58 LOUIS AGASSIZ 



tion, he would attack it without any 

 regard to how many irons he had al- 

 ready in the fire. Eegarding himself 

 always as a servant of Science, he put his 

 hand to whatever would serve her best 

 at the moment, declining new work 

 because it interfered with the old no 

 more than a man in public office would 

 decline to consider a public need on the 

 plea that his time is fully occupied 

 already. This resulted in a number of 

 incomplete works, and in an immense 

 number of short scientific papers on this 

 subject and that. 



That such a method hurts a man's 

 own reputation is evident, but whether 

 his total service to science is lessened is 

 a matter for debate. And this seems to 

 explain the fact that so great a natural- 

 ist was not more grieved by unfinished 

 work. Agassiz was utterly without what 

 has been called the lust of finishing. It 

 was not that he lost interest in any sub- 

 ject under the sun, but that the over- 



