CONSTANTINE SAMUEL RAFINESQUE. ^5 



brought him but a scanty income. His scientific reputation 

 had not reached his fellow-lodgers, and his landlord thought 

 him "a crazy herb doctor." He died alone, and left no visible 

 assets ; and his landlord refused to allow his friends such 

 friends as he had to enter the house to give him a decent 

 burial. He wished to make good the unpaid rent by selling 

 the body to a medical college. At night, so the story goes, 

 Dr. Bringhurst, who had studied botany with Rafinesque, got 

 a few friends together, broke into the garret in which the body 

 had been locked, and let it down out of the window by a rope. 

 Then they carried it away and buried it in a little churchyard 

 outside the city limits. This place has lately been identified 

 as Ronaldson's Cemetery, on the corner of Ninth and Catharine 

 Streets. Which was his grave we know not, for in the growth 

 of Philadelphia the whole cemetery has been almost obliterated 

 and forgotten. 



American naturalists have greater honour now than fifty 

 years ago. Rafinesque died unnoticed, and was buried only by 

 stealth. A whole nation wept for Agassiz. But a difference 

 was in the men as well as the times. Both were great natural- 

 ists and learned men. Both had left high reputations in Eu- 

 rope to cast their lot with America. Agassiz's great heart 

 went out toward every one with whom he came in contact ; 

 but Rafinesque loved no man or woman, and died, as he lived, 

 alone. If some one who loved him had followed him to the 

 last, it might have been with Rafinesque as with Albrecht 

 Diirer : " l fimigravit* is the inscription on the headstone where 

 he lies." But there was no one; and there is neither head- 

 stone nor inscription, and we know not even the place where 

 he rests after his long journey. 



The last recorded words of Rafinesque were these : " Time 

 renders justice to all alike " ; and to the justice of time we may 

 leave him. 



