114 LOUIS AGASSIZ 



amalgamation, the probable fate and 

 danger of the half- breed, etc., interested 

 him greatly ; but he kept their scientific 

 and social aspects apart, and was sur- 

 prised when those who reported his opin- 

 ions failed to do the same. Why a be- 

 lief that the ancestors of two men were 

 created in different regions should carry 

 with it the belief that one of them has 

 a moral right to buy and sell the other 

 is not evident to logic ; but a country 

 struggling for life and death is not in a 

 mood for strict logic. When the war 

 had actually begun, no one could longer 

 doubt Agassiz's patriotism. His letters 

 are full of the war and of his own in- 

 tense feeling. His loyalty showed also in 

 another shape his constant urging that 

 American scholars should feel their re- 

 sponsibility to the country as well as to 

 the scientific world, should publish their 

 results at home, and throw off the intel- 

 lectual tyranny which had survived the 

 political form. 



