556 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



under the light it afforded, the work 

 of research went on with increasing 

 fruitfulness and success. The doctrine 

 of evolution was not merely acknowl- 

 edged, but it became a new guide to 

 tlie discovery of truth, which is the 

 liighest possible attestation that could 

 be given of its verity. Nor was it by 

 any means a mystery of experts con- 

 fined to laboratories of which ordinary 

 people could know nothing and must 

 take on authority. Its illustrations and 

 proofs constantly multiplied in those 

 common spheres of thought with which 

 intelligent people are familiar, so that 

 the current literature of the time was 

 full of it. Mr. Beecher saw that the 

 doctrine was not only accredited by a 

 very large number of the ablest minds 

 of the age as an established truth, but 

 he had himself been a student of the 

 subject in his own field of labor, and 

 he found it of invaluable service in that 

 revision of beliefs and opinions which 

 was a part of his responsible duty as an 

 independent public teacher. In broadly 

 accepting and comprehensively applying 

 the new doctrine, Mr. Beecher gives a 

 powerful impulse to theological reform, 

 for, in the further winnowing of religious 

 opinions, only those will stand which 

 are found vitally rooted in the truths of 

 nature ; and, from this point of view, 

 the acceptance of the doctrine of evolu- 

 tion by the religious mind will be the 

 most important step yet taken in reno- 

 vating theology by ending its antago- 

 nism with the order of natural truth, 

 and by making " the solid ground of 

 nature" its lasting and unshakable 

 foundation. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Louis Agassiz : Hts Life and Corue- 

 SPOXDENCE. Edited by Elizabeth Cauy 

 Agassiz. In two volumes, pp. 794. 

 Boston : Houghton, MifBin & Co. Price, 

 $4. 



Mrs. Agassiz began the preparation of 

 this extremely interesting biography with 

 the simple purpose of preserving the facts, 

 letters, and journals bearing upon it from 



dispersion and final loss. But, as the work 

 grew in her hands, she says she began to 

 feel that an intellectual life, marked by 

 such unusual coherence and unity of aim, 

 might serve as a stimulus and an encourage- 

 ment to others. And, for this reason, she 

 at length decided to place it before the 

 general public. The iirst volume contains 

 a portrait of Agassiz at the age of nine- 

 teen, and several other interesting illus- 

 trations connected with his birthplace and 

 early life. The narrative in this volume 

 covers the European portion of Agassiz's 

 life, about which little is known in this 

 country. It is woven together from family 

 papers, and the contributions of fellow- 

 students and others who knew Agassiz in- 

 timately at one period or another of his 

 early career. A brother of Professor Agas- 

 siz, who survived him several years, took 

 the greatest interest in preserving whatever 

 concerned his scientific career, and this 

 brother furnished Mrs. Agassiz with many 

 papers and documents concerning his earlier 

 life. After the brother's death the work 

 was continued by a cousin, Mr. Auguste 

 Mayor, who also selected from the glacier 

 of the Aar, "at the request of Mr. Alexan- 

 der Agassiz, the bow^lder which now marks 

 his father's grave." 



Louis Agassiz had no other teacher 

 than his parents for the first ten years of 

 his life. " Having lost her first four chil- 

 dren in infancy, his mother watched with 

 trembling solicitude over his early years." 

 She understood that his love of nature was 

 an intellectual tendency, and throughout her 

 whole life, as well in the work of his man- 

 hood as in the sports of his childhood, she 

 remained his most intimate friend. He sur- 

 vived her but six years. When a very little 

 fellow he had his collection of fishes, and 

 the vignette represents the stone basin be- 

 hind the parsonage, into which water from 

 a spring was always flowing, and which was 

 Agassiz's first aquarium. He had various 

 pets, whose families he reared with the 

 greatest care. " His pet animals," we are 

 told, " suggested questions to answer, which 

 was the task of his life." The story of his 

 school-life, from the age of ten to seventeen, 

 is briefly told, but leaves the distinct impres- 

 sion of a boy with a settled purpose. After 

 spending two years at the medical school in 

 Zurich, Agassiz went to the University of 



