complete my medical studies, and for this I came to Munich eighteen
months ago. Still I could not make up my mind to renounce the
natural sciences. I attended some of the pathological lectures, but
I soon found that I was neglecting them; and yielding once more to
my inclination, I followed consecutively the lectures of Dollinger
on comparative anatomy, those of Oken on natural history, those of
Fuchs on mineralogy, as well as the courses of astronomy, physics,
chemistry, and mathematics. I was confirmed in this withdrawal from
medical studies by the proposition of M. de Martius that I should
describe the fishes brought back by Spix from Brazil, and to this I
consented the more gladly because ichthyology has always been a
favorite study with me. I have not, however, been able to give them
all the care I could have wished, for M. de Martius, anxious to
complete the publication of these works, has urged upon me a rapid
execution. I hope, nevertheless, that I have made no gross errors,
and I am the less likely to have done so, because I had as my guide
the observations you had kindly made for him on the plates of Spix.
Several of these plates were not very exact; they have been set
aside and new drawings made. I beg that you will judge this work
when it reaches you with indulgence, as the first literary essay of
a young man. I hope to complete it in the course of the next
summer. I would beg you, in advance, to give me a paternal word of
advice as to the direction my studies should then take. Ought I to
devote myself to the study of medicine? I have no fortune, it is
true; but I would gladly sacrifice my life if, by so doing, I could
serve the cause of science. Though I have not even a presentiment
of any means with which I may one day travel in distant countries,
I have, nevertheless, prepared myself during the last three years
as if I might be off at any minute. I have learned to skin all
sorts of animals, even very large ones. I have made more than a
hundred skeletons of quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, and fishes; I
have tested all the various liquors for preserving such animals as
should not be skinned, and have thought of the means of supplying
the want in countries where the like preparations are not to be
had, in case of need. Finally, I have trained as traveling
companion a young friend,* (* William Schimper, brother of Karl.)
and awakened in him the same love of the natural sciences. He is an
excellent hunter, and at my instigation has been taking lessons in
drawing, so that he is now able to sketch from nature such objects
as may be desirable. We often pass delightful moments in our
imaginary travels through unknown countries, building thus our
castles in Spain. Pardon me if I talk to you of projects which at
first sight seem puerile; only a fixed aim is needed to give them
reality, and to you I come for counsel. My longing is so great that
I feel the need of expressing it to some one who will understand
me, and your sympathy would make me the happiest of mortals. I am
so pursued by this thought of a scientific journey that it presents
itself under a thousand forms, and all that I undertake looks
toward one end. I have for six months frequented a blacksmith's and
carpenter's shop, learning to handle hammer and axe, and I also
practice arms, the bayonet and sabre exercise. I am strong and
robust, know how to swim, and do not fear forced marches. I have,
when botanizing and geologizing, walked my twelve or fifteen
leagues a day for eight days in succession, carrying on my back a
heavy bag loaded with plants or minerals. In one word, I seem to
myself made to be a traveling naturalist. I only need to regulate
the impetuosity which carries me away. I beg you, then, to be my
guide."
The unfinished letter closes abruptly, having neither signature nor
address. Perhaps the writer's courage failed him and it never was
sent. An old letter (date 1827) from Cuvier to Martius, found among
Agassiz's papers of this time, and containing the very notes on the
Spix Fishes to which allusion is here made, leaves no doubt,
however, that this appeal was intended for the great master who
exercised so powerful an influence upon Agassiz throughout his
whole life.
In the spring of 1829 Agassiz took his diploma in the faculty of
philosophy. He did this with no idea of making it a substitute for
his medical degree, but partly in deference to Martius, who wished
the name of his young colleague to appear on the title-page of the
Brazilian Fishes with the dignity of Doctor, and partly because he
believed it would strengthen his chance of a future professorship.
Of his experience on this occasion he gives some account in the
following letter:--
TO HIS BROTHER.
MUNICH, May 22, 1829.
As it was necessary for me to go through with my examination at
once, and as the days for promotion here were already engaged two
months in advance, I decided to pass it at Erlangen. That I might
not go alone, and also for the pleasure of their company, I
persuaded Schimper and Michahelles to do the same. Braun wanted to
be of the party, but afterward decided to wait awhile. We made our
request to the Faculty in a long Latin letter (because, you know,
among savants it is the thing to speak and write the language you
know least), requesting permission to pass our examination in
writing, and to go to Erlangen only for the colloquium and
promotion. They granted our request on condition of our promise
(jurisjurandi loco polliciti sumus) to answer the questions
propounded without help from any one and without consulting books.
Among other things I had to develop a natural system of zoology, to
show the relation between human history and natural history, to
determine the true basis and limits of the philosophy of nature,
etc. As an inaugural dissertation, I presented some general and
novel considerations on the formation of the skeleton throughout
the animal kingdom, from the infusoria, mollusks, and insects to
the vertebrates, properly so called. The examiners were
sufficiently satisfied with my answers to give me my degree the
23rd or 24th of April, without waiting for the colloquium and
promotion, writing to me that they were satisfied with my
examination, and therefore forwarded my diploma without regard to
the oral examination. . .The Dean of the Faculty, in inclosing it
to me, added that he hoped before long to see me professor, and no
less the ornament of my university in that position than I had
hitherto been as student. I must try not to disappoint him. . .
A letter from his brother contains a few lines in reference to
this. "Last evening, dear Louis, your two diplomas reached me. I
congratulate you with all my heart on your success. I am going to
send to grandpapa the one destined for him, and I see in advance
all his pleasure, though it would be greater if the word medicine
stood for that of philosophy."
The first part of the work on the Brazilian Fishes was now
completed, and he had the pleasure of sending it to his parents as
his own forerunner. After joining a scientific meeting to be held
at Heidelberg, in September, he was to pass a month at home before
returning to Munich for the completion of his medical studies.
TO HIS PARENTS.
MUNICH, July 4, 1829.
. . .I hope when you read this letter you will have received the
first part of my Brazilian Fishes from M.--, of Geneva, to whom
Martius had to send a package of plants, with which my book was
inclosed. I venture to think that this work will give me a name,
and I await with impatience the criticism that I suppose it will
receive from Cuvier. . .I think the best way of reaching the
various aims I have in view is to continue the career on which I
have started, and to publish as soon as possible my natural history
of the fresh-water fishes of Germany and Switzerland. I propose to
issue it in numbers, each containing twelve colored plates
accompanied by six sheets of letter-press. . .In the middle of
September there is to be a meeting of all the naturalists and
medical men of Germany, to which foreign savants are invited. A
similar meeting has been held for the last two or three years in
one or another of the brilliant centres of Germany. This year it
will take place at Heidelberg. Could one desire a better occasion
to make known a projected work? I could even show the original
drawings already made of species only found in the environs of
Munich, and, so to speak, unknown to naturalists. At Heidelberg
will be assembled Englishmen, Danes, Swedes, Russians, and even
Italians. If I could before then arrange everything and distribute
the printed circulars of my work I should be sure of success. . .
In those days of costly postage one sheet of writing paper was
sometimes made to serve for several members of the family. The next
crowded letter contains chiefly domestic details, but closes with a
postscript from Mme. Agassiz, filling, as she says, the only
remaining corner, and expressing her delight in his diploma and in
the completion of his book.
FROM HIS MOTHER.
August 16, 1829.
. . .The place your brother has left me seems very insufficient for
all that I have to say, dear Louis, but I will begin by thanking
you for the happiness, as sweet as it is deeply felt, which your
success has given us. Already our satisfaction becomes the reward
of your efforts. We wait with impatience for the moment when we
shall see you and talk with you. Your correspondence leaves many
blanks, and we are sometimes quite ashamed that we have so few
details to give about your book. You will be surprised that it has
not yet reached us. Does the gentleman in Geneva intend to read it
before sending it to us, or has he perhaps not received the
package? Not hearing we are uneasy. . .Good-by, my dear son; I have
no room for more, except to add my tender love for you. An
honorable mention of your name in the Lausanne Gazette has brought
us many pleasant congratulations. . .
TO HIS FATHER.
August, 1829.
. . .I hope by this time you have my book. I can the less explain
the delay since M. Cuvier, to whom I sent it in the same way, has
acknowledged its arrival. I inclose his letter, hoping it will give
you pleasure to read what one of the greatest naturalists of the
age writes me about it.
CUVIER TO LOUIS AGASSIZ.
PARIS, AU JARDIN DU ROI, August 3, 1829.
. . .You and M. de Martius have done me honor in placing my name at
the head of a work so admirable as the one you have just published.
The importance and the rarity of the species therein described, as
well as the beauty of the figures, will make the work an important
one in ichthyology, and nothing could heighten its value more than
the accuracy of your descriptions. It will be of the greatest use
to me in my History of Fishes. I had already referred to the plates
in the second edition of my "Regne Animal." I shall do all in my
power to accelerate the sale among amateurs, either by showing it
to such as meet at my house or by calling attention to it in
scientific journals.
I look with great interest for your history of the fishes of the
Alps. It cannot but fill a wide gap in that portion of natural
history,--above all, in the different divisions of the genus Salmo.
The figures of Bloch, those of Meidinger, and those of Marsigli,
are quite insufficient. We have the greater part of the species
here, so that it will be easy for me to verify the characters; but
only an artist, working on the spot, with specimens fresh from the
water, can secure the colors. You will, no doubt, have much to add
also respecting the development, habits, and use of all these
fishes. Perhaps you would do well to limit yourself at first to a
monograph of the Salmones.
With my thanks for the promised documents, accept the assurance of
my warm regard and very sincere attachment.
B.G. CUVIER.
At last comes the moment, so long anticipated, when the young
naturalist's first book is in the hands of his parents. The news of
its reception is given in a short and hurried note.
FROM HIS FATHER.
ORBE, August 31, 1829.
I hasten, my dear son, to announce the arrival of your beautiful
work, which reached us on Thursday, from Geneva. I have no terms in
which to express the pleasure it has given me. In two words, for I
have only a moment to myself, I repeat my urgent entreaty that you
would hasten your return as much as possible. . .The old father,
who waits for you with open heart and arms, sends you the most
tender greeting. . .
CHAPTER 4.
1829-1830: AGE 22-23.
Scientific Meeting at Heidelberg.
Visit at Home.
Illness and Death of his Grandfather.
Return to Munich.
Plans for Future Scientific Publications.
Takes his Degree of Medicine.
Visit to Vienna.
Return to Munich.
Home Letters.
Last Days at Munich.
Autobiographical Review of School and University Life.
TO HIS PARENTS.
HEIDELBERG, September 25, 1829.
. . .THE time of our meeting is almost at hand. Relieved from all
anxiety about the subjects I had wished to present here, I can now
be quietly with you and enjoy the rest and freedom I have so long
needed. The tension of mind, forced upon me by the effort to reach
my goal in time, has crowded out the thoughts which are most
present when I am at peace. I will not talk to you of what I have
been doing lately, (a short letter from Frankfort will have put you
on my track), nor of the relations I have formed at the Heidelberg
meeting, nor of the manner in which I have been received, etc.
These are matters better told than written. . .I intend to leave
here to-morrow or the day after, according to circumstances. I
shall stay some days at Carlsruhe to put my affairs in order, and
from there make the journey home as quickly as possible. . .
The following month we find him once more at home in the parsonage
of Orbe. After the first pleasure and excitement of return, his
time was chiefly spent in arranging his collections at Cudrefin,
where his grandfather had given him house-room for them. In this
work he had the help of the family in general, who made a sort of
scientific fete of the occasion. But it ended sadly with the
illness and death of the kind old grandfather, under whose roof
children and grandchildren had been wont to assemble.
AGASSIZ TO BRAUN.
ORBE, December 3, 1829.
. . .I will devote an hour of this last evening I am to pass in
Orbe, to talking with you. You will wonder that I am still here,
and that I have not written. You already know that I have been
arranging my collections at Cudrefin, and spending very happy days
with my grandfather. But he is now very ill, and even should we
have better news of him to-day, the thought weighs heavily on my
heart, that I must take leave of him when he is perhaps on his
death-bed. . .I have just tied up my last package of plants, and
there lies my whole herbarium in order,--thirty packages in all.
