﻿In Memoriam — Louis Agassiz. 143 



and brightly colored ; while those in shady streams, or where the 

 bottom was dark or muddy, and the water not so clear, were cor- 

 respondingly dusky in hue ; and that bright fish taken from waters 

 of the former character and placed in those of the latter would 

 begin to fade in a few hours, and in a few days or weeks would be- 

 come entirely changed in hue. He found that the color of brook 

 trout of neighboring streams was influenced by the color and quan- 

 tity of the water, and that even trout of the same stream differed 

 in color as they frequented the shady or sunny side. 



Now, while most persons are capable of admiring the general 

 result of a long series of observations or experiments, many can 

 not appreciate, or may even be disposed to make light of, some of 

 the seemingly preliminary steps leading to that result. And a 

 person of this character coming upon Agassiz beside a trout stream, 

 studying the changes in coloration of the brook trout — than which 

 there is no lovelier object on God's footstool — might have thought 

 it a sad waste of time, or at least, a subject unworthy the notice of 

 so wise a man. 



The battle-scarred warrior who leads his marshaled hosts to vic- 

 tory ; the intrepid voyager who defies the hibernal terrors of the 

 Arctic seas ; the hardy traveler who braves the scorching sun, the 

 simoon or the sirocco of tropical lands ; the brilliant divine who 

 expounds, in a lofty manner, the simple gospel of the lowly Christ 

 — all are admired and applauded and feted and honored of men ; 

 but rising superior to all of these is the simple, grand man, seated 

 on the mossy bank, contemplating the ruby-studded, living arrow 

 of the mountain stream. Yea, greater than warrior, or voyager, 

 or traveler, or divine — a very high priest of Nature in God's own 

 temple. What cathedral aisle more imposing than the Gothic arch 

 of pine and fir? What font more pure than the babbling brook? 

 What surpliced choir more redolent of praise than Nature's feath- 

 ered choristers? What altar cloth more sacred than the velvet 

 sward ? Surely 



"The groves were God's first temples," 



and Solomon's Temple, in all its pristine glory and regal splendor, 

 was but a barren waste in comparison ! And no mitred archbishop, 

 in temple built by human hands, ever engaged in a loftier, nobler 



