viii 



Preface. 



more notable by his position regarding the origin of 

 man and hfe. He was the great theistic philosopher 

 of the scientific world in which he lived. He fought 

 with unflagging valour the suggestion that God was 

 not existent in nature ; seeing in every animate or 

 inanimate object an evidence of design, in the tracing 

 of every leaf the hand of the Omnipotent. He con- 

 tested without bigotry the views of Darwin and his 

 school until the very last, and died believing that 

 the advance of time and new discoveries would de- 

 monstrate that the mind in nature, which he clearly 

 saw, would be accepted. He was a noble and heroic 

 figure, one of the stepping-stones in the advance of 

 civilization. 



In the present volume I have not attempted an 

 elaborate analysis of his life and its effect upon the 

 scientific world, but rather a brief story of its salient 

 features, an impression of the good he accomplished, 

 hoping that younger readers, as well as those of 

 maturer years, may be tempted to emulate the les- 

 son his life presents. In the preparation of the 

 volume I am indebted to Mrs. Louis Agassiz for per- 

 mission to use certain material contained solely in 

 the Life of her husband, which must always remain 

 the authority on this subject ; to David Starr Jordan, 

 LL.D., President of Leland Stanford, Jr., University, 

 and to Professor Samuel Garman, of the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology, at Cambridge, for personal 

 incidents in the Hfe of Agassiz, and for suggestions 

 and advice. My thanks are also due the California 

 Academy of Sciences for permission to quote from 

 their memoirs, and to the Boston Natural History 