For this I have to thank you, dear Alex, and it gives me pleasure
to tell you so and to be reminded of it. What a succession of
glorious memories came up to me as I turned them over. Free from
all disturbing incidents, I enjoyed anew our life together, and
even more, if possible, than in actual experience. Every talk,
every walk, was present to me again, and in reviewing it all I saw
how our minds had been drawn to each other in an ever-strengthening
union. In you I see my own intellectual development reflected as in
a mirror, for to you, and to my intercourse with you, I owe my
entrance upon this path of the noblest and most lasting enjoyment.
It is delightful to look back on such a past with the future so
bright before us. . .
Agassiz now returned to Munich to add the title of Doctor of
Medicine to that of Doctor of Philosophy. A case of somnambulism,
which fell under his observation and showed him disease, or, at
least, abnormal action of the brain, under an aspect which was new
to him, seems to have given a fresh impulse to his medical studies,
and, for a time, he was inclined to believe that the vocation which
had thus far been to him one of necessity, might become one of
preference. But the naturalist was stronger than the physician.
During this very winter, when he was preparing himself with new
earnestness for his profession, a collection of fossil fishes was
put into his hands by the Director of the Museum of Munich. It will
be seen with what ardor he threw himself into this new
investigation. His work on the "Poissons Fossiles," which placed
him in a few years in the front rank of European scientific men,
took form at once in his fertile brain.
TO HIS BROTHER.
MUNICH, January 18, 1830.
. . .My resolve to study medicine is now confirmed. I feel all that
may be done to render this study worthy the name of science, which
it has so long usurped. Its intimate alliance with the natural
sciences and the enlightenment it promises me regarding them are
indeed my chief incitements to persevere in my resolution. In order
to gain time, and to strike while the iron is hot (don't be afraid
it will grow cold; the wood which feeds the fire is good), I have
proposed to Euler, with whom I am very intimate, to review the
medical course with me. Since then, we pass all our evenings
together, and rarely separate before midnight,--reading alternately
French and German medical books. In this way, although I devote my
whole day to my own work about fishes, I hope to finish my
professional studies before summer. I shall then pass my
examination for the Doctorate in Germany, and afterward do the same
in Lausanne. I hope that this decision will please mama. My
character and conduct are the pledge of its accomplishment.
This, then, is my night-work. I have still to tell you what I do by
day, and this is more important. My first duty is to complete my
Brazilian Fishes. To be sure, it is only an honorary work, but it
must be finished, and is an additional means of making subsequent
works profitable. This is my morning occupation, and I am sure of
bringing it to a close about Easter. After much reflection, I have
decided that the best way to turn my Fresh-Water Fishes to account,
is to finish them completely before offering them to a publisher.
All the expenses being then paid, I could afford, if the first
publisher should not feel able to take them on my own terms, to
keep them as a safe investment. The publisher himself seeing the
material finished, and being sure of bringing it out as a complete
work, the value of which he can on that account better estimate,
will be more disposed to accept my proposals, while I, on my side,
can be more exacting. The text for this I write in the afternoon.
My greatest difficulty at first was the execution of the plates.
But here, also, my good star has served me wonderfully. I told you
that beside the complete drawings of the fishes I wanted to
represent their skeletons and the anatomy of the soft parts, which
has never been done for this class. I shall thereby give a new
value to the work, and make it desirable for all who study
comparative anatomy. The puzzle was to find some one who was
prepared to draw things of this kind; but I have made the luckiest
hit, and am more than satisfied. My former artist continues to draw
the fishes, a second draws the skeletons (one who had already been
engaged for several years in the same way, for a work upon
reptiles), while a young physician, who is an admirable
draughtsman, makes my anatomical figures. For my share, I direct
their work while writing the text, and thus the whole advances with
great strides. I do not, however, stop here. Having by permission
of the Director of the Museum one of the finest collections of
fossils in Germany at my disposition, and being also allowed to
take the specimens home as I need them, I have undertaken to
publish the ichthyological part of the collection. Since it only
makes the difference of one or two people more to direct, I have
these specimens also drawn at the same time. Nowhere so well as
here, where the Academy of Fine Arts brings together so many
draughtsmen, could I have the same facility for completing a
similar work; and as it is an entirely new branch, in which no one
has as yet done anything of importance, I feel sure of success; the
more so because Cuvier, who alone could do it (for the simple
reason that every one else has till now neglected the fishes), is
not engaged upon it. Add to this that just now there is a real need
of this work for the determination of the different geological
formations. Once before, at the Heidelberg meeting, it had been
proposed to me; the Director of the Mines at Strasbourg, M. Voltz,
even offered to send me at Munich the whole collection of fossil
fishes from their Museum. I did not speak to you of this at the
time because it would have been of no use. But now that I have it
in my power to carry out the project, I should be a fool to let a
chance escape me which certainly will not present itself a second
time so favorably. It is therefore my intention to prepare a
general work on fossil ichthyology. I hope, if I can command
another hundred louis, to complete everything of which I have
spoken before the end of the summer, that is to say, in July. I
shall then have on hand two works which should surely be worth a
thousand louis to me. This is a low estimate, for even ephemeral
pieces and literary ventures are paid at this price. You can easily
make the calculation. They allow three louis for each plate with
the accompanying text; my fossils will have about two hundred
plates, and my fresh-water fishes about one hundred and fifty. This
seems to me plausible. . .
This letter evidently made a favorable impression on the business
heads of the family at Neuchatel, for it is forwarded to his
parents, with these words from his brother on the last sheet: "I
hasten, dear father, to send you this excellent letter from my
brother, which has just reached me. They have read it here with
interest, and Uncle Francois Mayor, especially, sees both stability
and a sound basis in his projects and enterprises."
There is something touching and almost amusing in Agassiz's efforts
to give a prudential aspect to his large scientific schemes. He was
perfectly sincere in this, but to the end of his life he skirted
the edge of the precipice, daring all, and finding in himself the
power to justify his risks by his successes. He was of frugal
personal habits; at this very time, when he was keeping two or
three artists on his slender means, he made his own breakfast in
his room, and dined for a few cents a day at the cheapest eating
houses. But where science was concerned the only economy he
recognized, either in youth or old age, was that of an expenditure
as bold as it was carefully considered.
In the above letter to his brother we have the story of his work
during the whole winter of 1830. That his medical studies did not
suffer from the fact that, in conjunction with them, he was
carrying on his two great works on the living and the dead world of
fishes may be inferred from the following account of his medical
theses. It was written after his death, to his son Alexander
Agassiz, by Professor von Siebold, now Director of the Museum in
the University of Munich. "How earnestly Agassiz devoted himself to
the study of medicine is shown by the theses (seventy-four in
number), a list of which was printed, according to the prescribed
rule and custom, with his 'Einladung.' I am astonished at the great
number of these. The subjects are anatomical, pathological,
surgical, obstetrical; they are inquiries into materia medica,
medicina forensis, and the relation of botany to these topics. One
of them interested me especially. It read as follows. 'Foemina
humana superior mare.' I would gladly have known how your father
interpreted that sentence. Last fall (1873) I wrote him a letter,
the last I ever addressed to him, questioning him about this very
subject. That letter, alas! remained unanswered."
In a letter to his brother just before taking his degree, Agassiz
says: "I am now determined to pursue medicine and natural history
side by side. Thank you, with all my heart, for your disinterested
offer, but I shall not need it, for I am going on well with my
publisher, M. Cotta, of Stuttgart. I have great hope that he will
accept my works, since he has desired that they should be forwarded
to him for examination. I have sent him the whole, and I feel very
sure he will swallow the pill. My conditions would be the only
cause of delay, but I hope he will agree to them. For the
fresh-water fishes and the fossils together I have asked twenty
thousand Swiss francs. Should he not consent to this, I shall apply
to another publisher."
On the 3rd of April he received his degree of Doctor of Medicine. A
day or two later he writes to his mother that her great desire for
him is accomplished.
TO HIS MOTHER.
MUNICH, April, 1830.
. . .My letter to-day must be to you, for to you I owe it that I
have undertaken the work just completed, and I write to thank you
for having encouraged my zeal. I am very sure that no letter from
me has ever given you greater pleasure than this one will bring;
and I can truly say, on my own part, that I have never written one
with greater satisfaction. Yesterday I finished my medical
examination, after having satisfied every requirement of the
Faculty. . .The whole ceremony lasted nine days. At the close,
while they considered my case, I was sent out of the room. On my
return, the Dean said to me, "The Faculty have been VERY MUCH"
(emphasized) "pleased with your answers; they congratulate
themselves on being able to give the diploma to a young man who has
already acquired so honorable a reputation. On Saturday, after
having argued your thesis, you will receive your degree, in the
Academic Hall, from the Rector of the University." The Rector then
added that he should look upon it as the brightest moment of his
Rectorship when he conferred upon me the title I had so well
merited. Next Saturday, then, at the very time you receive this
letter, at ten o'clock in the morning, the discussion will have
begun, and at twelve I shall have my degree. Dear Mother, dismiss
all anxiety about me. You see I am as good as my word. . .Write
soon; in a few days I go to Vienna for some months. . .
FROM HIS MOTHER.
ORBE, April 7, 1830.
I cannot thank you enough, my dear Louis, for the happiness you
have given me in completing your medical examinations, and thus
securing to yourself a career as safe as it is honorable. It is a
laurel added to those you have already won; in my eyes the most
precious of all. You have for my sake gone through a long and
arduous task; were it in my power I would gladly reward you, but I
cannot even say that I love you the more for it, because that is
impossible. My anxious solicitude for your future is a proof of my
ardent affection for you; only one thing was wanting to make me the
happiest of mothers, and this, my Louis, you have just given me.
May God reward you by giving you all possible success in the care
of your fellow-beings. May the benedictions which honor the memory
of a good physician be your portion, as they have been in the
highest degree that of your grandfather. Why can he not be here to
share my happiness to-day in seeing my Louis a medical graduate!. . .
Agassiz was recalled from Vienna in less than two months by the
arrival in Munich of his publisher, M. Cotta, a personal interview
with whom seemed to him important. The only letter preserved from
the Vienna visit shows that his short stay there was full of
interest and instruction.
TO HIS FATHER.
VIENNA, May 11, 1830.
. . .Since my arrival I have seen so much that I hardly know where
to begin my narrative, and what I have seen has suggested
reflections on many grave subjects, of a kind I had hardly expected
to make here. Nowhere have I seen establishments on broader or more
stately foundations, nor do I believe that anywhere are foreigners
allowed more liberal use of like institutions. I speak of the
university, the hospitals, libraries, and collections of all sorts.
Neither have I seen anywhere else such fine churches, and I have
more than once felt the difference between worshiping within bare
walls, and in buildings more worthy of devotional purposes. In one
word, I should be enchanted with my stay in Vienna if I could be
free from the idea that I am always surrounded by an imperceptible
net, ready to close upon me at the slightest signal. With this
exception, the only discomfort to a foreigner here, if he is
unaccustomed to it, is that of being obliged to abstain from all
criticism of affairs in public places; still more must he avoid
commenting upon persons. I am especially satisfied with my visit
from a scientific point of view. I have learned, and am still
learning, the care of the eyes and how to operate upon them; as to
medicine, the physicians, however good, do not surpass those I have
already known; and as I do not believe it important that a young
physician should familiarize himself with a great variety of
curative methods, I try to observe carefully the patient and his
disease rather than to remember the medicaments applied in special
cases. Surgery and midwifery are poorly provided, but one has a
chance to see many interesting cases.
During the last fortnight I have visited the collection of natural
history often, generally in the afternoon. To tell you how I have
been expected there from the moment I was known to be here, and how
I was received on my first visit, and have been feted since (as
Ichthyologus primus seculi,--so they say), would, perhaps, tire you
and might seem egotistical in me, neither of which do I desire. But
it will not be indifferent to you to know that Cotta is disposed to
accept my Fishes. He has been at Munich for some days, and Schimper
has been talking with him, and has advanced matters more by a few
words than I had been able to do by much writing. For this reason I
intend returning soon to Munich to complete the business, since
Cotta is to be there several weeks longer. Thus I shall have
reached my aim, and be provided from this autumn onward with an
independent maintenance. I was often very anxious this past winter,
in my uncertainty about the means of finally making good such large
outlays. If, however, Cotta makes no other condition than that of a
certain number of subscribers, I shall be sure of them in six months.
You may thus regard what I have done as a speculation happily
concluded, and one which places me at the summit of my desires, for
it leaves me free, at last, to work upon my projects. . .
A letter to his brother, of the 29th of May, just after his return
to Munich, gives a retrospect of the Viennese visit, including the
personal details which he had hesitated to write to his father.
