I 



44 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



he knew so well to give to his own dwellings. His sons in quick 

 response to the father's wishes w ith a generous piety have carried out 

 his plans. Mr. Page, the architect, had submitted his sketches to 

 Mr. Agassiz and had had frequent conferences with him before he 

 left the country in December, 1909. His death on March 27, 1910, of 

 necessity caused some delay in the progress of the work, but the plans 

 had been so fully developed that there seemed no doubt as to his inten- 

 tions and the architect under the direction of the sons and of your 

 committee has faithfully and successfully brought the building to 

 completion. 



Kings and ambitious noblemen have in other lands and other times 

 been patrons of learned societies and have provided sumptuous 

 accommodations for them. Our house is believed to be the only 

 abode of a scientific society built by a member of the body and devoted 

 to the unrestricted uses of his fellows. If Agassiz had lived to see the 

 completion of this house, it is safe to say that neither his name not his 

 features woidd have appeared upon these walls. What his singular 

 modesty would have forbidden to him living has been done in the one 

 instance by the authorities of the Academy, and in the other by the 

 loving hands of one of his own family. 



In the great Museum at Cambridge is the monument of two great 

 men of science laboring in the service of science alone. Here in this 

 pleasant house and home may their associates and successors for 

 all time remember the gracious spirit of him who asked only of his 

 fellows a kindly remembrance. 



May we not speak of him in the words which our own poet used in 

 describing another of our greatest and best loved associates, 



The wisest man could ask no more of fate 

 Than to be simple, modest, manly, true, 

 Safe from the many, honored by the Few; 



To feel mysterious Nature ever new; 

 To touch, if not to grasp, her endless clue, 

 And learn by each discovery how to wait. 

 He widened knowledge and escaped the praise; 

 He wisely taught, because more wise to learn, — 

 He toiled for Science not to draw men's gaze, 

 But for her lore of self denial stern. 



O friend of this house and all who gather here, not of a day but for 

 long years to come may your place still be here to welcome by this 

 visible presence the generations of this Academy, till this solid struc- 

 ture which you have built and all that it contains shall sink in dust. 



