to continue his medical and scientific
studies--the one, as he deemed, from necessity, the other from
choice--he was received as a fellow-savant; yet at first with a certain
reserve, probably no more than was natural in view of the relative age
and position of the two men; but Agassiz, writing to his sister, says:
"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 if I were not held fast by the wealth of material of which I can
avail myself." But only a month later he writes--this time to his
uncle--that, while he was anxious lest he "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," and might naturally wish to reserve the materials
for his own use; and when the young naturalist, as he showed his own
sketches and notes to the veteran, was faintly venturing to hope that,
on seeing his work so far advanced, he might perhaps be invited to share
in a joint publication, Cuvier relieved his anxiety and more than
fulfilled his half-formed desires.

"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."

Within three months Cuvier fell under a stroke of paralysis, and shortly
died. The day before the attack he had said to Agassiz, "Be careful, and
remember that work kills." We doubt if it often kills naturalists,
unless when, like Cuvier, they also become statesmen.

But to live and work, the naturalist must be fed. It was a perplexing
problem how possibly to remain a while longer in Paris, which was
essential to the carrying on of his work, and to find the means of
supplying his very simple wants. And here the most charming letters in
these volumes are, first, the one from his mother, full of tender
thoughtfulnes