22 LOUIS AGASSIZ 



is devoted during the day to the soaking 

 of all sorts of creatures for skeletons, and 

 in the evening again to the brewing of 

 our tea." 



These Munich students were, of course, 

 the picked men of a brilliant university; 

 but still they were not so different 

 from the others as to make them self- 

 conscious. Research was in the air : it 

 was like the passion for business among 

 older men in America. And so our 

 wonder at the abilities of Agassiz and 

 his companions shades into a wonder at 

 the intellectual level and assumption of 

 the twenty-year-old society in which 

 they found themselves. It seems at first 

 like a playing at naturalists : next we 

 are struck with surprise at the excellent 

 quality of the work dora, tried not by 

 any graded or conventionalised stand- 

 ards, but without handicap and by the 

 absolute standard of the grown-up world. 

 And most conspicuous of all is their 

 exceeding pleasure in all their efforts. 



