LOUIS AGASSIZ 45 



They saw their own successor in the 

 eager and penniless young author, and 

 as charming and picturesque as the 

 equal friendship of the Cloverleaf are 

 the reverence and loyal affection of 

 Agassiz' s relation to these older men, 

 and his gratitude for the generous help 

 they offered him. It was an interesting 

 time, hardly two years after the famous 

 dispute between Cuvier and Geoffroy St. 

 Hilaire ; and the echoes of that discus- 

 sion were still sounding. Humboldt 

 used himself to attend one course of 

 Cuvier' s lectures, where Agassiz often 

 secured the seat beside him, and heard 

 his whispered comments on Cuvier's pas- 

 sionate advocacy of one set of doctrines. 

 But homesickness begins to show itself 

 very clearly in Agassiz' s letters home. 

 Alexander Braun was also in Paris 5 but, 

 as each advanced in his specialty, their 

 work could not be so much in common. 

 It is evident that Agassiz was somewhat 

 frightened in Paris by the bigness and 



