132 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xix. 



been very truthful, if he had had less fire and brill- 

 iancy in his imagination, always too easily excited. In 

 principle he was honest, because he believed all that he 

 said. For him the Italian proverb, " si non e vero e ben 

 trovato," was an article of the code of conversation in 

 after-dinner talk among witty gentlemen. Very appre- 

 ciative of a well-served table, of witty conversation, and 

 of the company of ladies, his gaulois spirit formed a 

 relish, as it were, for his more serious and guarded 

 American friends. As Lowell says of him, " Blood 

 runs quick in his veins, and he has the joy of animal 

 vigour to a degree rare among men a true male, in 

 all its meaning." 



Lowell was a special favourite with Agassiz, and 

 knew him thoroughly. As Agassiz was always a great 

 walker, he and Lowell, after a long sitting at the " Sat- 

 urday Club," in the early hours of morning, would come 

 back to Cambridge on foot, Agassiz continuing his con- 

 fidential gauloiscries, begun " under the rose," until the 

 joyful companions were forced to separate, a parting 

 which Lowell has so well described in his memorial 

 poem entitled " Agassiz " : - 



' At last arrived at where our paths divide, 

 'Good night ! ' and, ere the distance grew too wide, 

 ' Good night ! ' again ; and now with cheated ear, 

 I half hear his who mine shall never hear." 



While returning from one of these Saturday Club meet- 

 ings, Agassiz was greatly shocked by the sudden illness 

 of his friend, President Felton, who suffered a seven- 

 attack of heart disease, as they were walking home. It 

 proved a. first warning of death ; and some months later, 