They are important as showing the position he already, at
twenty-three years of age, held among scientific men. "Everything,"
he says, "was open to me as a foreigner, and to my great surprise I
was received as an associate already known. Was it not gratifying
to go to Vienna with no recommendation whatever, and to be welcomed
and sought by all the scientific men, and afterwards presented and
introduced everywhere? In the Museum, not only were the rooms
opened for me when I pleased, but also the cases, and even the
jars, so that I could take out whatever I needed for examination.
At the hospital several professors carried their kindness so far,
as to invite me to accompany them in their private visits. You may
fancy whether I profited by all this, and how many things I saw."
After some account of his business arrangements with Cotta, he adds
"Meantime, be at ease about me. I have strings enough to my bow,
and need not feel anxious about the future. What troubles me is
that the thing I most desire seems to me, at least for the present,
farthest from my reach,--namely, the direction of a great Museum.
When I have finished with Cotta I shall begin to pack my effects,
and shall hope to turn my face homeward somewhere about the end of
August. I can hardly leave earlier, because, for the sake of
practice, I have begun to deliver zoological lectures, open to all
who like to attend, and I want to complete the course before my
departure. I lecture without even an outline or headings before me,
but this requires preparation. You see I do not lose my time."
The next home letter announces an important change in the family
affairs. His father had been called from his parish at Orbe to that
of Concise, a small town situated on the south-western shore of the
Lake of Neuchatel.
FROM HIS MOTHER.
ORBE, July, 1830.
. . .Since your father wrote you on the 4th of June, dear Louis, we
have had no news from you, and therefore infer that you are working
with especial zeal to wind up your affairs in Germany and come home
as soon as possible. Whatever haste you make, however, you will not
find us here. Four days ago your father became pastor of Concise,
and yesterday we went to visit our new home. Nothing can be
prettier, and by all who know the place it is considered the most
desirable position in the canton. There is a vineyard, a fine
orchard filled with fruit-trees in full bearing, and an excellent
kitchen garden. A never-failing spring gushes from a grotto, and
within fifty steps of the house is a pretty winding stream with a
walk along the bank, bordered by shrubbery, and furnished here and
there with benches, the whole disposed with much care and taste.
The house also is very well arranged. All the rooms look out upon
the lake, lying hardly a gunshot from the windows. There are a
parlor and a dining-room on the first floor, beside two smaller
rooms; and on the same floor two doors lead out into the flower
garden. The kitchen is small, and on one side is a pretty ground
where we can dine in the open air in summer. The distribution of
rooms in the upper story is the same, with a large additional room
for the accommodation of your father's catechumens. A jasmine vine
drapes the front of the house and climbs to the very roof. . .
To this quiet pretty parsonage Madame Agassiz became much attached.
Her tranquil life is well described in a letter written many years
afterward by one of her daughters. "Here mama returned to her
spinning-wheel with new ardor. It was a work she much liked, and in
which she was very skillful. In former times at grandpapa's every
woman in the house, whether mistress or maid, had her wheel, and
the young ladies were accustomed to spin and make up their own
trousseaus. Later, mama continued her spinning for her children,
and even for her grandchildren. We all preserve as a precious
souvenir, table linen of her making. We delighted to see her at her
wheel, she was so graceful, and the thread of her thought seemed to
follow, so to speak, the fine and delicate thread of her work as it
unwound itself under her touch from the distaff."
Agassiz was detained by his publishing arrangements and his work
longer than he had expected, and November was already advanced
before his preparations for leaving Munich were completed.
TO HIS PARENTS.
MUNICH, November 9, 1830.
. . .According to your wish [this refers to a suggestion about a
fellow-student in a previous letter] I shall not bring any friend
with me. I long to enjoy the pleasure of family life. I shall,
however, be accompanied by one person, for whom I should like to
make suitable arrangements. He is the artist who makes all my
drawings. If there is no room for him in the house he can be lodged
elsewhere; but I wish you could give me the use of a well-lighted
room, where I could work and he could draw at my side through the
day. Do not be frightened; he is not at my charge; but it would be
a great advantage to me if I could have him in the house. As I do
not want to lose time in the mechanical part of my work, I would
beg papa to engage for me some handy boy, fifteen years old or so,
whom I could employ in cleaning skeletons and the like. Finally,
you will receive several boxes for me; leave them unopened till I
come, without even paying the freight upon them,--the most
unsatisfactory of all expenses;--and I do not wish you to have an
unpleasant association with my collections.
My affairs are all in order with Cotta, and I have even concluded
the arrangement more advantageously than I had dared to hope,--a
thousand louis, six hundred payable on the publication of the first
number, and four hundred in installments, as the publication
goeson. If I had not been in haste to close the matter in order to
secure myself against all doubt, I might have done even better. But
I hope I have reconciled you thereby to Natural History. What
remains to be done will be the work of less than half a year,
during which I wish also to get together the materials for my
second work, on the fossils. Of that I have already spoken with my
publisher, and he will take it on more favorable conditions than I
could have dictated. Do your best to find me subscribers, that we
may soon make our typographical arrangements. . .
His father's answer, full of fun as it is, shows, nevertheless,
that the prospect of domesticating not only the naturalist and his
collections, but artist and assistant also, was rather startling.
FROM HIS FATHER.
CONCISE, November 16, 1830.
. . .You speak of Christmas as the moment of your arrival; let us
call it the New Year. You will naturally pass some days at
Neuchatel to be with your brother, to see the Messrs. Coulon, etc.;
from there to Cudrefin for a look at your collection; then to
Concise, then to Montagny, Orbe, Lausanne, Geneva, etc. M. le
Docteur will be claimed and feted by all in turn. And during all
these indispensable excursions, for which, to be within bounds, I
allow a month at least, it is as clear as daylight that regular
work must be set aside, if, indeed, the time be not wholly lost.
Now, for Heaven's sake, what will you do, or rather what shall WE
do, with your painter, in this interval employed by you elsewhere.
Neither is this all. Though the date of Cecile's marriage is not
fixed, it is more than likely to take place in January, so that you
will be here for the wedding. If you will recollect the overturning
of the paternal mansion when your outfit was preparing for Bienne,
Zurich, and other places, you can form an idea of the state of our
rooms above and below, large and small, when the work of the
trousseau begins. Where, in Heaven's name, will you stow away a
painter and an assistant in the midst of half a brigade of
dress-makers, seamstresses, lace-makers, and milliners, without
counting the accompanying train of friends? Where would you, or
where could you, put under shelter your possessions (I dare not
undertake to enumerate them), among all the taffetas and brocades,
linens, muslin, tulles, laces, etc.? But what am I saying? I doubt
if these names are still in existence, for quite other appellations
are sounding in my ears, each one of which, to the number of some
hundred, signifies at least twenty yards in width, to say nothing
of the length. For my part, I have already, notwithstanding the
approach of winter, put up a big nail in the garret, on which to
hang my bands and surplice. Listen, then, to the conclusion of your
father. Give all possible care to your affairs in Munich, put them
in perfect order, leave nothing to be done, and leave nothing
behind EXCEPT THE PAINTER. You can call him in from here, whenever
you think you can make use of him.
TO HIS PARENTS.
MUNICH, November 26, 1830.
. . .When you receive this I shall be no longer in Munich; by means
of a last draft on M. Eichthal I have settled with every one, and I
hope to leave the day after to-morrow. I fully recognize the
justice of your observations, my dear father, but as you start from
a mistaken point of view, they do not coincide altogether with
existing circumstances. I intend to stay with you until the
approach of summer, not only with the aim of working upon the text
of my book, but chiefly in order to take advantage of all the
fossil collections in Switzerland. For that purpose I positively
need a draughtsman, who, thanks to my publisher, is not in my pay,
and who must accompany me in future wherever I go. Since there is
no room at home, please see how he can be lodged in the
neighborhood. I have, at the utmost, to glance each day at what he
has done. I can even give him work for several weeks in which my
presence would be unnecessary. If there is a considerable
collection of fossils at Zurich, I shall leave him there till he
has finished his work, and then he will rejoin me; all that depends
upon circumstances. In any case he must not be a charge to you,
still less interfere with our family privacy. That I may spend all
my time with you, I shall at present bring with me nothing that is
not absolutely necessary. We shall see later where I shall place my
museum. As to visits, they are not to be thought of until the
spring. I could not bear the idea of interruption before the first
number of my "Fishes" is finished.
The artist in question was Mr. Dinkel. His relations with the
family became of a truly friendly character. The connection between
him and Agassiz, most honorable to both parties, lasted for sixteen
years, and was then only interrupted by the departure of Agassiz
for America. During this whole period Mr. Dinkel was occupied as
his draughtsman, living sometimes in Paris, sometimes in England,
sometimes in Switzerland, wherever, in short, there were specimens
to be drawn. In a private letter, written long afterward, he says,
in speaking of the break in their intercourse caused by Agassiz's
removal to America: "For a long time I felt unhappy at that
separation. . .He was a kind, noble-hearted friend; he was very
benevolent, and if he had possessed millions of money he would have
spent them for his researches in science, and have done good to his
fellow-creatures as much as possible."
Some passages from Braun's letters complete the chapter of these
years in Munich, so rich in purpose and in experience, the prelude,
as it were, to the intellectual life of the two friends who had
entered upon them together. These extracts show how seriously, not
without a certain sadness, they near the end.
BRAUN TO HIS FATHER.
MUNICH, November 7, 1830.
Were I to leave Munich now, I must separate myself from Agassiz and
Schimper, which would be neither agreeable nor advantageous for me,
nor would it be friendly toward them. We will not shorten the time,
already too scantly measured, which we may still spend so quietly,
so wholly by ourselves, but rather, as long as it lasts, make the
best use of it in a mutual exchange of what we have learned, trying
to encourage each other in the right path, and drawing more closely
together for our whole life to come. Agassiz is to stay till the
end of the month; during this time he will give us lectures in
anatomy, and I shall learn a good deal of zoology. Beside all this
one thing is certain; namely, that we can review our medical work
much more quietly and uninterruptedly here than in Carlsruhe. Add
to this, the advantage we enjoy here of visiting the hospitals. . .
The time passes delightfully with us of late, for Agassiz has
received several baskets of books from Cotta, among others,
Schiller's and Goethe's complete works, the Conversations-Lexicon,
medical works, and works on natural history. How many books a man
may receive in return for writing only one! They are, of course,
deducted from his share of the profits. Yesterday we did nothing
but read Goethe the whole day.
A brief account of Agassiz's university life, dictated by himself,
may fitly close the record of this period. He was often urged to
put together a few reminiscences of his life, but he lived so
intensely in the present, every day bringing its full task, that he
had little time for retrospect, and this sketch remained a
fragment. It includes some facts already told, but is given almost
verbatim, because it forms a sort of summary of his intellectual
development up to this date.
"I am conscious that at successive periods of my life I have
employed very different means and followed very different systems
of study. I may, therefore, be allowed to offer the result of my
experience as a contribution toward the building up of a sound
method for the promotion of the study of nature.
"At first, when a mere boy, twelve years of age, I did what most
beginners do. I picked up whatever I could lay my hands on, and
tried, by such books and authorities as I had at my command, to
find the names of these objects. My highest ambition, at that time,
was to be able to designate the plants and animals of my native
country correctly by a Latin name, and to extend gradually a
similar knowledge in its application to the productions of other
countries. This seemed to me, in those days, the legitimate aim and
proper work of a naturalist. I still possess manuscript volumes in
which I entered the names of all the animals and plants with which
I became acquainted, and I well remember that I then ardently hoped
to acquire the same superficial familiarity with the whole
creation. I did not then know how much more important it is to the
naturalist to understand the structure of a few animals, than to
command the whole field of scientific nomenclature. Since I have
become a teacher, and have watched the progress of students, I have
seen that they all begin in the same way; but how many have grown
old in the pursuit, without ever rising to any higher conception of
the study of nature, spending their life in the determination of
species, and in extending scientific terminology! Long before I
went to the university, and before I began to study natural history
under the guidance of men who were masters in the science during
the early part of this century, I perceived that while nomenclature
and classification, as then understood, formed an important part of
the study, being, in fact, its technical language, the study of
living beings in their natural element was of infinitely greater
value. At that age, namely, about fifteen, I spent most of the time
I could spare from classical and mathematical studies in hunting
the neighboring woods and meadows for birds, insects, and land and
fresh-water shells. My room became a little menagerie, while the
stone basin under the fountain in our yard was my reservoir for all
the fishes I could catch. Indeed, collecting, fishing, and raising
caterpillars, from which I reared fresh, beautiful butterflies,
were then my chief pastimes. What I know of the habits of the
fresh-water fishes of Central Europe I mostly learned at that time;
and I may add, that when afterward I obtained access to a large
library and could consult the works of Bloch and Lacepede, the only
extensive works on fishes then in existence, I wondered that they
contained so little about their habits, natural attitudes, and mode
of action with which I was so familiar.
