1858-64.] OPPONENTS OF AGASSIZ. 109 



Harvard University was considered by some as unjustly 

 bestowed on him, a criticism which was particularly 

 applicable in regard to his geological work ; and it was 

 current among a certain public, happily a rather limited 

 number, that the merits of Agassiz had been "much 

 overrated in America." It would have been politic on 

 his part if he had offered the chair of geology to 

 William B. Rogers, then a resident of Boston. But 

 Agassiz did not like to have any one so near, who 

 might overshadow him. 



But, however it happened, Darwin's " Origin of 

 Species " became a thorn in his side. His pupils in 

 a body turned against him, for they were delighted to 

 believe that they knew more than he of the philoso- 

 phy of natural history, the descent of man, the crea- 

 tive power of horticulturists, and of pigeon breeders, 

 and the mutability of species and genera. To the 

 disgust of Agassiz, they turned from their master to 

 applaud all the articles on evolution and origin of 

 species, published in American periodicals by Asa 

 Gray, 1 Chauncey Wright, and John Fiske, the last two 

 not even naturalists. 



1 Almost a year before the publication of Darwin's " Origin of Species," 

 Gray, in January, 1859, read before the American Academy of Arts and 

 Science, a paper in which, as he said in a letter to Torrey, he " knocked 

 out the underpinning from Agassiz's theories about species and their 

 origin, showing by the very facts that threw de Candolle, the high prob- 

 ability of single and local creation of species, turning some of Agassiz's 

 own guns against him" ( " Life of Asa Gray," Vol. II., p. 450). It is 

 plain that Darwin's book came just in time for Gray, who seized upon it 

 at once, and used Darwin's weapons against Agassiz with a quickness, 

 which was not free from some passionate opposition. To be sure, 

 Lamarck's " Philosophic Zoulugicjue " was within Gray's reach, but it is 



