Waterston.] 236 [January 7, 



You will excuse me for troubling you about this, but I am 

 sure you will see that it places me in an awkward position." 



If in any mind there should exist even the shadow of a 

 misapprehension upon this subject, these words will serve to 

 explain fully both the feelings of Prof. Agassiz and the exact 

 facts of the case. 



At the close of his public address of the 14th of Septem- 

 ber, he says : — 



" I have appeared before you as the representative of the 

 Boston Natural History Society. It was their proposition to 

 celebrate this memorable anniversary. I feel grateful for 

 their invitation, for the honor they have done me. I feel still 

 more grateful for the generous impulse which has prompted 

 them to connect a Humboldt Scholarship, as a memorial of 

 this occasion, with the Museum of Comparative Zoology at 

 Cambridge." 



Thus, Mr. President and gentlemen, while we cannot but 

 deeply mourn the vast loss which this community and the 

 whole country has sustained by this bereavement, we rejoice 

 in that friendly relationship which so long existed between 

 us, and are thankful that one of the last great public utter- 

 ances of his life was given under the auspices of this 

 Society. 



And now that his life, so beneficently crowded with activ- 

 ity and usefulness, has closed to us in this sphere of being, we 

 are grateful that our mutual efforts established what will not 

 only be a perpetual bond of union between this Society and 

 the institution of which he was the honored head, but which, 

 we trust, through successive years, may prove a source of 

 practical help and encouragement to numberless students, who, 



