44 LOUIS AGASSrZ. [CHAP. \i\ 



daily in New England, closely followed Agassiz's teach- 

 ings. In one of his letters, lately published, Asa Gray 

 expressed himself as well satisfied with the ground taken 

 by Agassiz on all spiritual matters ; and, thus encour- 

 aged by one of his colleagues of Harvard College, who 

 called himself an "orthodox Presbyterian" of the old 

 Puritan school, he made no objection to the request of 

 some of the leaders and editors of the " Christian Ex- 

 aminer " of Boston, to write a few articles for that 

 periodical; and during 1850 and 1851 he published 

 three articles on questions of natural history. The 

 first paper, on " Geographical Distribution of Ani- 

 mals," March, 1850, was well received by every one; 

 but this was not the case with the next article, " The Di- 

 versity of the Origin of the Human Races." Although 

 he took the scientific ground, and insisted most strongly 

 that there are two distinct questions involved, the 

 Unity of Mankind, and the Diversity of Origin of the 

 Human Races, --it was taken by some as a sort of sup- 

 port of slavery, and the abolition party became angry 

 and excited. Finally his third paper, published in Jan- 

 uary, 1851, "Contemplations of God in the Kosmos," 

 seemed to many religious men to make too light of 

 Genesis, and to pass over Adam as if he had never 

 existed. Newspapers reviewed the three articles, and 

 some sharp criticisms were made against Agassiz, not 

 only in America, but also in Europe. As is often the 

 case, some, without even reading the articles, took it for 

 granted that Agassiz wrote them in order to please the 

 Methodists and the slave-holders; while others, hardly 



