2 The Life and Writings of Agassiz. 



was the object of an unbounded tenderness, and surrounded 

 by all the care which the most watchful solicitude could sug- 

 gest to parents alarmed by the loss of four children. Fear- 

 ing the influence of the severe climate of St Imier, the pastor 

 Agassiz had just left this parish to take charge of one in a 

 village in the canton of Friburg, called Mottier, situated on 

 the peninsula of Vully, between the Lake of Neufchatel and 

 the Lake of Morat. It was here that Agassiz was born. 

 Here, on the borders of the beautiful lake, at the foot of a 

 hill covered with rich vineyards, in the full view of the chain 

 of the Alps, he passed his first years, under the vigilant eye 

 of a mother who divined from the first the future that was 

 unfolded in the young and ardent nature of her child. 



After having received his first education in his father's 

 house, Agassiz was placed with his younger brother at the 

 Gymnasium of Bienne, a small town in the neighbourhood. 

 This establishment was at that time very celebrated through- 

 out the canton. The two brothers passed here several years, 

 devoted almost exclusively to the study of the ancient lan- 

 guages. Their father, in the mean time, had left the parish 

 of Mottier, and accepted a situation in his ovm canton, in the 

 little town of Orbe, situated at the foot of the Jura. It was 

 during the vacations which he passed with his parents, that 

 the attention of the young student was turned, for the first 

 time, toward the Natural Sciences. Those who knew him at 

 that time, remember the ardour with which he made his first 

 collections, and the delight he showed, when, on his return 

 from an excursion, he had some new butterfly or some cu- 

 rious insect to show to his mother. This taste for Natural 

 History received new nourishment, when, in consequence of a 

 second promotion, his father was called to the parish of Con- 

 cise, a large village situated on the Lake of Neufchatel. The 

 vicinity of the lake, which washes the garden-walls of the 

 parsonage, opened a new field to his insatiable curiosity con- 

 cerning natural objects. From this moment, his attention 

 was especially directed to the Fishes ; and, as if he had al- 

 ready a presentiment of the great results which he was one 

 day to deduce from the philosophical study of these animals, 

 he not only applied himself to the collecting of them, but 



