128 LOUIS AGASSIZ 



fairly ; that is, without the use of ques- 

 tion-begging epithets which shall suggest 

 either irreverence or absurdity. It is 

 very easy to sneer at them 5 and, if any 

 one wants to see this done in a mas- 

 terly manner, we refer him to HaeckeFs 

 History of Creation (the English transla- 

 tion revised by Professor E. Bay Lancas- 

 ter, the translator mentioned briefly as 

 " a young lady " ). Here he will find a 

 chapter on the doctrines of Cuvier and 

 Agassiz, which, though uncivil almost to 

 brutality in its tearing away any last veil 

 of a decent mysticism, does yet give the 

 theory as Agassiz' s own words warrant 

 it. The creator "plagued with ennui, 

 amusing himself with planning and con- 

 structing most varied toys, ? ' and destroy- 

 ing them by a general revolution, "at 

 last (but very late) struck with the 

 happy thought of creating something 

 like himself/' is really Agassiz' s deity, 

 only described in words which have dis- 

 respectful instead of respectful associa- 