"The first course of lectures on zoology I attended was given in
Lausanne in 1823. It consisted chiefly of extracts from Cuvier's
'Regne Animal,' and from Lamarck's 'Animaux sans Vertebres.' I now
became aware, for the first time, that the learned differ in their
classifications. With this discovery, an immense field of study
opened before me, and I longed for some knowledge of anatomy, that
I might see for myself where the truth was. During two years spent
in the Medical School of Zurich, I applied myself exclusively to
the study of anatomy, physiology, and zoology, under the guidance
of Professors Schinz and Hirzel. My inability to buy books was,
perhaps, not so great a misfortune as it seemed to me; at least, it
saved me from too great dependence on written authority. I spent
all my time in dissecting animals and in studying human anatomy,
not forgetting my favorite amusements of fishing and collecting. I
was always surrounded with pets, and had at this time some forty
birds flying about my study, with no other home than a large
pine-tree in the corner. I still remember my grief when a visitor,
entering suddenly, caught one of my little favorites between the
floor and the door, and he was killed before I could extricate him.
Professor Schinz's private collection of birds was my daily resort,
and I then described every bird it contained, as I could not afford
to buy even a text-book of ornithology. I also copied with my own
hand, having no means of purchasing the work, two volumes of
Lamarck's 'Animaux sans Vertebres,' and my dear brother copied
another half volume for me. I finally learned that the study of the
things themselves was far more attractive than the books I so much
coveted; and when, at last, large libraries became accessible to
me, I usually contented myself with turning over the leaves of the
volumes on natural history, looking at the illustrations, and
recording the titles of the works, that I might readily consult
them for identification of such objects as I should have an
opportunity of examining in nature.
"After spending in this way two years in Zurich, I was attracted to
Heidelberg by the great reputation of its celebrated teachers,
Tiedemann, Leuckart, Bronn, and others. It is true that I was still
obliged to give up a part of my time to the study of medicine, but
while advancing in my professional course by a steady application
to anatomy and physiology, I attended the lectures of Leuckart in
zoology, and those of Bronn in paleontology. The publication of
Goldfuss's great work on the fossils of Germany was just then
beginning, and it opened a new world to me. Familiar as I was with
Cuvier's 'Regne Animal,' I had not then seen his 'Researches on
Fossil Remains,' and the study of fossils seemed to me only an
extension of the field of zoology. I had no idea of its direct
connection with geology, or of its bearing on the problem of the
successive introduction of animals on the earth. I had never
thought of the larger and more philosophical view of nature as one
great world, but considered the study of animals only as it was
taught by descriptive zoology in those days. At about this time,
however, I made the acquaintance of two young botanists, Braun and
Schimper, both of whom have since become distinguished in the
annals of science. Botany had in those days received a new impulse
from the great conceptions of Goethe. The metamorphosis of plants
was the chief study of my friends, and I could not but feel that
descriptive zoology had not spoken the last word in our science,
and that grand generalizations, such as were opening upon
botanists, must be preparing for zoologists also. Intimate contact
with German students made me feel that I had neglected my
philosophical education; and when, in the year 1827, the new
University of Munich opened, with Schelling as professor of
philosophy, Oken, Schubert, and Wagler as professors of zoology,
Dollinger as professor of anatomy and physiology, Martius and
Zuccarini as professors of botany, Fuchs and Kobell as professors
of mineralogy, I determined to go there with my two friends and
drink new draughts of knowledge. During the years I passed at
Munich I devoted myself almost exclusively to the different
branches of natural science, neglecting more and more my medical
studies, because I began to feel an increasing confidence that I
could fight my way in the world as a naturalist, and that I was
therefore justified in following my strong bent in that direction.
My experience in Munich was very varied. With Dollinger I learned
to value accuracy of observation. As I was living in his house, he
gave me personal instruction in the use of the microscope, and
showed me his own methods of embryological investigation. He had
already been the teacher of Karl Ernst von Baer; and though the
pupil outran the master, and has become the pride of the scientific
world, it is but just to remember that he owed to him his first
initiation into the processes of embryological research. Dollinger
was a careful, minute, persevering observer, as well as a deep
thinker; but he was as indolent with his pen as he was industrious
with his brain. He gave his intellectual capital to his pupils
without stint or reserve, and nothing delighted him more than to
sit down for a quiet talk on scientific matters with a few
students, or to take a ramble with them into the fields outside the
city, and explain to them as he walked the result of any recent
investigation he had made. If he found himself understood by his
listeners he was satisfied, and cared for no farther publication of
his researches. I could enumerate many works of masters in our
science, which had no other foundation at the outset than these
inspiriting conversations. No one has borne warmer testimony to the
influence Dollinger has had in this indirect way on the progress of
our science than the investigator I have already mentioned as his
greatest pupil,--von Baer. In the introduction to his work on
embryology he gratefully acknowledges his debt to his old teacher.
"Among the most fascinating of our professors was Oken. A master in
the art of teaching, he exercised an almost irresistible influence
over his students. Constructing the universe out of his own brain,
deducing from a priori conceptions all the relations of the three
kingdoms into which he divided all living beings, classifying the
animals as if by magic, in accordance with an analogy based on the
dismembered body of man, it seemed to us who listened that the slow
laborious process of accumulating precise detailed knowledge could
only be the work of drones, while a generous, commanding spirit
might build the world out of its own powerful imagination. The
temptation to impose one's own ideas upon nature, to explain her
mysteries by brilliant theories rather than by patient study of the
facts as we find them, still leads us away. With the school of the
physio-philosophers began (at least in our day and generation) that
overbearing confidence in the abstract conceptions of the human
mind as applied to the study of nature, which still impairs the
fairness of our classifications and prevents them from interpreting
truly the natural relations binding together all living beings. And
yet, the young naturalist of that day who did not share, in some
degree, the intellectual stimulus given to scientific pursuits by
physio-philosophy would have missed a part of his training. There
is a great distance between the man who, like Oken, attempts to
construct the whole system of nature from general premises and the
one who, while subordinating his conceptions to the facts, is yet
capable of generalizing the facts, of recognizing their most
comprehensive relations. No thoughtful naturalist can silence the
suggestions, continually arising in the course of his
investigations, respecting the origin and deeper connection of all
living beings; but he is the truest student of nature who, while
seeking the solution of these great problems, admits that the only
true scientific system must be one in which the thought, the
intellectual structure, rises out of and is based upon facts. The
great merit of the physio-philosophers consisted in their
suggestiveness. They did much in freeing our age from the low
estimation of natural history as a science which prevailed in the
last century. They stimulated a spirit of independence among
observers; but they also instilled a spirit of daring, which, from
its extravagance, has been fatal to the whole school. He is lost,
as an observer, who believes that he can, with impunity, affirm
that for which he can adduce no evidence. It was a curious
intellectual experience to listen day after day to the lectures of
Oken, while following at the same time Schelling's courses, where
he was shifting the whole ground of his philosophy from its
negative foundation as an a priori doctrine to a positive basis, as
an historical science. He unfolded his views in a succession of
exquisite lectures, delivered during four consecutive years.
"Among my fellow-students were many young men who now rank among
the highest lights in the various departments of science, and
others, of equal promise, whose early death cut short their work in
this world. Some of us had already learned at this time to work for
ourselves; not merely to attend lectures and study from books. The
best spirit of emulation existed among us; we met often to discuss
our observations, undertook frequent excursions in the
neighborhood, delivered lectures to our fellow-students, and had,
not infrequently, the gratification of seeing our university
professors among the listeners. These exercises were of the highest
value to me as a preparation for speaking, in later years, before
larger audiences. My study was usually the lecture-room. It would
hold conveniently from fifteen to twenty persons, and both students
and professors used to call our quarters "The Little Academy." In
that room I made all the skeletons represented on the plates of
Wagler's "Natural System of Reptiles;" there I once received the
great anatomist, Meckel, sent to me by Dollinger, to examine my
anatomical preparations and especially the many fish-skeletons I
had made from fresh-water fishes. By my side were constantly at
work two artists; one engaged in drawing various objects of natural
history, the other in drawing fossil fishes. I kept always one and
sometimes two artists in my pay; it was not easy, with an allowance
of 250 dollars a year, but they were even poorer than I, and so we
managed to get along together. My microscope I had earned by
writing.
"I had hardly finished the publication of the Brazilian Fishes,
when I began to study the works of the older naturalists. Professor
Dollinger had presented me with a copy of Rondelet, which was my
delight for a long time. I was especially struck by the naivete of
his narrative and the minuteness of his descriptions as well as by
the fidelity of his woodcuts, some of which are to this day the
best figures we have of the species they represent. His learning
overwhelmed me; I would gladly have read, as he did, everything
that had been written before my time; but there were authors who
wearied me, and I confess that at that age Linnaeus was among the
number. I found him dry, pedantic, dogmatic, conceited; while I was
charmed with Aristotle, whose zoology I have read and re-read ever
since at intervals of two or three years. I must, however, do
myself the justice to add, that after I knew more of the history of
our science I learned also duly to reverence Linnaeus. But a
student, already familiar with the works of Cuvier, and but
indifferently acquainted with the earlier progress of zoology,
could hardly appreciate the merit of the great reformer of natural
history. His defects were easily perceived, and it required more
familiarity than mine then was with the gradual growth of the
science, from Aristotle onward, to understand how great and
beneficial an influence Linnaeus had exerted upon modern natural
history.
"I cannot review my Munich life without deep gratitude. The city
teemed with resources for the student in arts, letters, philosophy,
and science. It was distinguished at that time for activity in
public as well as in academic life. The king seemed liberal; he was
the friend of poets and artists, and aimed at concentrating all the
glories of Germany in his new university. I thus enjoyed for a few
years the example of the most brilliant intellects, and that
stimulus which is given by competition between men equally eminent
in different spheres of human knowledge. Under such circumstances a
man either subsides into the position of a follower in the ranks
that gather around a master, or he aspires to be a master himself.
"The time had come when even the small allowance I received from
borrowed capital must cease. I was now twenty-four years of age. I
was Doctor of Philosophy and Medicine, and author of a quarto
volume on the fishes of Brazil. I had traveled on foot all over
Southern Germany, visited Vienna, and explored extensive tracts of
the Alps. I knew every animal, living and fossil, in the Museums of
Munich, Stuttgart, Tubingen, Erlangen, Wurzburg, Carlsruhe, and
Frankfort; but my prospects were as dark as ever, and I saw no hope
of making my way in the world, except by the practical pursuit of
my profession as physician. So, at the close of 1830, I left the
university and went home, with the intention of applying myself to
the practice of medicine, confident that my theoretical information
and my training in the art of observing would carry me through the
new ordeal I was about to meet."
CHAPTER 5.
1830-1832: AGE 23-25.
Year at Home.
Leaves Home for Paris.
Delays on the Road.
Cholera.
Arrival in Paris.
First Visit to Cuvier.
Cuvier's Kindness.
His Death.
Poverty in Paris.
Home Letters concerning Embarrassments and about his Work.
Singular Dream.
On the 4th of December, 1830, Agassiz left Munich, in company with
Mr. Dinkel, and after a short stay at St. Gallen and Zurich, spent
in looking up fossil fishes and making drawings of them, they
reached Concise on the 30th of the same month. Anxiously as his
return was awaited at home, we have seen that his father was not
without apprehension lest the presence of the naturalist, with
artist, specimens, and apparatus, should be an inconvenience in the
quiet parsonage. But every obstacle yielded to the joy of reunion,
and Agassiz was soon established with his "painter," his fossils,
and all his scientific outfit, under the paternal roof.
Thus quietly engaged in his ichthyological studies, carrying on his
work on the fossil fishes, together with that on the fresh-water
fishes of Central Europe, he passed nearly a year at home. He was
not without patients also in the village and its environs, but had,
as yet, no prospect of permanent professional employment. In the
mean time it seemed daily more and more necessary that he should
carry his work to Paris, to the great centre of scientific life,
where he could have the widest field for comparison and research.
