LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



/o/ 



because in him science was individualized in the most fascinating and per- 

 suasive of human beings. All the rest of us are more or less domina-ted by 

 our special lines of investigation, or so infirm in physical health, or so un- 

 sympathetic with ignorant people, or so supercilious, or so controlled by some 

 innate ' cussedness ' of disposition, that we can not readily adapt ourselves 

 to the ways of men of the world; but Agassiz, with his enormous physical 

 health and vitality, and his capacity to meet all kinds of men on their own 

 level, drew into our net hundreds of people, powerful through their wealth 

 or their political influence, who would never have taken any interest in 

 science if they had not first been interested in Agassiz. And these men 

 were the men who gave us the money we needed for the extension of scien- 

 tific knowledge and the promotion of scientific discovery." 



Another student and admirer writes : 



" Some thirty-five years ago, at a meeting of a literary and scientific club 

 of which I happened to be a member, a discussion sprang up concerning Dr. 

 Hitchcock's book on ' bird-tracks,' and plates were exhibited representing 

 his geological discoveries. After much time had been consumed in describ- 

 ing the bird-tracks as isolated phenomena, and in lavishing compliments on 

 Dr. Hitchcock, a man suddenly rose who in five minutes dominated the 

 whole assembly. He was, he said, much interested in the specimens before 

 them, and he would add that he thought highly of Dr. Hitchcock's book as 

 far as it accurately described the curious and interesting facts he had un- 

 earthed ; but, he added, the defect in Dr. Hitchcock's volume is this, that 

 ' it is dtes-crcep-teeve, and not cova-'pz.r-a.-teeve.' The moment he contrasted 

 ' dees-creep-teeve ' with ' com-par-a-teeve,' one felt the vast gulf that yawned 

 between mere scientific observation and scientific intelligence ; between eye- 

 sight and insight ; between minds that doggedly perceive and describe, and 

 minds that instinctively compare and combine." 



To illustrate the lectures on geology, he used to invite students to accom- 

 pany him on excursions to neighboring towns. From boyhood an associate 

 of students, there was no company in which he felt more at ease ; and he 

 regarded with unfeigned consternation the stiff relations that, twenty years 

 ago, subsisted between our professors and their pupils. It was pleasant to 

 see him, at the head of a score of us youngsters, taking his way toward the 

 pudding-stone quarries in Roxbury. His face wore an easy smile, and, as his 

 quick brown eye wandered over the landscape, it saw more than did all our 

 eyes put together, for he looked, but we only stared. Near by, like a sort of 

 lieutenant, walked Jacques Burkhardt, the lifelong friend and artist of the 

 great professor. Though his beard was white, he never grew old ; and, to the 



