134 LOUIS AGASSIZ 



an evolutionist if he does not choose to 

 be. And, as a Harvard tutor said of 

 Agassiz, " To admit a miracle when one 

 isn't necessary seems to be one of those 

 works of supererogation which have sur- 

 vived the Protestant Beformation, and 

 to count like the penances of old for 

 merit." Things are now quieting down, 

 and we have time to ask why the relig- 

 ious should rage and the people imagine 

 a vain thing. The anthropocentric con- 

 ception of the universe dies as hard as did 

 the geocentric, and a blood relationship 

 between men and apes is supposed to 

 affect the question of immortality ; but 

 we note the paradox that Agassiz, who 

 did not believe in the descent of men 

 from brutes, did believe in the immortal- 

 ity of the brute, and was not more than 

 half joking when he predicted the 

 delight of good zoologists in a happy 

 hereafter when saurians and pterodactyls 

 could be immediately compared with 

 their modern successors, nor when he 



