The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1896-02-08

foot of the Jura Mountains, and passed
his youth and was educated under much
the same circumstances as he, and has
therefore had unusual opportunities to
know him and his surroundings in the
| Old World as well as in the New. The
task of writing his life has been "a work
! OF friendly love and respect for the man
and OF Justice to the savant." Without
passing over in silence the moral fail
lngs OF the man and the inequalities in
| talent of the naturalist" he has ex-
pressed admiration for this master OF
| natural history. The unity which is not
| to be found in his acts or in his works
| will be found in his iron will; he had a
| fixed idea-he wished to be the first nat
uralist of his time as he said in a letter
to his father when he was still q student
at Munich Mr. Marcou tells us that
although Agassiz was very ready to care
for his own interests he never was a
practical man in the full business sense
Of the word. Unable to. choose men as
assistants and co-worl1ers, he was very
prompt to make use of them whenever
| they were competent. French was the
native tongue Of Agassiz; his remark
able and admirable mother" knew nei-
| ther English nor German, but wrote
French with great purity and choice ex-
! preston. All the works of Agassiz, on
! which his reputation as an original nat
uralist are based, are in the French lam
| guage. The most active part of his life
as regards great discoveries was spent
lat Neuchatel, then q small town, where
! French was the only language spoken.
! Before he came to America all his cor
|respondence with English naturalists
was in FIench; SO that it is almost i'm
! possible to entirely suppress this Tan
guage in writing a, true and accurate life
! of him. Mr. Marcou has therefore con-
cluded to give such of his French cor
| respondence as he uses in the original.
| Agassiz's remarkable personality, he de-
clares, cannot be properly understood
without taking into account the strength
of his French nature. A French Swiss
he was born, and a French Swiss he re-
| mained all his life, Notwithstanding MS
American naturalization and his great
admiration Of the New World in general
and of the United States in particular
Mr.. Marcou's description of Agassiz' S
personality is interesting. He was a
little above the average height, though
not tall; he was squarely built, with
| broad shoulders and powerful and we'll
proportioned body, and with remarkably
| large, and at the same time, we'll formed
! hands which he used most skillfuliy.
They were the hands OF an artist OF Of a
naturalist, ready to use the pencil, the
scalpel or the microscope, and his man
ner of shaking hands was very cordial
and friendly" He stood firmly, though
his feet were rather small in compari-
son with his Herculean structure, and
seemed formed for walking; indeed he
was all his life a capital pedestrian, both
cn level ground and upon the Alpine
Mountains. His head was simply mag
nificent," his forehead large and we'll
developed,' and his brilliant, intelli-
gent and searching eyes" can be "best
described by the word fascinating, while
his mouth and somewhat "yolup-
tuous lips were expressive and in per
feet harmony with an aquiline nose and
we'll shaped chin" His hair was :"chest-
nut color and rather thin. especially on
the top of his head" indeed, after he
was SO years o.d he showed signs of
badness, which greatly increased after
his 50th year. He was easily moved to
tears and 'at times cried like a child -
He had spells of laughing which some
times seemed forced but which were
perfectly spontaneous" 1T was almost
impossible for him to conceal his emo
tons; this remark applies more espec-
tally to the first 40 years Of his life;
later he was less apt to show his feel
ings. During the first half Of his life he
was seldom angry, however great the
provocation might be. But after 1853 he
quite often got into q, passion, even los
ing control of his words, although he
never ceased to be agentleman and was
careful not TO wound too deeply Ills ad-
versaries or the persons with whom he
was discussing During his youth and
student life he used to sing and even to
yodel like the Tyrolese peasants and the
Oberland guides, but he completely
ceased as soon as he landed on the Amer
ican soil. Fine clothes never attracted
him, he was on the contrary rather in
clined to wear the most common and
unbecoming suits and slollch hat dur
ing winter and summer, and Mr.. Marcou
does not believe that during his whole
stay in America he eyer wore g. silk hat
In society he was fond of meeting rich
and influential men, being always desir
GUS OF being acquainted with those pos
sessing a great name and a high social
or official position" He was AN aristo-
crat by nature, with a strong mixture of
popular and democratic habits and man
ners." He was not fond OF the society of
other savants, '.often having occasion to
complain OF their conceit and curiosity
He was generous and kind hearted and
there were always those around him
ready to take advantage of those quail
ties. f.:
/ have not attempted in this to write a
criticism of MI Marcou's book but mere
ly to give the reader a general idea, of
it's contents and to whet his appetite for
what he is sure to find a feast.