There, also, he could continue and complete to the best advantage
his medical studies. His poverty was the greatest hindrance to any
such move. He was not, however, without some slight independent
means, especially since his publishing arrangements provided in
part for the carrying on of his work. His generous uncle added
something to this, and an old friend of his father's, M.
Christinat, a Swiss clergyman with whom he had been from boyhood a
great favorite, urged upon him his own contribution toward a work
in which he felt the liveliest interest. Still the prospect with
which he left for Paris in September, 1831, was dark enough,
financially speaking, though full of hope in another sense. On the
road he made several halts for purposes of study, combining, as
usual, professional with scientific objects, hospitals with
museums. He was, perhaps, a little inclined to believe that the
most favorable conditions for his medical studies were to be found
in conjunction with the best collections. He had, however, a
special medical purpose, being earnest to learn everything
regarding the treatment and the limitation of cholera, then for the
first time making its appearance in Western Europe with frightful
virulence. Believing himself likely to continue the practice of
medicine for some years at least, he thought his observations upon
this scourge would be of great importance to him. His letters of
this date to his father are full of the subject, and of his own
efforts to ascertain the best means of prevention and defense. The
following answer to an appeal from his mother shows, however, that
his delays caused anxiety at home, lest the small means he could
devote to his studies in Paris should be consumed on the road.
TO HIS MOTHER.
CARLSRUHE, November, 1831.
. . .I returned day before yesterday from my trip in Wurtemberg,
and though I already knew what precautions had been taken
everywhere in anticipation of cholera, I do not think my journey
was a useless one, and am convinced that my observations will not
be without interest,--chiefly for myself, of course, but of utility
to others also I hope. Your letter being so urgent, I will not,
however, delay my departure an instant. Between to-day and
to-morrow I shall put in order the specimens lent me by the Museum,
and then start at once. . .In proportion to my previous anxiety is
my pleasure in the prospect of going to Paris, now that I am better
fitted to present myself there as I could wish. I have collected
for my fossil fishes all the materials I still desired to obtain
from the museums of Carlsruhe, Heidelberg, and Strasbourg, and have
extended my knowledge of geology sufficiently to join, without
embarrassment at least, in conversation upon the more recent
researches in that department. Moreover, Braun has been kind enough
to give me a superb collection, selected by himself, to serve as
basis and guide in my researches. I leave it at Carlsruhe, since I
no longer need it. . .I have also been able to avail myself of the
Museum of Carlsruhe, and of the mineralogical collection of Braun's
father. Beside the drawings made by Dinkel, I have added to my work
one hundred and seventy-one pages of manuscript in French (I have
just counted them), written between my excursions and in the midst
of other occupations. . .I could not have foreseen so rich a
harvest.
Thus prepared, he arrived in Paris with his artist on the 16th of
December, 1831. On the 18th he writes to his father. . ."Dinkel and
I had a very pleasant journey, though the day after our arrival I
was so fatigued that I could hardly move hand or foot,--that was
yesterday. Nevertheless, I passed the evening very agreeably at the
house of M. Cuvier, who sent to invite me, having heard of my
arrival. To my surprise, I found myself not quite a stranger,
--rather, as it were, among old acquaintances. I have already given
you my address, Rue Copeau (Hotel du Jardin du Roi, Numero 4). As
it happens, M. Perrotet, a traveling naturalist, lives here also,
and has at once put me on the right track about whatever I most
need to know. There are in the house other well-known persons
besides. I am accommodated very cheaply, and am at the same time
within easy reach of many things, the neighborhood of which I can
turn to good account. The medical school, for instance, is within
ten minutes' walk; the Jardin des Plantes not two hundred steps
away; while the Hospital (de la Pitie), where Messieurs Andral and
Lisfranc teach, is opposite, and nearer still. To-day or to-morrow
I shall deliver my letters, and then set to work in good earnest."
Pleased as he was from the beginning with all that concerned his
scientific life in Paris, the next letter shows that the young
Swiss did not at once find himself at home in the great French
capital.
TO HIS SISTER OLYMPE.
PARIS, January 15, 1832.
. . .My expectations in coming here have been more than fulfilled.
In scientific matters I have found all that I knew must exist in
Paris (indeed, my anticipations were rather below than above the
mark), and beside that I have been met everywhere with courtesy,
and have received attentions of all sorts. M. Cuvier and von
Humboldt especially treat me on all occasions as an equal, and
facilitate for me the use of the scientific collections so that I
can work here as if I were at home. And yet it is not the same
thing; this extreme, but formal politeness chills you instead of
putting you at your ease; it lacks cordiality, and, to tell the
truth, I would gladly go away were I not held fast by the wealth of
material of which I can avail myself for instruction. In the
morning I follow the clinical courses at the Pitie. . .At ten
o'clock, or perhaps at eleven, I breakfast, and then go to the
Museum of Natural History, where I stay till dark. Between five and
six I dine, and after that turn to such medical studies as do not
require daylight. So pass my days, one like another, with great
regularity. I have made it a rule not to go out after dinner,--I
should lose too much time. . .On Saturday only I spend the evening
at M. Cuvier's. . .
The homesickness which is easily to be read between the lines of
this letter, due, perhaps, to the writer's want of familiarity with
society in its conventional aspect, yielded to the influence of an
intellectual life, which became daily more engrossing. Cuvier's
kind reception was but an earnest of the affectionate interest he
seems from the first to have felt in him. After a few days he gave
Agassiz and his artist a corner in one of his own laboratories, and
often came to encourage them by a glance at their work as it went
on.
This relation continued until Cuvier's death, and Agassiz enjoyed
for several months the scientific sympathy and personal friendship
of the great master whom he had honored from childhood, and whose
name was ever on his lips till his own work in this world was
closed. The following letter, written two months later, to his
uncle in Lausanne tells the story in detail.
TO DR. MAYOR.
PARIS, February 16, 1832.
. . .I have also a piece of good news to communicate, which will, I
hope, lead to very favorable results for me. I think I told you
when I left for Paris that my chief anxiety was lest I might not be
allowed to examine, and still less to describe, the fossil fishes
and their skeletons in the Museum. Knowing that Cuvier intended to
write a work on this subject, I supposed that he would reserve
these specimens for himself. I half thought he might, on seeing my
work so far advanced, propose to me to finish it jointly with him,
--but even this I hardly dared to hope. It was on this account,
with the view of increasing my materials and having thereby a
better chance of success with M. Cuvier, that I desired so
earnestly to stop at Strasbourg and Carlsruhe, where I knew
specimens were to be seen which would have a direct bearing on my
aim. The result has far surpassed my expectation. I hastened to
show my material to M. Cuvier the very day after my arrival. He
received me with great politeness, though with a certain reserve,
and immediately gave me permission to see everything in the
galleries of the Museum. But as I knew that he had put together in
private collections all that could be of use to himself in writing
his book, and as he had never said a word to me of his plan of
publication, I remained in a painful state of doubt, since the
completion of his work would have destroyed all chance for the sale
of mine. Last Saturday I was passing the evening there, and we were
talking of science, when he desired his secretary to bring him a
certain portfolio of drawings. He showed me the contents; they were
drawings of fossil fishes and notes which he had taken in the
British Museum and elsewhere. After looking it through with me, he
said he had seen with satisfaction the manner in which I had
treated this subject; that I had indeed anticipated him, since he
had intended at some future time to do the same thing; but that as
I had given it so much attention, and had done my work so well, he
had decided to renounce his project, and to place at my disposition
all the materials he had collected and all the preliminary notes he
had taken.
You can imagine what new ardor this has given me for my work, the
more so because M. Cuvier, M. Humboldt, and several other persons
of mark who are interested in it have promised to speak in my
behalf to a publisher (to Levrault, who seems disposed to undertake
the publication should peace be continued), and to recommend me
strongly. To accomplish my end without neglecting other
occupations, I work regularly at least fifteen hours a day,
sometimes even an hour or two more; but I hope to reach my goal in
good time.
This trust from Cuvier proved to be a legacy. Less than three
months after the date of this letter Agassiz went, as often
happened, to work one morning with him in his study. It was Sunday,
and he was employed upon something which Cuvier had asked him to
do, saying, "You are young; you have time enough for it, and I have
none to spare." They worked together till eleven o'clock, when
Cuvier invited Agassiz to join him at breakfast. After a little
time spent over the breakfast table in talk with the ladies of the
family, while Cuvier opened his letters, papers, etc., they
returned to the working room, and were busily engaged in their
separate occupations when Agassiz was surprised to hear the clock
strike five, the hour for his dinner. He expressed his regret that
he had not quite finished his work, but said that as he belonged to
a student's table his dinner would not wait for him, and he would
return soon to complete his task. Cuvier answered that he was quite
right not to neglect his regular hours for meals, and commended his
devotion to study, but added, "Be careful, and remember that WORK
KILLS." They were the last words he heard from his beloved teacher.
The next day, as Cuvier was going up to the tribune in the Chamber
of Deputies, he fell, was taken up paralyzed, and carried home.
Agassiz never saw him again.* (* This warning of Cuvier, "Work
kills," strangely recalls Johannes Muller's "Blood clings to work;"
the one seems the echo of the other. See "Memoir of Johannes
Muller", by Rudolf Virchow, page 38.)
In order to keep intact these few data respecting his personal
relations with Cuvier, as told in later years by Agassiz himself,
the course of the narrative has been anticipated by a month or two.
Let us now return to the natural order. The letter to his uncle of
course gave great pleasure at home. Just after reading it his
father writes (February, 1832), "Now that you are intrusted with
the portfolio of M. Cuvier, I suppose your plan is considerably
enlarged, and that your work will be of double volume; tell me,
then, as much about it as you think I can understand, which will
not be a great deal after all." His mother's letter on the same
occasion is full of tender sympathy and gratitude.
Meanwhile one daily anxiety embittered his scientific happiness.
The small means at his command could hardly be made, even with the
strictest economy, to cover the necessary expenses of himself and
his artist, in which were included books, drawing materials, fees,
etc. He was in constant terror lest he should be obliged to leave
Paris, to give up his investigations on the fossil fishes, and to
stop work on the costly plates he had begun. The truth about his
affairs, which he would gladly have concealed from those at home as
long as possible, was drawn from him by an accidental occurrence.
His brother had written to him for a certain book, and, failing to
receive it, inquired with some surprise why his commission was
neglected. Agassiz's next letter, about a month later than the one
to his uncle, gives the explanation.
TO HIS BROTHER.
PARIS, March, 1832.
. . .Here is the book for which you asked me,--price, 18 francs. I
shall be very sorry if it comes too late, but I could not help it
. . .In the first place I had not money enough to pay for it
without being left actually penniless. You can imagine that after
the fuel bill for the winter is paid, little remains for other
expenses out of my 200 francs a month, five louis of which are
always due to my companion. Far from having anything in advance, my
month's supply is thus taken up at once. . .Beside this cause of
delay, you can have no idea what it is to hunt for anything in Paris
when you are a stranger there. As I go out only in two or three
directions leading to my work, and might not otherwise leave my own
street for a month at a time, I naturally find myself astray when
I am off this beaten track. . .You have asked me several times how
I have been received by those to whom I had introductions. Frankly,
after having delivered a few of my letters, I have never been
again, because I cannot, in my position, spare time for visits. . .
Another excellent reason for staying away now is that I have
no presentable coat. At M. Cuvier's only am I sufficiently at ease
to go in a frock coat. . .Saturday, a week ago, M. de Ferussac
offered me the editorship of the zoological section of the
"Bulletin;" it would be worth to me an additional thousand francs,
but would require two or three hours' work daily. Write me soon
what you think about it. In the midst of all the encouragements
which sustain me and renew my ardor, I am depressed by the reverse
side of my position.
This letter drew forth the following one.
FROM HIS MOTHER.
CONCISE, March, 1832.
. . .Much as your letter to your uncle delighted us, that to your
brother has saddened us. It seems, my dear child, that you are
painfully straitened in means. I understand it by personal
experience, and in your case I have foreseen it; it is the cloud
which has always darkened your prospects to me. I want to talk to
you, my dear Louis, of your future, which has often made me
anxious. You know your mother's heart too well to misunderstand her
thought, even should its expression be unacceptable to you. With
much knowledge, acquired by assiduous industry, you are still at
twenty-five years of age living on brilliant hopes, in relation, it
is true, with great people, and known as having distinguished
talent. Now, all this would seem to me delightful if you had an
income of fifty thousand francs; but, in your position, you must
absolutely have an occupation which will enable you to live, and
free you from the insupportable weight of dependence on others.
