LOUIS JOHN RUDOLPH AGASSIZ. 115 



yourselves, therefore, by looking at this procession, 

 until the inevitable comes upon you." This is the 

 philosophy which to-day is powerful among thinking 

 men ; and its tide is fated to rise higher before it 

 ebbs. Like all systems, it will work good and evil ; 

 but its good will remain, and its evil melt away. 



Against such a current Agassiz struggled in vain. 

 He was a theistic philosopher, who chose for his 

 field the working of supreme thought in the animal 

 creation. He addressed a world of learned men, the 

 majority of whom could not understand what basis 

 theistic philosophy had, and of whom not a few 

 accused him of want of honesty for even introducing 

 such a theme. The time will come when his power and 

 insight will be appreciated. Meanwhile we must be 

 content with his successes that lay in a lower plane ; 

 they were his special zoological investigations, and his 

 brilliant career in the United States, where he raised an 

 enthusiasm for high studies, and where he established 

 a great centre of science. 



On his fiftieth birthday, the late poet Longfellow, 



who lived for some years a neighbour of Agassiz, and 



was a fellow-prof essor with him in Harvard University, 



addressed to him a poetical tribute, which I cannot 



do better than quote : — 



It was fifty years ago, 



In the pleasant month of May, 

 In the beautiful Pays de Yaud 



A child in its cradle lay. 

 And Nature, the old nurse, took 



The child upon her knee, 

 Saving:, " Here is a storv-book 



My Father has written for thee. 



