1868-70.] HUMBOLDT'S ANNIVERSARY. 177 



Arago. One day he said to him before witnesses, one 

 of whom repeated it to me, " You do not know how to 

 write a book. When you begin a subject, you go, go, 

 go, and cannot stop, just like your never-ending talk." 

 ["Toi, Humboldt! tu ne sais pas ecrire un livre ; tu 

 commences, va, va, va, tu ne peux plus t'arreter ; exacte- 

 ment comme tu paries." ] Arago always futoyait 

 Humboldt, a custom dating from the French republic 

 at the time of the sans-cnlotte, which was kept up for 

 one or two generations among the savants, and even to 

 this day among artists. 



The address of Agassiz was admirable. It gave all 

 the salient points of Humboldt's life; indicated his great 

 influence on the progress of natural sciences during the 

 first half of this century, and acknowledged the debt 

 America owes to him as a discoverer in physical geog- 

 raphy, a science which it may be said was created by 

 him, and to his clear and exact exposition of every- 

 thing relating to the natural history of the equinoctial 

 regions of the New World. Humboldt was inclined 

 to be sarcastic and was always ready to make fun 

 of others, the only ones exempt from his rather sharp 

 remarks, among his scientific contemporaries, being 

 Arago and young Agassiz. Even the glacial doctrine, 

 which he did not relish much, was treated respectfully 

 by him, and he used it only against his old friend von 

 Buch, who always lost his temper every time a reference 

 was made to it. 



To deliver his address, Agassiz had to leave the 

 side of his dear and favourite child, Mrs. Pauline 

 Shaw, then very ill and in a critical condition. The 



VOL. II. N 



