LOUIS AGASSIZ. 209 



could predict the kiud of fisli wliose remains would be found in any given 

 deposit or stratum should tlie discovery of any such fossil be made. A 

 remarkable instance of his sagacity in this respect is related of hioj when, 

 in early life, he visited England by invitation of the British Association 

 for the Promotion of Science, to attend the annual meeting of its most 

 eminent scholars. The students of the natural sciences in the island 

 determined to put his knowledge of comparative zoology to the 

 test, and to a crucial one. A fossil fish had very recently been found 

 in a rock which was so low in the series that it was not supposed that 

 any organic remains w^ere deposited in it, and it had been classed with 

 the azoic rocks. Agassiz was not aware, of course, that any sucli dis- 

 covery had been made. At one of the sessions of the section in ichthy- 

 ology, one of the members, in the course of the discussion, asked him 

 what the structure and habits of the fish of that period would probably 

 be if any remains should ever be discovered in the rocks then de- 

 posited. Agassiz was silent for a moment, and then, after a few 

 suggestions in regard to the order observed in creation as know^n, he 

 stated in a few words what he believed the size and structure of the fish 

 would be, and, stepping to the blackboard, and taking the crayon, with a 

 few hasty strokes he drew the form and general structure and appearance 

 of the fish of that age, should it, indeed, be discovered; the possible Jish 

 which the liarmon}^ of nature would demand. After he had finished his 

 sketch and taken his seat, what was the mingled surprise and de- 

 light of the members of the section not in the secret, when one of 

 them stepped forward and removed a screen from the wall, revealing 

 the tablet on which was the fossil, of just such proportions, of just such 

 form, of just snch structure as the one that Agassiz had drawn upon the 

 blackboard. To such an extent had this great scientist advanced in a 

 knowledge of the plan of God in nature. 



He was eminently a religious and a devout man. He was ever 

 looking for the indications of thought and purpose in nature from 

 monad to mastodon. He studied nature as the w^ork of an intelligent 

 mind, not of blind forces. The more he discovered of order, the more he 

 perceived of intellect. This vast display of a^uimate and inanimate na- 

 ture was to him the result and perpetual expression of the divine tJiougJit, 

 a revelaiion of God. How I have seen his face glow as he described some 

 of the most striking of the evidences of intellectual action in nature! He 

 has been accused of weakness for yielding to such impressions, advanc- 

 ing such opinions. It was his great glory not to esteem the thing above 

 the thought, the j)roduct above the producer. To see behind adapted 

 forms a purposing mind i« not a weakness, but a necessity for every 

 con![)rehensive mind. The studies of Agassiz did not lead him into the 

 mire of materialism nor the deserts of i)antheism nor the drear}' solitudes 

 of atheism, but to the sublime ideas of God and. immortality. 



Yes; Agassiz was reverent. Said he to his class at Peuikese, "The 



study of nature is direct intercourse with the highest mind. It is 

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