114 EMINENT NATURALISTS. 



It was precisely this new and prolonged strain, at a 

 season when usually he took a sort of vacation, that 

 shattered his system beyond the power of repair ; and 

 on December 14, 1873, he died. 



If we consider simply the influence of his philoso- 

 phical ojrinions on the mass of scientific men, Agassiz 

 lived too late and also too early. At all stages of its 

 progress, the human mind presents a kind of atrophy 

 of some of its parts ; and he who treats of such topics 

 as are appreciated only by these parts speaks to deaf 

 ears. Continuance in one set of opinions through 

 several generations produces at last lassitude, then a 

 sort of rebellion, and finally the welcoming of anything 

 novel, as a glad relief. Here is a great, if not the 

 greatest cause of changes which are on the whole 

 beneficial. The tree of knowledge at such times throws 

 out new and strong branches, albeit they are all on one 

 side. Thus it has been with natural science. Scholars 

 get tired of Bridgwater Treatises, and talk of means and 

 ends, and of plans of creation ; moreover, they were in 

 some places exasperated by opposition from Church or 

 State. Then they were getting suffocated by their 

 material ; and, when the species of shells increased to 

 thousands, and of beetles to tens of thouands, they 

 exclaimed, "It is enough — give us relief ! " 



Their relief was like that of the Mediaeval Catholic 

 Church. Positivism advanced, and said, " Bury every- 

 thing that is inconvenient, and come and lean on me 

 and I will give you peace. Thought and causation 

 have no real existence. They and you are only figures in 

 a procession that has neither beginning nor end . Amuse 



