LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



A DISCOUKSE DELIVEBED BY REV. RUPUS P. STEBBINS, D. D., 

 OF ITHACA, NEW YOKK. 



Agassiz is dead! Science weeps, and Eeligion mourns. Nature 

 lias lost a friend, and asks, "Who will now read the inscribed leaves of 

 my rocky tablets with such loving enthusiasm? Who will now study 

 and describe all living things with such sympathetic admiration?" 



Agassiz is dead! No more will he walk the gray cliffs of Nahant, 

 lifted into communion with highest themes by the voice of the ocean's 

 anthem ! JSTo more will he traverse the coral reefs of Florida to learn 

 how promontories and islands are built by the tiniest and frailest of living 

 things! No longer will he visit the high Alps, and measure the velocity 

 and force of its great rivers of ice, to teach us how the rocks have been 

 carved on the mountain-tops, and scattered over the valleys! No longer 

 will he dredge the depths of the ocean to astonish the world with the 

 living creatures which have their home a thousand fathoms below the 

 storms ! No longer will he examine with kindling enthusiasm the ger- 

 minating egg under his microscope, and thrill the scientific world with 

 delight as he announces some new phenomenon, illustrating some new 

 method of the divine order! No more will he be seen in his museum, the 

 pride of his heart, the joy of Jiis life ! Never again will he visit Penikese, 

 where, with such ardor he last summer opened his new school to study 

 living nature and not merely the printed page, and where he, the man 

 of science, paid such a memorable tribute to religion ! * No more shall we 

 meet that regal form, look into that beaming face, grasp that warm hand, 

 hear those wise and cheering words! His personal work here is done. 

 But he has inspired thousands to press after the truth 5 he has founded 

 an institution which will live after him in ever-increasing efl&ciency and 

 usefulness. His praise will be spoken by tongues in all languages, in the 

 most ancient and renowned universities of the world. Thousands of 

 hearts will mourn his absence in halls of science before whose as- 

 semblies of the foremost scholars of two continents he laid the golden 

 treasures of his researches with the simplicity and joy of a child. How 

 many of his pupils, whose names are even now high authority, will 

 forget the stern requirements of the teacher in their admiration of the 

 man, and their gratitude for the enthusiasm with which he inspired them, 

 the very accuracy of observation to which he compelled them ! Thou- 

 sands of intelligent citizens will look in vain for those reported lectures, 

 so transparent in style, so clear in description, which have been a joy and 

 a revelation to them for the last quarter of a century. 



* See "Prayer of Agassiz," by Whittier. 



