228 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. 



He was absolutely devoid of the business faculty, a 

 defect which would have been of little consequence, if 

 he had not always engaged in undertakings involving 

 great expense and requiring financial capacity of no 

 small order. 



Like his master, George Cuvier, Louis Agassiz's per- 

 sonality has strongly marked the natural history of the 

 middle of the nineteenth century. With certain simi- 

 larities, they present a great many more contrasts, due 

 mainly to the differences in the time of their existence, 

 and also to their peculiar temperaments. Both born 

 at the foot of the Jura Mountains, one at the north, at 

 Montbeliard (Doubs), the other at the east, at Metier 

 (Fribourg), they were descended from families essen- 

 tially Jurassic, Protestant, and including Protestant 

 ministers. Cuvier came originally from the small village 

 of Cuvier, near Censeau, in the department of Jura, 

 while Agassiz came from the small town of Orbe and 

 the village of Bavois in the Jura Vaudois, at a distance 

 of only twenty-five miles from Cuvier. Their youth 

 was passed in countries using the German language ; 

 Cuvier's at Stuttgart, and Agassiz's at Bienne, Zurich, 

 Heidelberg, and Munich. On both, German education 

 left indelible marks, more especially during the first 

 half of their scientific life. 



Cuvier was, above all, a careful observer of facts. 

 In all zoological questions he was never led by his 

 imagination ; the only field in which he followed pre- 

 conceived theory was in general geology, in what he has 

 called the " Revolutions du Globe." On the contrary, 

 Agassi/: was inclined to theorize; his brilliant imagina- 