From this day forward, my dear child, you must look to this end
alone if you would find it possible to pursue honorably the career
you have chosen. Otherwise constant embarrassments will so limit
your genius, that you will fall below your own capacity. If you
follow our advice you will perhaps reach the result of your work in
the natural sciences a little later, but all the more surely. Let
us see how you can combine the work to which you have already
consecrated so much time, with the possibility of self-support. It
appears from your letter to your brother that you see no one in
Paris; the reason seems to me a sad one, but it is unanswerable,
and since you cannot change it, you must change your place of abode
and return to your own country. You have already seen in Paris all
those persons whom you thought it essential to see; unless you are
strangely mistaken in their good-will, you will be no less sure of
it in Switzerland than in Paris, and since you cannot take part in
their society, your relations with them will be the same at the
distance of a hundred leagues as they are now. You must therefore
leave Paris for Geneva, Lausanne, or Neuchatel, or any city where
you can support yourself by teaching. . .This seems to me the most
advantageous course for you. If before fixing yourself permanently
you like to take your place at the parsonage again, you will always
find us ready to facilitate, as far as we can, any arrangements for
your convenience. Here you can live in perfect tranquillity and
without expense.
There are two other subjects which I want to discuss with you,
though perhaps I shall not make myself so easily understood. You
have seen the handsome public building in process of construction
at Neuchatel. It will be finished this year, and I am told that the
Museum will be placed there. I believe the collections are very
incomplete, and the city of Neuchatel is rich enough to expend
something in filling the blanks. It has occurred to me, my dear,
that this would be an excellent opportunity for disposing of your
alcoholic specimens. They form, at present, a capital yielding no
interest, requiring care, and to be enjoyed only at the cost of
endless outlay in glass jars, alcohol, and transportation, to say
nothing of the rent of a room in which to keep them. All this,
beside attracting many visitors, is too heavy a burden for you,
from which you may free yourself by taking advantage of this rare
chance. To this end you must have an immediate understanding with
M. Coulon, lest he should make a choice elsewhere. Your brother,
being on the spot, might negotiate for you. . .Finally, my last
topic is Mr. Dinkel. You are very fortunate to have found in your
artist such a thoroughly nice fellow; nevertheless, in view of the
expense, you must make it possible to do without him. I see you
look at me aghast; but where a sacrifice is to be made we must not
do it by halves; we must pull up the tree by the roots. It is a
great evil to be spending more than one earns. . .
TO HIS MOTHER.
PARIS, March 25, 1832.
. . .It is true, dear mother, that I am greatly straitened; that I
have much less money to spend than I could wish, or even than I
need; on the other hand, this makes me work the harder, and keeps
me away from distractions which might otherwise tempt me. . .With
reference to my work, however, things are not quite as you suppose,
as regards either my stay here or my relations with M. Cuvier.
Certainly, I hope that I should lose neither his good-will nor his
protection on leaving here; on the contrary, I am sure that he
would be the first to advise me to accept any professorship, or any
place which might be advantageous for me, however removed from my
present occupations, and that his counsels would follow me there.
But what cannot follow me, and what I owe quite as much to him, is
the privilege of examining all the collections. These I can have
nowhere but in Paris, since even if he would consent to it I could
not carry away with me a hundred quintals of fossil fish, which,
for the sake of comparison, I must have before my eyes, nor
thousands of fish-skeletons, which would alone fill some fifty
great cases. It is this which compels me to stay here till I have
finished my work. I should add that M. Elie de Beaumont has also
been kind enough to place at my disposition the fossil fishes from
the collection at the Mining School, and that M. Brongniart has
made me the same offer regarding his collection, which is one of
the finest among those owned by individuals in Paris. . .
As to my collections, I had already thought of asking either the
Vaudois government or the city of Neuchatel to receive them into
the Museum, merely on condition that they should provide for the
expenses of exhibition and preservation, making use of them,
meanwhile, for the instruction of the public. I should be sorry to
lose all right to them, because I hope they may have another final
destination. I do not despair of seeing the different parts of
Switzerland united at some future day by a closer tie, and in case
of such a union a truly Helvetic university would become a
necessity; then, my aim would be to make my collection the basis of
that which they would be obliged to found for their courses of
lectures. It is really a shame that Switzerland, richer and more
extensive than many a small kingdom, should have no university,
when some states of not half its size have even two; for instance,
the grand duchy of Baden, one of whose universities, that of
Heidelberg, ranks among the first in all Germany. If ever I attain
a position allowing me so to do, I shall make every effort in my
power to procure for my country the greatest of benefits: namely,
that of an intellectual unity, which can arise only from a high
degree of civilization, and from the radiation of knowledge from
one central point.
I, too, have considered the question about Dinkel, and if, when I
have finished my work here, my position is not changed, and I have
no definite prospect, such as would justify me in keeping him with
me,--well! then we must part! I have long been preparing myself for
this, by employing him only upon what is indispensable to the
publication of my first numbers, hoping that these may procure me
the means of paying for such illustrations as I shall further need.
As my justification for having engaged him in the first instance,
and continued this expense till now, I can truly say that it is in
a great degree through his drawings that M. Cuvier has been able to
judge of my work, and so has been led to make a surrender of all
his materials in my favor. I foresaw clearly that this was my only
chance of competing with him, and it was not without reason that I
insisted so strongly on having Dinkel with me in passing through
Strasbourg and subsequently at Carlsruhe. Had I not done so, M.
Cuvier might still be in advance of me. Now my mind is at rest on
this score; I have already written you all about his kindness in
offering me the work. Could I only be equally fortunate in its
publication!
M. Cuvier urges me strongly to present my book to the Academy, in
order to obtain a report upon its contents. I must first finish it,
however, and the task is not a light one. For this reason, above
all, I regret my want of means; but for that I could have the
drawings made at once, and the Academy report, considered as a
recommendation, would certainly help on the publication greatly.
But in this respect I have long been straitened; Auguste knows that
I had at Munich an artist who was to complete what I had left there
for execution, and that I stopped his work on leaving Concise. If
the stagnation of the book-trade continues I shall, perhaps, be
forced to give up Dinkel also; for if I cannot begin the
publication, which will, I hope, bring me some return, I must cease
to accumulate material in advance. Should business revive soon,
however, I may yet have the pleasure of seeing all completed before
I leave Paris.
I think I forgot to mention the arrival of Braun six weeks after
me. I had a double pleasure in his coming, for he brought with him
his younger brother, a charming fellow, and a distinguished pupil
of the polytechnic school of Carlsruhe. He means to be a mining
engineer, and comes to study such collections at Paris as are
connected with this branch. You cannot imagine what happiness and
comfort I have in my relations with Alexander; he is so good, so
cultivated and high-minded, that his friendship is a real blessing
to me. We both feel very much our separation from the elder
Schimper, who, spite of his great desire to join us at Carlsruhe
and accompany us to Paris, was not able to leave Munich. . .
P.S. My love to Auguste. To-day (Sunday) I went again to see M.
Humboldt about Auguste's* (* Concerning a business undertaking in
Mexico.) plan, but did not find him.
Then follow several pages, addressed to his father, in answer to
the request contained in one of his last letters that Louis would
tell him as much as he thinks he can understand of his work. There
is something touching in this little lesson given by the son to the
father, as showing with what delight Louis responded to the least
touch of parental affection respecting his favorite studies, so
long looked upon at home with a certain doubt and suspicion. The
whole letter is not given here, as it is simply an elementary
treatise on geology; but the close is not without interest as
relating to the special investigations on which he was now
employed.
"The aim of our researches upon fossil animals is to ascertain what
beings have lived at each one of these (geological) epochs of
creation, and to trace their characters and their relations with
those now living; in one word, to make them live again in our
thought. It is especially the fishes that I try to restore for the
eyes of the curious, by showing them which ones have lived in each
epoch, what were their forms, and, if possible, by drawing some
conclusions as to their probable modes of life. You will better
understand the difficulty of my work when I tell you that in many
species I have only a single tooth, a scale, a spine, as my guide
in the reconstruction of all these characters, although sometimes
we are fortunate enough to find species with the fins and the
skeletons complete. . .
"I ask pardon if I have tired you with my long talk, but you know
how pleasant it is to ramble on about what interests us, and the
pleasure of being questioned by you upon subjects of this kind has
been such a rare one for me, that I have wished to present the
matter in its full light, that you may understand the zeal and the
enthusiasm which such researches can excite."
To this period belongs a curious dream mentioned by Agassiz in his
work on the fossil fishes.* (* "Recherches sur les Poissons
Fossiles". Cyclopoma spinosum Agassiz. Volume 4 tab 1, pages 20,
21.) It is interesting both as a psychological fact and as showing
how, sleeping and waking, his work was ever present with him. He
had been for two weeks striving to decipher the somewhat obscure
impression of a fossil fish on the stone slab in which it was
preserved. Weary and perplexed he put his work aside at last, and
tried to dismiss it from his mind. Shortly after, he waked one
night persuaded that while asleep he had seen his fish with all the
missing features perfectly restored. But when he tried to hold and
make fast the image, it escaped him. Nevertheless, he went early to
the Jardin des Plantes, thinking that on looking anew at the
impression he should see something which would put him on the track
of his vision. In vain,--the blurred record was as blank as ever.
The next night he saw the fish again, but with no more satisfactory
result. When he awoke it disappeared from his memory as before.
Hoping that the same experience might be repeated, on the third
night he placed a pencil and paper beside his bed before going to
sleep. Accordingly toward morning the fish reappeared in his dream,
confusedly at first, but at last with such distinctness that he had
no longer any doubt as to its zoological characters. Still half
dreaming, in perfect darkness, he traced these characters on the
sheet of paper at the bedside. In the morning he was surprised to
see in his nocturnal sketch features which he thought it impossible
the fossil itself should reveal. He hastened to the Jardin des
Plantes, and, with his drawing as a guide, succeeded in chiseling
away the surface of the stone under which portions of the fish
proved to be hidden. When wholly exposed it corresponded with his
dream and his drawing, and he succeeded in classifying it with
ease. He often spoke of this as a good illustration of the
well-known fact, that when the body is at rest the tired brain will
do the work it refused before.
CHAPTER 6.
1832: AGE 25.
Unexpected Relief from Difficulties.
Correspondence with Humboldt.
Excursion to the Coast of Normandy.
First Sight of the Sea.
Correspondence concerning Professorship at Neuchatel.
Birthday Fete.
Invitation to Chair of Natural History at Neuchatel.
Acceptance.
Letter to Humboldt.
AGASSIZ was not called upon to make the sacrifice of giving up his
artist and leaving Paris, although he was, or at least thought
himself, prepared for it. The darkest hour is before the dawn, and
the letter next given announces an unexpected relief from pressing
distress and anxiety.
TO HIS FATHER AND MOTHER.
PARIS, March, 1832.
. . .I am still so agitated and so surprised at what has just
happened that I scarcely believe what my eyes tell me.
I mentioned in a postscript to my last letter that I had called
yesterday on M. de Humboldt, whom I had not seen for a long time,
in order to speak to him concerning Auguste's affair, but that I
did not find him. In former visits I had spoken to him about my
position, and told him that I did not well know what course to take
with my publisher. He offered to write to him, and did so more than
two months ago. Thus far, neither he nor I have had any answer.
This morning, just as I was going out, a letter came from M. de
Humboldt, who writes me that he is very uneasy at receiving no
reply from Cotta, that he fears lest the uncertainty and anxiety of
mind resulting from this may be injurious to my work, and begs me
to accept the inclosed credit of a thousand francs. . .--Oh! if my
mother would forget for one moment that this is the celebrated M.
de Humboldt, and find courage to write him only a few lines, how
grateful I should be to her. I think it would come better from her
than from papa, who would do it more correctly, no doubt, but
perhaps not quite as I should like. Humboldt is so good, so
indulgent, that you should not hesitate, dear mother, to write him
a few lines. He lives Rue du Colombier, Number 22; address, quite
simply, M. de Humboldt. . .
In the agitation of the moment the letter was not even signed.
The following note from Humboldt to Mme. Agassiz, kept by her as a
precious possession, shows that in answer to her son's appeal his
mother took her courage, as the French saying is, "with both
hands," and wrote as she was desired.
FROM HUMBOLDT TO MME. AGASSIZ.
PARIS, April 11, 1832.
