SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 858 



tacks of pestilential microbes for the ad- 

 vance of knowledge and the betterment of 

 man's estate, while Alexander Agassiz 

 rises with difficulty, when overwhelmed 

 with sickness, and has his mattress laid on 

 the deck of the tossing steamer in order 

 that he may the better record the message 

 which the dredge or trawl has brought to 

 light from the dark abysses of the Atlantic 

 or Pacific Ocean. In such men the body 

 has truly become merely the vehicle of the 

 soul. 



It has been said that Alexander Agassiz 

 was a sad and reserved man. It must be 

 admitted that during the latter part of his 

 life he was not so moved by joyous im- 

 pulses as in his earlier years. Those who 

 knew him well did not find him reserved, 

 and they can testify to the great pleasure 

 he derived from a new discovery or a new 

 view of the interrelations among natural 

 phenomena. 



It has also been said that he did not in- 

 terest himself in the deeper philosophical 

 aspects of the researches in which he was 

 engaged. This I believe to be a mistake. 

 He professed never to engage in discus- 

 sions except where it was possible to verify 

 one's conclusions by an appeal to observa- 

 tion or experiment. Although he did not 

 publish papers dealing directly with philo- 

 sophical subjects, still he was keenly in- 

 terested in all evolutionary problems. He 

 used to say that Darwin had probably ex- 

 plained the survival but not the a^rrival of 

 species, and he looked forward to a great 

 increase of knowledge from experiments 

 in Mendelism. He believed that the muta- 

 tion theory had received remarkable con- 

 firmation by experiments carried on in re- 

 cent years. He believed that the doctrines 

 of heredity, which had been so successfully 

 applied to the improvement of domestic 

 plants and animals, would, in the not very 

 distant future, be in like manner applied 



for the elevation of the human species, the 

 most important of all domestic organisms. 

 He felt convinced that the modern theories 

 as to electrons, the disruption of atoms, 

 and as to energy configurations in the 

 ether being the sole ultimate phenomenal 

 basis of matter would in time profoundly 

 affect the philosophical outlook of many 

 naturalists and their mental attitude gen- 

 erally towards materialism and the riddles 

 of the universe. The study of the world 

 of physical and mental phenomena, he 

 would say, was sufficient for this life. The 

 deeper and more earnestly these were in- 

 vestigated, the brighter and more definite 

 would become the glimpses of that eternal 

 something lying behind all manifestations, 

 which in the meantime he was content to 

 reverence. His religious feelings seemed 

 to be best expressed as a yearning after a 

 higher and better life, which he held 

 would become more attainable and more 

 pronounced as mankind advanced in sci- 

 entific knowledge. Like all great men he 

 was 



A dreamer of the common dreams, 



A fisher in familiar streams: 



He chased the transitory gleams 

 That all pursue, 



But on his lips the eternal themes 

 Again were new. 



Great he unquestionably was. Great in 

 his power for work, great in his conception 

 of duty, great in his desire to add to nat- 

 ural knowledge, great in the height of his 

 love, great in the depth of his sorrow, great 

 in his elevated personality, great in his ad- 

 miration for his university, great in his 

 patriotism, great in his ideas as to the des- 

 tiny of our race, great in his influence for 

 good, like the genial and vivifying rain 

 from heaven. Like all of us he doubtless 

 had faults, both hereditary and acquired. 

 We know that 



