176 



Louis Agassiz, 



highest mind. You should never trifle with Nature. 

 At the lowest her works are the works of the highest 

 powers, the highest something in whatever way we 

 may look at it.'* 



'^A laboratory of natural history is a sanctuary 

 where nothing profane should be tolerated. I feel 

 less angry at improprieties in church than in a scien- 

 tific laboratory.** 



" In Europe I have been accused of taking my 

 scientific ideas from the Church. In America I have 

 been called a heretic, because I would not let my 

 church-going friends pat me on the head.** 



The Penikese school existed in Agassiz. It was 

 his personality which made it a success, his great 

 genius that made it possible; and as the students 

 separated in the autumn, all felt that a fresh impetus 

 had been given to biological study, a stimulus that 

 has found expression in later years in the establish- 

 ment of various marine laboratories in various parts 

 of this country and Europe. 



In the autumn Agassiz returned to the museum and 

 the contemplation of new work, made possible by the 

 grant of one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars 

 by the Legislature, one hundred thousand of which 

 was considered as a birthday gift to the scientist, to 

 be used as he willed in the cause of the museum, — a 

 contrast indeed to his experience in former years 

 when he pleaded and used all his eloquence to secure 

 the necessary appropriations to insure the preserva- 

 tion of his growing collections. 



It was very evident to the friends of the naturalist 

 that his strength was failing, that he had overtaxed 



