1856-58.] INVITATION TO PARIS. 69 



And the mother at home says, " Hark ! 



For his voice I listen and yearn ; 

 It is growing late and dark, 



And my boy does not return ! " 

 May 28, 1857. 



When Switzerland founded a federal polytechnic 

 school, as a sort of compromise for a state university, 

 Agassiz was written to, unofficially, in regard to an 

 appointment. The friend who sent the message, the 

 learned Oswald Heer, wrote first to call Agassiz's atten- 

 tion to the advantages to be derived from a position 

 among his old friends, some of them his classmates also, 

 as Arnold Escher de la Linth, Albert Mousson, and his 

 first teacher in zoology, the old Schink, who was still 

 living at Zurich ; and second, at the same time, to offer 

 to sell Agassiz his own private collection of Oeningen 

 fossils, knowing well how easily he was tempted by 

 collections. But Agassiz, in a letter dated January, 

 1855, declined both offers, at the same time asking for 

 Claris fossils fishes, if Heer was able to procure any, 

 and saying that as soon as he had money at his com- 

 mand, he would with pleasure purchase his collection of 

 Oeningen fossils, which he was enabled to do five years 

 later. 



But a much more tempting offer was made in August, 

 1857, when Agassiz received the following official letter : 



PARIS, le 19 aout, 1857. 



Monsieur, Une chaire de paleontologie est vacante au Museum 

 d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris. Vous etes Francais, vous avez en- 

 richi votre pays natal de travaux eminents et de recherches labo- 

 rieuses ; vous etes membre correspondant de Tlnstitut. L'Empereur 

 serait heureux de ramener en France un savant distingue", un pro- 



