LOUIS AGASSIZ. 249 



III. 



Arrived iu America, where his reputation had preceded him, he did 

 not lacli encouragement and support in that country, where great ideas 

 so easilj^ lind an enthusiastic public and generous protectors. The first 

 of the lectures he gave in Boston was repeated eight times to an audi- 

 ence always new and always eager to hear. The success of the sub- 

 sequent lectures was equal to that of the first. From the very outset 

 the learned naturalist acquired great popularity. He was surrounded, 

 feted, made much of, and was charmed by the zeal manifested on all 

 sides for natural history. The first part of his sojourn was passed in 

 giving single and courses of lectures. Embryology and the glaciers 

 Avere his most frequent subjects. 



After his debut at Boston he lectured successively at New York, 

 Albany, New Haven, and Charleston, where he passed the winter of 

 1847-'4:8. He at the same time determined to profit by the resources 

 which surrounded him, and immediately commenced to make collections. 

 Everything about him was new, and he had only to stretch out his hands 

 in order to fill them. A generous American, Mr. Abbott Lawrence, 

 convinced of the importance of retaining a man of such value in the 

 country, offered iu 1847 to create a chair for him of zoology and geology 

 in Harvard College, Cambridge, if he would remain. Agassiz, who had 

 come to the United States with very favorable anticipations, far sur- 

 passed by the welcome he had received, did not hesitate to accept the 

 proposition. He comprehended that his reputation would give him 

 promptly a power and means of action which he could never acquire in 

 Europe. Establishment in this country would also put an end to the 

 rivalries, the cares of all sorts, to which he was a prey in Neuchatel. 

 He would be able to consecrate to science his time and his strength 

 without being obliged for want of money to restrict or retard his publi- 

 cations. He abandoned, then, without regret the modest theater where 

 he had first distinguished himself, and commenced an entirely new 

 career, iu which he was to find resources even beyond his brightest 

 dreams. 



He took i)ossession, upon his return from Charleston, of the chair of 

 natural history, which had been offered to him. His dwelling was at Cam- 

 bridge, in Oxford street. Count Frank de Pourtales, Professors Desor, 

 Marcou, Gnyot, Lcsquereux, and his draughtsman, Burckardt, who 

 since his sojourn at Munich had always worked for him, now joined him. 

 Several of these naturalists lived for some time with him. He received 

 them bounteously, and aided them with his influence and his purse, at 

 that time better filled than when he was in Neuchatel. Soon he sent 

 for his son Alexander, whose taste for natural history was a great joy 

 to him. He passed the first four months of the year 1819 at Philadel- 

 phia, where he gave courses of lectures, and in the winter of 1810-'50 



