DESCENT AND BOYHOOD 5 



apprehensive temperament he acquired directly from 

 his mother. 



Naturally it has been sometimes the habit to compare 

 the two men. But beyond the fact that both had a pas- 

 sionate love of science, pursued by very similar methods 

 of work, and that the son followed in the footsteps of 

 the father in developing the Museum that the latter had 

 founded, they had less in common than might be sup- 

 posed. The father's optimism was always a cause of 

 anxiety and trouble ; the son possessed a singularly clear 

 sight for the rocks ahead, and a very marked ability to 

 steer his course clear of them. The habits of thought 

 of each were necessarily different. Louis was the last 

 of the great naturalists who believed in the special cre- 

 ation of species, and the theological tenets that it im- 

 plied. Alexander, though always extremely cautious in 

 any speculations that did not rest on a solid foundation 

 of ascertained fact, passed his early scientific life under 

 the stimulus that the teachings of Darwin gave to a new 

 school of science. 



The elder Agassiz, buoyant and robust, loved appre- 

 ciation, was fond of teaching, and had a genius for 

 stimulating his students. More especially after his com- 

 ing to America he was preeminent as a great teacher. 

 Few people can now realize how intense an interest he 

 kindled in science wherever he went in the New World, 

 or how eagerly people of all kinds thronged to his lec- 

 tures in communities not easily roused to abstract en- 

 thusiasms or given to scientific excitement. Alexander, 

 retiring and reserved, had no gift or desire to excite 

 popular interest; he hated notoriety, disliked teaching, 

 and while his activities extended over many fields, his 

 intellectual life was devoted to research. The essential 