I should scold your son, Madame, for having spoken to you of the
slight mark of interest I have been able to show him; and yet, how
can I complain of a letter so touching, so noble in sentiment, as
the one I have just received from your hand. Accept my warmest
thanks for it. How happy you are to have a son so distinguished by
his talents, by the variety and solidity of his acquirements, and,
withal, as modest as if he knew nothing,--in these days, too, when
youth is generally characterized by a cold and scornful
amour-propre. One might well despair of the world if a person like
your son, with information so substantial and manners so sweet and
prepossessing, should fail to make his way. I approve highly the
Neuchatel plan, and hope, in case of need, to contribute to its
success. One must aim at a settled position in life.
Pray excuse, Madame, the brevity of these lines, and accept the
assurance of my respectful regard.
HUMBOLDT.
The letter which lifted such a load of care from Louis and his
parents was as follows:--
HUMBOLDT TO LOUIS AGASSIZ.
PARIS, March 27, 1832.
I am very uneasy, my dearest M. Agassiz, at being still without any
letter from Cotta. Has he been prevented from writing by business,
or illness perhaps? You know how tardy he always is about writing.
Yesterday (Monday) I wrote him earnestly again concerning your
affair (an undertaking of such moment for science), and urged upon
him the issuing of the fossil and fresh-water fishes in alternate
numbers. In the mean time, I fear that the protracted delay may
weigh heavily on you and your friends. A man so laborious, so
gifted, and so deserving of affection as you are should not be left
in a position where lack of serenity disturbs his power of work.
You will then surely pardon my friendly goodwill toward you, my
dear M. Agassiz, if I entreat you to make use of the accompanying
small credit. You would do more for me I am sure. Consider it an
advance which need not be paid for years, and which I will gladly
increase when I go away or even earlier. It would pain me deeply
should the urgency of my request made in the closest confidence,
--in short, a transaction as between two friends of unequal age,
--be disagreeable to you. I should wish to be pleasantly remembered
by a young man of your character.
Yours, with the most affectionate respect,
ALEXANDER HUMBOLDT.
With this letter was found the following note of acknowledgment,
scrawled in almost illegible pencil marks. Whether sent exactly as
it stands or not, it is evidently the first outburst of Agassiz's
gratitude.
My benefactor and friend,--it is too much; I cannot find words to
tell you how deeply your letter of to-day has moved me. I have just
been at your house that I might thank you in person with all my
heart; but now I must wait to do so until I have the good fortune
to meet you. At what a moment does your help come to me! I inclose
a letter from my dear mother that you may understand my whole
position. My parents will now readily consent that I should devote
myself entirely to science, and I am freed from the distressing
thought that I may be acting contrary to their wishes and their
will. But they have not the means to help me, and had proposed that
I should return to Switzerland and give lessons either in Geneva or
Lausanne. I had already resolved to follow this suggestion in the
course of next summer, and had also decided to part with Mr.
Dinkel, my faithful companion, as soon as he should have finished
the most indispensable drawings of the fossils on which he is now
engaged here. I meant to tell you of this on Sunday, and now to-day
comes your letter. Imagine what must have been my feeling, after
having resolved on renouncing what till now had seemed to me
noblest and most desirable in life, to find myself unexpectedly
rescued by a kind, helpful hand, and to have again the hope of
devoting my whole powers to science,--you can judge of the state
into which your letter has thrown me. . .
Soon after this event Agassiz made a short excursion with Braun and
Dinkel to the coast of Normandy; worth noting, because he now saw
the sea for the first time. He wrote home: "For five days we
skirted the coast from Havre to Dieppe; at last I have looked upon
the sea and its riches. From this excursion of a few days, which I
had almost despaired of making, I bring back new ideas, more
comprehensive views, and a more accurate knowledge of the great
phenomena presented by the ocean in its vast expanse."
Meanwhile the hope he had always entertained of finding a
professorship of natural history in his own country was ripening
into a definite project. His first letter on this subject to M.
Louis Coulon, himself a well-known naturalist, and afterward one of
his warmest friends in Neuchatel, must have been written just
before he received from Humboldt the note of the same date, which
extricated him from his pecuniary embarrassment.
AGASSIZ TO LOUIS COULON.
PARIS, March 27, 1832.
. . .When I had the pleasure of seeing you last summer I several
times expressed my strong desire to establish myself near you, and
my intention of taking some steps toward obtaining the
professorship of natural history to be founded in your Lyceum. The
matter must be more advanced now than it was last year, and you
would oblige me greatly by giving me some information concerning
it. I have spoken of my project to M. de Humboldt, whom I often
see, and who kindly interests himself about my prospects and helps
me with his advice. He thinks that under the circumstances, and
especially in my position, measures should be taken in advance.
There is another point of great importance for me about which I
wished also to speak to you. Though you have seen but a small part
of it, you nevertheless know that in my different journeys, partly
through my relations with other naturalists, partly by exchange, I
have made a very fair collection of natural history, especially
rich in just those classes which are less fully represented in your
museum. My collection might, therefore, fill the gaps in that of
the city of Neuchatel, and make the latter more than adequate for
the illustration of a full course of natural history. Should an
increase of your zoological collection make part of your plans for
the Lyceum, I venture to believe that mine would fully answer your
purpose. In that case I would offer it to you, since the expense of
arranging it, the rent of a room in which to keep it, and, in
short, its support in general, is beyond my means. I must find some
way of relieving myself from this burden, although it will be hard
to part with these companions of my study, upon which I have based
almost all my investigations. I have spoken of this also to M. de
Humboldt, who is good enough to show an interest in the matter, and
will even take all necessary steps with the government to
facilitate this purchase. You would render me the greatest service
by giving me your directions about all this, and especially by
telling me: 1. On whom the nomination to the professorship depends?
2. With whom the purchase of the collection would rest? 3. What you
think I should do with reference to both? Of course you will easily
understand that I cannot give up my collections except under the
condition that I should be allowed the free use of them. . .
The answer was not only courteous, but kind, although some time
elapsed before the final arrangements were made. Meanwhile the
following letter shows us the doubts and temptations which for a
moment embarrassed Agassiz in his decision. The death of Cuvier had
intervened.
AGASSIZ TO HUMBOLDT.
PARIS, May, 1832.
. . .I would not write you until I had definite news from
Neuchatel. Two days ago I received a very delightful letter from M.
Coulon, which I hasten to share with you. I will not copy the
whole, but extract the essential part. He tells me that he has
proposed to the Board of Education the establishment of a
professorship of natural history, to be offered to me. The
proposition met with a cordial hearing. The need of such a
professorship was unanimously recognized, but the President
explained that neither would the condition of the treasury allow
its establishment in the present year, nor could the proposition be
brought before the Council of State until the opening of the new
Lyceum.
Monsieur Coulon was commissioned to thank me, and to request me in
the name of the board to keep the place in mind; should I prefer
it, however, he doubts not that whatever the city could not do
might be made good by subscription before next autumn, in which
case I could enter upon office at once. He requests a prompt answer
in order that he may make all needful preparations. Only too gladly
would I have consulted you about various propositions made to me
here in the last few days, and have submitted my course to your
approval, had it not been that here, as in Neuchatel, a prompt
answer was urged. Although guided rather by instinct than by
anything else, I think, nevertheless, that I have chosen rightly.
In such moments, when one cannot see far enough in advance to form
an accurate judgment upon deliberation, feeling is, after all, the
best adviser; that inner impulse, which is a safe guide if other
considerations do not confuse the judgment. This says to me, "Go to
Neuchatel; do not stay in Paris." But I speak in riddles; I must
explain myself more clearly. Last Monday Levrault sent for me in
order to propose that Valenciennes and I should jointly undertake
the publication of the Cuvierian fishes. . .I was to give a
positive answer this week. I have carefully considered it, and have
decided that an unconditional engagement would lead me away from my
nearest aim, and from what I look upon as the task of my life. The
already published volumes of the System of Ichthyology lie too far
from the road on which I intend to pursue my researches. Finally,
it seems to me that in a quiet retired place like Neuchatel,
whatever may be growing up within me will have a more independent
and individual development than in this restless Paris, where
obstacles or difficulties may not perhaps divert me from a given
purpose, but may disturb or delay its accomplishment. I will
therefore so shape my answer to Levrault as to undertake only
single portions of the work, the choice of these, on account of my
interest in the fossil and the fresh-water fishes, being allowed
me, with the understanding, also, that I should be permitted to
have these collections in Switzerland and work them up there. From
Paris, also, it would not be so easy to transfer myself to Germany,
whereas I could consider Neuchatel as a provisional position from
which I might be called to a German university. . .
In the mean time, while waiting hopefully the result of his
negotiations with Neuchatel, Agassiz had organized with his
friends, the two Brauns, a bachelor life very like the one he and
Alexander had led with their classmates in Munich. The little hotel
where they lodged had filled up with young German doctors, who had
come to visit the hospitals in Paris and study the cholera. Some of
these young men had been their fellow-students at the university,
and at their request Agassiz and Braun resumed the practice of
giving private lectures on zoology and botany, the whole being
conducted in the most informal manner, admitting absolute freedom
of discussion, as among intimate companions of the same age. Such
an interchange naturally led to very genial relations between the
amateur professors and their class, and on the eve of Agassiz's
birthday (28th of May) his usual audience prepared for him a very
pleasant surprise. Returning from a walk after dusk he found Braun
in his room. Continuing his stroll within four walls, he and his
friend paced the floor together in earnest talk, when, at a signal,
Braun suddenly drew him to the window, threw it open, and on the
pavement below stood their companions, singing a part song,
composed in honor of Agassiz. Deeply moved, he withdrew from the
window in time to receive them as they trooped up the stairway to
offer their good wishes. They presently led the way to another room
which they had dressed with flowers, Agassiz's name, among other
decorations, being braided in roses beneath two federal flags
crossed on the wall. Here supper was laid, and the rest of the
evening passed gayly with songs and toasts, not only for the hero
of the feast and for friends far and near, but for the progress of
science, the liberty of the people, and the independence of
nations. There could be no meeting of ardent young Germans and
Swiss in those days without some mingling of patriotic aspirations
with the sentiment of the hour.
The friendly correspondence between Agassiz and M. Coulon regarding
the professorship at Neuchatel was now rapidly bringing the matter
to a happy conclusion.
AGASSIZ TO LOUIS COULON.
PARIS, June 4, 1832.
I have received your kind letter with great pleasure and hasten to
reply. What you write gives me the more satisfaction because it
opens to me in the near future the hope of establishing myself in
your neighborhood and devoting to my country the fruits of my
labor. It is true, as you suppose, that the death of M. Cuvier has
sensibly changed my position; indeed, I have already been asked to
continue his work on fishes in connection with M. Valenciennes, who
made me this proposition the day after your letter reached me. The
conditions offered me are, indeed, very tempting, but I am too
little French by character, and too anxious to live in Switzerland,
not to prefer the place you can offer me, however small the
appointments, if they do but keep me above actual embarrassment. I
say thus much only in order to answer that clause in your letter
where you touch upon this question. I would add that I leave the
field quite free in this respect, and that I am yours without
reserve, if, indeed, within the fortnight, the urgency of the
Parisians does not carry the day, or, rather, as soon as I write
you that I have been able finally to withdraw. You easily
understand that I cannot bluntly decline offers which seem to those
who make them so brilliant. But I shall hold out against them to
the utmost. My course with reference to my own publications will
have shown you that I do not care for a lucrative position from
personal interest; that, on the contrary, I should always be ready
to use such means as I may have at my disposition for the
advancement of the institution confided to my care.
My work will still detain me for four or five months at Paris,--my
time being after that completely at my disposal. The period at
which I should like to begin my lectures is therefore very near,
and I think if your people are favorably disposed toward the
creation of a new professorship we must not let them grow cold. But
you have shown me so much kindness that I may well leave to your
care, in concert with your friends, the decision of this point; the
more so since you are willing to take charge of my interests, until
you see the success of what you are pleased to look upon as an
advantage to your institution, while for me it is the realization
of a sincere desire to do what I can for the advancement of
science, and the instruction of our youth. . .
