1858-64-] THE "SATURDAY CLUB." 131 



In Boston and Cambridge dinner parties succeeded 

 each other so rapidly that it was a wonder that any 

 man could stand such a strain on his digestive powers. 

 Agassiz was a member of all the fashionable clubs of 

 the time, and besides was a welcome guest at the hos- 

 pitable tables of all the leading families of Boston. A 

 description of one of these meetings will suffice. Dr. 

 Holmes, the great humourist and poet, says, " At the 

 other end of the table [of the "Saturday Club"] sat 

 Agassiz, robust, sanguine, animated, full of talk, boy- 

 like in his laughter." They lingered long round the 

 table, while hour after hour passed in animated conver- 

 sation, in which bon mots and repartee were exchanged 

 as rapidly as a discharge of fireworks an encounter of 

 anecdote, wit, and erudition. At such times Agassiz 

 was at his best, with his inexhaustible bonJioniic. With 

 a lighted cigar in each hand, he would force the atten- 

 tion of every one around him. Excited by the pyro- 

 technic wit of James Russell Lowell, Judge Rockn44 

 Hoar, and the author of the "Autocrat of the Breakfast 

 Table," Agassiz, whose vivid imagination was always 

 on the qui-vive, was not a man to let others eclipse him. 

 Then would come one of his made-up stories --a mixt- 

 ure of dream and science. He knew perfectly well 

 that it was a fiction, and the first time he told it he hesi- 

 tated a little. If he thought any one in the company 

 was doubting its truth, he would look at him with a 

 dumb request not to betray him. On the next occasion 

 he would repeat the same story without any hesitation ; 

 and the third time he told it, he was sure that it had 

 really happened, and was true. Agassiz would have 



