"The Coming Race", Chapter XIV, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton

metempsychosis: the supposed transmigration at death of the soul of a human being or animal into a new body of the same or a different species

crotchet: a perverse or unfounded belief or notion

Louis Agassiz: Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz, 19th century Swiss biologist and geologist. Let's see, French name, born in Switzerland, Ph.D. in Germany (well, there wasn't a unified country of Germany at the time, but you know what I mean), worked with Cuvier and von Humboldt in Paris, professor in Switzerland, then finally moving to the USA to become a professor at Harvard. Very busy man!

Also, notable that before coming to the US, he was of a mind that all humans where of the same origin and gradually evolved into different "races", but after coming to the US, boy oh boy did he have a huge change of attitude on the matter of race! And not for the better...

To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0014

The chapter has several rather long, rambly, run-on sentences that don't feel like they express a complete and proper thought. Like the author himself forgot where he was going with it, but realized he had to close out the sentence somehow or another, and didn't take much care to address the grammatical and linguistic mess left behind. Makes for tough reading, and tough narrating.