LOUIS AGASSIZ 169 



No one can contemplate the character of Agassiz, without 

 realizing its nobility, its strength, its sweetness and his joyous 

 nature. He was notably a Christian in"all the term implies. He 

 held to trTe"'5elief in an aU-2dse-lreator. He was the great theistic 

 philosopher of his ^fay f\pd f JTC_ Nature was to him so much* 

 evidence of an enduring mind, a divine intelligence. 



In his essay on classification he says: "All the facts proclaim 

 aloud the one God whom we know, adore, and love, and Natural 

 History must in good time become the analysis of the thoughts 

 of the creator of the Universe as manifested in the animal and 

 vegetable kingdoms." 



Holding such views it is not surprising that Agassiz opposed 

 Darwin and it may be said that he led the anti-Darwin forces; a 

 controversy which was waged all over the civilized world, at one 

 time. Agassiz held out to the last, but it is interesting to note 

 that his pupils, I believe with few, if any exception, went over to 

 the forces of evolution, as understood at the time. The views of 

 Agassiz did not mitigate against him as a scientist. The question 

 of a divinity or no divinity, is beyond the pale of science, is not a 

 scientific question, is not susceptible to argument from the stand- 

 point of science, and the influence of Agassiz, as a great teacher, 

 as a dominant educational force and factor stood, stands to-day 

 unimpaired. His appearance in America was the beginning of a 

 new era, was a scientific renaissance and his beneficent influence 

 radiated around the world like the ripples from a pebble dropped 

 upon the serene and glass-like surface of a pool. In 1873, Agassiz, 

 the colossus of workers, Agassiz who had been warned years 

 before by Von Humboldt that the intense work he was doing 

 " kills," began to break down. 



"I want rest," he said, "I am ready to go; I am tired; but I 

 will work while I live, while I have strength I will labor," and 

 here was the secret of his success, of all success, in life. And so 

 he passed on; a good and faithful servant who found eternal rest 

 on December 14, 1873. No man has a greater or more endur- 

 ing monument than he. His influence, his works rise, a pillar 

 of Hercules that will stand potent ; virile so long as time lasts. 