The next letter from M. Coulon (June 18, 1832) announces that the
sum of eighty louis having been guaranteed for three years, chiefly
by private individuals, but partly also by the city, they were now
able to offer a chair of natural history at once to their young
countryman. In conclusion, he adds:--
"I can easily understand that the brilliant offers made you in
Paris strongly counterbalance a poor little professorship of
natural history at Neuchatel, and may well cause you to hesitate;
especially since your scientific career there is so well begun. On
the other hand, you cannot doubt our pleasure in the prospect of
having you at Neuchatel, not only because of the friendship felt
for you by many persons here, but also on account of the lustre
which a chair of natural history so filled would shed upon our
institution. Of this our subscribers are well aware, and it
accounts for the rapid filling of the list. I am very anxious, as
are all these gentlemen, to know your decision, and beg you
therefore to let us hear from you as soon as possible."
A letter from Humboldt to M. Coulon, about this time, is an earnest
of his watchful care over the interests of Agassiz.
HUMBOLDT TO LOUIS COULON.
POTSDAM, July 25, 1832.
. . .I do not write to ask a favor, but only to express my warm
gratitude for your noble and generous dealings with the young
savant, M. Agassiz, who is well worthy your encouragement and the
protection of your government. He is distinguished by his talents,
by the variety and substantial character of his attainments, and by
that which has a special value in these troubled times, his natural
sweetness of disposition.
Through our common friend, M. von Buch, I have known for many years
that you study natural history with a success equal to your zeal,
and that you have brought together fine collections, which you
place at the disposal of others with a noble liberality. It
gratifies me to see your kindness toward a young man to whom I am
so warmly attached; whom the illustrious Cuvier, also, whose loss
we must ever deplore, would have recommended with the same
heartiness, for his faith, like mine, was based on those admirable
works of Agassiz which are now nearly completed. . .
I have strongly advised M. Agassiz not to accept the offers made to
him at Paris since M. Cuvier's death, and his decision has
anticipated my advice. How happy it would be for him, and for the
completion of the excellent works on which he is engaged, could he
this very year be established on the shores of your lake! I have no
doubt that he will receive the powerful protection of your worthy
governor, to whom I shall repeat my requests, and who honors me, as
well as my brother, with a friendship I warmly appreciate. M. von
Buch also has promised me, before leaving Berlin for Bonn and
Vienna, to add his entreaty to mine. . .He is almost as much
interested as myself in M. Agassiz and his work on fossil fishes,
the most important ever undertaken, and equally exact in its
relation to zoological characters and to geological deposits. . .
The next letter from Agassiz to his influential friend is written
after his final acceptance of the Neuchatel professorship.
AGASSIZ TO HUMBOLDT.
PARIS, July, 1832.
. . .I would most gladly have answered your delightful letter at
once, and have told you how smoothly all has gone at Neuchatel.
Your letters to M. de Coulon and to General von Pfuel have wrought
marvels; but they are now inclined to look upon me there as a
wonder from the deep,* (* Ein blaues Meerwunder.) and I must exert
myself to the utmost lest my actual presence should give the lie to
fame. It is all right. I shall be the less likely to relax in
devotion to my work.
The real reason of my silence has been that I was unwilling to
acknowledge so many evidences of efficient sympathy and friendly
encouragement by an empty letter. I wished especially to share with
you the final result of my investigations on the fossil fishes, and
for that purpose it was necessary to revise my manuscripts and take
an account of my tables in order to condense the whole in a few
phrases. I have already told you that the investigation of the
living fishes had suggested to me a new classification, in which
families as at present circumscribed respectively received new, and
to my thinking more natural positions, based upon other
considerations than those hitherto brought forward. I did not at
first lay any special stress on my classification. . .My object was
only to utilize certain structural characters which frequently
recur among fossil forms, and which might therefore enable me to
determine remains hitherto considered of little value. . .Absorbed
in the special investigation, I paid no heed to the edifice which
was meanwhile unconsciously building itself up. Having however
completed the comparison of the fossil species in Paris, I wanted,
for the sake of an easy revision of the same, to make a list
according to their succession in geological formations, with a view
of determining the characteristics more exactly and bringing them
by their enumeration into bolder relief. What was my joy and
surprise to find that the simplest enumeration of the fossil fishes
according to their geological succession was also a complete
statement of the natural relations of the families among
themselves; that one might therefore read the genetic development
of the whole class in the history of creation, the representation
of the genera and species in the several families being therein
determined; in one word, that the genetic succession of the fishes
corresponds perfectly with their zoological classification, and
with just that classification proposed by me. The question
therefore in characterizing formations is no longer that of the
numerical preponderance of certain genera and species, but of
distinct structural relations, carried through all these formations
according to a definite direction, following each other in an
appointed order, and recognizable in the organisms as they are
brought forth. . .If my conclusions are not overturned or modified
through some later discovery, they will form a new basis for the
study of fossils. Should you communicate my discovery to others I
shall be especially pleased, because it may be long before I can
begin to publish it myself, and many may be interested in it. This
seems to me the most important of my results, though I have also,
partly from perfect specimens, partly from fragments, identified
some five hundred extinct species, and more than fifty extinct
genera, beside reestablishing three families no longer represented.
Cotta has written me in very polite terms that he could not
undertake anything new at present; he would rather pay, without regard
to profit, for what has been done thus far, and lets me have fifteen
hundred francs. This makes it possible for me to leave Dinkel in Paris
to complete the drawings. Although it often seems to me hard, I must
reconcile myself to the thought of leaving investigations which are
actually completed, locked up in my desk. . .
CHAPTER 7.
1832-1834: AGE 25-27.
Enters upon his Professorship at Neuchatel.
First Lecture.
Success as a Teacher.
Love of Teaching.
Influence upon the Scientific Life of Neuchatel.
Proposal from University of Heidelberg.
Proposal declined.
Threatened Blindness.
Correspondence with Humboldt.
Marriage.
Invitation from Charpentier.
Invitation to visit England.
Wollaston Prize.
First Number of "Poissons Fossiles."
Review of the Work.
THE following autumn Agassiz assumed the duties of his
professorship at Neuchatel. His opening lecture "Upon the Relations
between the different branches of Natural History and the then
prevailing tendencies of all the Sciences" was given on the 12th of
November, 1832, at the Hotel de Ville. Judged by the impression
made upon the listeners as recorded at the time, this introductory
discourse must have been characterized by the same broad spirit of
generalization which marked Agassiz's later teaching. Facts in his
hands fell into their orderly relation as parts of a connected
whole, and were never presented merely as special or isolated
phenomena. From the beginning his success as an instructor was
undoubted. He had, indeed, now entered upon the occupation which
was to be from youth to old age the delight of his life. Teaching
was a passion with him, and his power over his pupils might be
measured by his own enthusiasm. He was intellectually, as well as
socially, a democrat, in the best sense. He delighted to scatter
broadcast the highest results of thought and research, and to adapt
them even to the youngest and most uninformed minds. In his later
American travels he would talk of glacial phenomena to the driver
of a country stage-coach among the mountains, or to some workman,
splitting rock at the road-side, with as much earnestness as if he
had been discussing problems with a brother geologist; he would
take the common fisherman into his scientific confidence, telling
him the intimate secrets of fish structure or fish-embryology, till
the man in his turn grew enthusiastic, and began to pour out
information from the stores of his own rough and untaught habits of
observation. Agassiz's general faith in the susceptibility of the
popular intelligence, however untrained, to the highest truths of
nature, was contagious, and he created or developed that in which
he believed.
In Neuchatel the presence of the young professor was felt at once
as a new and stimulating influence. The little town suddenly became
a centre of scientific activity. A society for the pursuit of the
natural sciences, of which he was the first secretary, sprang into
life. The scientific collections, which had already attained, under
the care of M. Louis Coulon, considerable value, presently assumed
the character and proportions of a well-ordered museum. In M.
Coulon Agassiz found a generous friend and a scientific colleague
who sympathized with his noblest aspirations, and was ever ready to
sustain all his efforts in behalf of scientific progress. Together
they worked in arranging, enlarging, and building up a museum of
natural history which soon became known as one of the best local
institutions of the kind in Europe.
Beside his classes at the gymnasium, Agassiz collected about him,
by invitation, a small audience of friends and neighbors, to whom
he lectured during the winter on botany, on zoology, on the
philosophy of nature. The instruction was of the most familiar and
informal character, and was continued in later years for his own
children and the children of his friends. In the latter case the
subjects were chiefly geology and geography in connection with
botany, and in favorable weather the lessons were usually given in
the open air. One can easily imagine what joy it must have been for
a party of little playmates, boys and girls, to be taken out for
long walks in the country over the hills about Neuchatel, and
especially to Chaumont, the mountain which rises behind it, and
thus to have their lessons, for which the facts and scenes about
them furnished subject and illustration, combined with pleasant
rambles. From some high ground affording a wide panoramic view
Agassiz would explain to them the formation of lakes, islands,
rivers, springs, water-sheds, hills, and valleys. He always
insisted that physical geography could be better taught to children
in the vicinity of their own homes than by books or maps, or even
globes. Nor did he think a varied landscape essential to such
instruction. Undulations of the ground, some contrast of hill and
plain, some sheet of water with the streams that feed it, some
ridge of rocky soil acting as a water-shed, may be found
everywhere, and the relation of facts shown perhaps as well on a
small as on a large scale.
When it was impossible to give the lessons out of doors, the
children were gathered around a large table, where each one had
before him or her the specimens of the day, sometimes stones and
fossils, sometimes flowers, fruits, or dried plants. To each child
in succession was explained separately what had first been told to
all collectively. When the talk was of tropical or distant
countries pains were taken to procure characteristic specimens, and
the children were introduced to dates, bananas, cocoa-nuts, and
other fruits, not easily to be obtained in those days in a small
inland town. They, of course, concluded the lesson by eating the
specimens, a practical illustration which they greatly enjoyed. A
very large wooden globe, on the surface of which the various
features of the earth as they came up for discussion could be
shown, served to make them more clear and vivid. The children took
their own share in the instruction, and were themselves made to
point out and describe that which had just been explained to them.
They took home their collections, and as a preparation for the next
lesson were often called upon to classify and describe some unusual
specimen by their own unaided efforts. There was no tedium in the
class. Agassiz's lively, clear, and attractive method of teaching
awakened their own powers of observation in his little pupils, and
to some at least opened permanent sources of enjoyment.
His instructions to his older pupils were based on the same
methods, and were no less acceptable to them than to the children.
In winter his professional courses to the students were chiefly
upon zoology and kindred topics; in the summer he taught them
botany and geology, availing himself of the fine days for
excursions and practical instruction in the field. Professor Louis
Favre, speaking of these excursions, which led them sometimes into
the gorges of the Seyon, sometimes into the forests of Chaumont,
says: "They were fete days for the young people, who found in their
professor an active companion, full of spirits, vigor, and gayety,
whose enthusiasm kindled in them the sacred fire of science."
It was not long before his growing reputation brought him
invitations from elsewhere. One of the first of these was from
Heidelberg.
PROFESSOR TIEDEMANN TO LOUIS AGASSIZ.
HEIDELBERG, December 4, 1832.
. . .Last autumn, when I had the pleasure of meeting you in
Carlsruhe, I proposed to you to give some lectures on Natural
History at this university. Professor Leuckart, who till now
represented zoology here, is called to Freiburg, and you would
therefore be the only teacher in that department. The university
being so frequented, a numerous audience may be counted upon. The
zoological collection, by no means an insignificant one, is open to
your use. Professor Leuckart received a salary of five hundred
florins. This is now unappropriated, and I do not doubt that the
government, conformably to the proposition of the medical faculty,
would give you the appointment on the same terms. By your knowledge
you are prepared for the work of an able academical teacher. My
advice is, therefore, that you should not bind yourself to any
lyceum or gymnasium, as a permanent position; such a place would
not suit a cultivated scientific man, nor does it offer a field for
an accomplished scholar. Consider carefully, therefore, a question
which concerns the efficiency of your life, and give me the result
of your deliberation as soon as possible. Should it be favorable to
the acceptance of my proposition, I hope you will find yourself
here at Easter as full professor, with a salary of five hundred
florins, and a fitting field of activity for your knowledge. The
fees for lectures and literary work might bring you in an
additional fifteen hundred gulden yearly. If you accede to this
offer send me your inaugural dissertation, and make me acquainted
with your literary work, that I may take the necessary steps with
the Curatorio. Consider this proposition as a proof of my high
appreciation of your literary efforts and of my regard for you
personally.
Agassiz's next letter to Humboldt is to consult him with respect to
the call from Heidelberg, while it is also full of pleasure at the
warm welcome extended to him in Neuchatel.
AGASSIZ TO HUMBOLDT.
December, 1832.