422 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 



It is sixteen years since I first met Professor Agassiz, whose death the 

 Board of Regents so deeply lament. It was at commencement at Har- 

 vard University, in 1858, the first year after my return from a long 

 residence in China. The Emperor Napoleon had made tempting offers 

 in the way of high position to Professor Agassiz to go to Paris. In 

 tense solicitude on the part of his friends in Cambridge and tbe coun- 

 try generally, was felt as to his decision. It was on this occasion that 

 their anxious suspense was relieved, as Professor Agassiz, after dinner, 

 rose and announced his determination henceforth to be an American 

 citizen. This declaration was received with most enthusiastic demon- 

 strations of rejoicing. 



I am happy the resolutions now submitted recognize his adopted citi- 

 zenship. An incident that has come to my knowledge within the last hour 

 has given me great pleasure, as illustrating the patriotism of the man. A 

 mutual friend said, " Professor Agassiz, it fills me with gratitude 

 every time I think of your declining the very flattering proposition that 

 was made to you from the court of Prance." To which he replied : " Yes, 

 and do you know that proposition was renewed to me after the war be- 

 gan, and I replied with more earnestness than before, if I loved my adopted 

 country too much to leave it when all was peace, I certainly shall not 

 leave it now, when a shadow has come over its prospects." 



In the resolutions adopted by different scientific and literary institu- 

 tions throughout the country, much prominence is given, and rightly, 

 too, to the irreparable loss sustained by the decease of this pre-eminent 

 man of science. 



While we sympathize most fully with that sentiment, there is another 

 consideration that should not be overlooked. I refer to the kind Provi- 

 dence that has given to the world such a man, preserved his life to ma- 

 ture years, and enabled him to accomplish so much as he has done for 

 the science, not only of the day and of this country, but of the age and 

 world. 



To Louis Agassiz belongs the distinction of having awakened, in a 

 remarkable degree, a spirit of scientific inquiry, and of having discovered 

 changes our planet has undergone, through the influence of laws he 

 was the first to demonstrate, arriving at such a knowledge of their 

 operations that it may be truly said of him that the remote consequences 

 of these laws, first predicted by his theory, tvere, in repeated instances, 

 most signally verified upon two continents by his observations. 



In the circumstances of his departure from this life, there were pecu- 

 liar mercies that call for grateful recognition. Fears were at one time 

 entertained, and not without cause, lest he might linger through years 

 of suffering, deprived of reason ; but he and his loving family have been 

 spared that affliction, and he has been, as it were, translated, to resume, 

 or rather to continue, on a higher plane, his advance in the knowledge of 

 the works of the Creator, with devout and endlessly increasing adora- 

 tion of their Divine Author. 



On motion of Dr. Parker, the resolutions were unanimously adopted. 



