AN ECCENTRIC NATURALIST. 169 



alone, and left no salable 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 ; 

 but at night, so the story goes, a physician who 

 had studied botany with Rafinesque got a few 

 friends together, and broke into the garret and 

 carried a\vay the body, which they buried in a 

 little churchyard outside the city limits, now. oblit- 

 erated by the growth of Philadelphia. 



American naturalists have greater honor now 

 than forty 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 in the times. Both were great 

 naturalists and learned men. Both had left high 

 reputations in Europe to cast their lot with Amer- 

 ica. Agassiz's great heart went out toward every 

 one with whom he came in contact ; but Rafi- 

 nesque loved no man or woman, and died, as he 

 had lived, alone. If some one who loved him had 

 followed him to the last, it might have been with 

 Rafinesque as with Albrecht Diirer: " ' Emigravit* 

 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. 



Rafinesque's last recorded words were these: 

 " Time renders justice to all alike." And to the 

 justice of Time we may leave him. 



