were aware of it. However, Agassiz seldom revealed 

 himself entirely, and after his fiftieth year he never did 

 so. He possessed the shrewd simplicity characteristic 

 of the Vaudois peasant, and went willingly beyond the 

 mark in order to discover the true meaning of your 

 thought. At first his design did not appear ; and you 

 were led to look upon him as a man who said all and 

 even more than he knew and thought. But soon you 

 were obliged to admit that your first impression of 

 the man was erroneous ; you found an unconquer- 

 able opposition to anything of which he disapproved. 

 Agassiz was very ready to make promises ; he asked 

 favours in every direction, and then he was apt to 

 forget the conditions under which they were granted. 

 He was at the same time a dreamer and a man of 

 action, dreaming aloud, and taking the public as a 

 confidant of everything which came into his mind. 

 He was not to be taken at his own word, but it was 

 necessary to allow a large margin for contingencies and 

 changes. When surrounded by material difficulties, he 

 fortified his spirit by a marvellous power of always 

 hoping for better times, having an absolutely unshaken 

 confidence in himself. 



He was one of those whose hands and heart are 

 always open ; for whom work is the main path of life, 

 and, at the same time, a great pleasure and not to be 

 interfered with, --a sort of prodigal child. "II ne 

 vivait que pour les autres, s'il n'y avait eu personne 

 pour le regarder tout le temps, il n'aurait pas existe," 

 - a sentence of a distinguished French author, which 

 applies fully to Agassiz. He always thought that he 



