inquiry more profoundly convinced that the universe is an 

 unsolvable problem." 



The deep religious nature of Agassiz continually ap- 

 pears in his writings. He said of Humboldt, who was 

 accused of scepticism, " A reverential spirit for every- 

 thing great and good breathes through all his pages:" — a 

 remark equally applicable to his own. If its true that 

 " an uncle vout astronomer is mad " as Young said, it is 

 equally true of sciences that came later and lead up, as 

 Agassiz has expressed it, to an " acquaintance with the 

 ideas of God himself." 



To his religious spirit was joined the widest and most 

 liberal tolerance. In his lecture on "Men and Monkeys" 

 he said, " It is no longer possible for any man, or any 

 set of men, to assume that the truth is in them exclusive- 

 ly. Men have learned that there is only one common 

 foundation for their beliefs, however they may differ from 

 one another in their religious principles. Men have 

 learned that there is only one source for their knowl- 

 edge, which is nature, however much they may differ in 

 their interpretation of nature's facts. There are different 

 denominations among Christians, and no one has a right 

 to present his view of the subject as the only correct one." 



Prof. Fiske says that " Agassiz had become the wel- 

 come ally of those zealous but narrow minded theolo- 

 gians, in whom the rapid progress of the Darwinian theo- 

 ry has awakened the totally groundless fear that the nec- 

 essary foundations of true religion, or true christianitv, 

 are imperiled." If Agassiz was the ally of the anti-Dar- 

 winians he had become such from patient scientific inves- 

 tigation according to scientific processes. He was not of 

 that class of men who 



Prove their doctrine's orthodox 

 By apostolic blows and knocks. 



He had " that intellectual fearlessness which accepts a 

 proved fact without reference to its personal or social con- 

 sequences," and he believed with the author of "The Intel- 

 lectual Life " that " the plain course for the preservation 

 of our honesty, which is the basis of truly intellectual think- 



