786 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



tliat which Cuvier occupied in his time. He respectfully dcclin-ed it, on the 

 ground that he was then engaged in original researches in the United States, 

 which promised to be very fruitful in zoological discovery, and which would 

 take him some years to complete. He considered that the correspondeiicc 

 was closed; but he was surprised by receiving another letter from the 

 minister, renewing the offer, and informing him that the high office would 

 be kept open for him until his American researches were completed. 

 Agassiz justly thought that was the greatest compliment ever paid to him, 

 but his determination to live and die in his adopted country was fixed, and 

 his letter indicating this determination closed the correspondence. 



On the death of the eminent Professor Edward Forbes, in 1854, he was 

 invited to succeed to his chair of Natural History in the University of 

 Edinburgh, but declined the offer in favor of his adopted home, and the 

 field of some of his most distinguished researches in America. 



At the time when he was absorbed in some minute investigations in a diffi- 

 cult department of zoology, he received a letter from the president of a lyceum 

 at the West, offering him a large sum for a course of popular lectures on 

 natural history. His answer was: "I can not afford to waste my time 

 in making money." 



The marvel of Agassiz, and a never-ceasing source of wonder and delight 

 to his friends and companions, was the union in his individuality of solidity, 

 breadth and depth of mind, with a joyousness of spirit, an immense over- 

 whelming geniality of disposition, which flooded every company he entered 

 with the wealth of his own opulent nature. Placed at the head of a table 

 with a shoulder of mutton before him, he so carved the meat that every 

 guest flattered himself that the host had given him the best piece. His 

 social power exceeded that of the most brilliant conversationalists and the 

 most delicate epicures ; for he was not only fertile in thoughts, but wise in 

 wines and infallible in matters of fish and game. It was impossible to place 

 him in any company where he was out of place. 



" I look upon him," said a pupil, " as a prophet, as an apostle of science ; 

 he has made every honest investigator his debtor ; he has not only elevated 

 in public esteem the intellectual class to which he belongs, but he has in- 

 duced the moneyed class to give science the means of carrying out its 

 purposes. Since Agassiz came into the country, you can not but have 

 noticed that private capitalists, State Legislatures, and the Congress of the 

 country have been liberal of aid to every good scientific enterprise. We 

 owe a great part of this liberality to Agassiz. He it was who magnetized 

 the people with his own scientific enthusiasm. He made science popular, 



