PEEFACE. 



Lowell says of Agassiz that "a good 

 leash of mother-tongues had he. 7 ' Agassiz 

 indeed used French, German, and English 

 almost indifferently ; and his biographers 

 have used them almost equally. Everything 

 needed for this small volume has, however, 

 been reduced to a dead level of English. 



It may be said as truly that Agassiz was 

 strongly conscious of two nationalities. A 

 short account of his life has already been 

 included in a series dealing with Eminent 

 Swiss : he is here presented as an Eminent 

 American; and he was truly both, and 

 found the two loyalties compatible. 



The most valuable legacies of scientific 

 men are left to the whole world, with no 

 restraint of place and little of time. But 

 there are a few gifts which they leave, as 

 other men leave them, to one country or to 

 one community. And whatever in Agassiz^ s 

 gift teas necessarily thus restricted we find 

 to-day in America, not in Europe. In 



