xxiv.] GEORGES CUVIER. 233 



Paris basin in collaboration with Alexander Brongniart, 

 and in his celebrated lectures at the Jardin des Plantes, 

 and at the College de France, Agassiz rose very high 

 in his study of the " Poissons fossiles," the living fishes, 

 the echinoderms, the Myae, the embryology of the 

 turtle, the Acalephs, in the description of the glacial 

 epoch in collaboration with Venetz and de Charpentier, 

 and in his popularization of natural history in North 

 and South America, and finally in his creation of a 

 great museum at Cambridge, and of a great marine 

 biological laboratory at Penikese. Both were creators, 

 each in his own way. From 1795 to 1873 these two 

 savants " de tres grande envergure " gave to natural 

 history the most important impulse which it has ever 

 received, divulging facts more numerous and more 

 clearly founded on exact principles than any other 

 naturalists who preceded them. If Cuvier was superior 

 to Agassiz as a classifier, and a creator of several parts 

 of natural history, Agassiz was above Cuvier as a lover 

 of nature, and a popularizer of science. No naturalist 

 has admired every object of natural history with the 

 enthusiasm of Agassiz. He stood in ecstasy before a 

 zoological specimen ; whether it was living or fossil 

 was of no importance to him. I doubt if any one has 

 ever handled a specimen with such reverence and 

 veneration as Agassiz always did. Cuvier will always 

 occupy a very exalted position in natural history. He 

 is above the rank and file ; while Agassiz is only in the 

 first rank of Cuvier's pupils. Agassiz is a brilliant 

 satellite who has moved in the orbit traced by Cuvier ; 

 but what an orbit ! and what a brilliant light ! 



