At Penikese. 



177 



nature. Yet he had plans outlined that would have 

 required half the lifetime of an ordinary man to ac- 

 complish. As the winter came on he began a series 

 of lectures on the type of Radiates. At this time he 

 wrote and began the preparation of several articles 

 on the theories advanced by Darwin, and on the 2d 

 of December, 1873, he appeared before the people of 

 Fitchburg at a meeting of the Massachusetts Board 

 of Agriculture, lecturing on The structural growth 

 of domesticated animals.'' This was his last public 

 effort, yet while the audience was impressed with 

 his mental force and saw no lessening of the fires of 

 his genius, those who knew him best felt that he was 

 struggling against physical weakness. 



He often almost broke down in these last days 

 — the glint of the setting sun rested upon his face, 

 the shadow of the unknown was upon him. At 

 one time he said : I want rest ; I am ready to 

 go ; I am tired ! but I will work while I live ; while 

 I have strength I will labour." He desired to die in 

 the harness, and the end came when the great soul 

 was filled with thoughts for the advancement of 

 science and the intellectual elevation of mankind. 



To the immediate loved ones he spoke of weari- 

 ness, and finally on the 14th of December, 1873, laid 

 down the burden in the full confidence of a life well 

 spent, of a journey happily ended, leaving a mem- 

 ory and heritage as imperishable as the boulder from 

 the glacier of the Aar, that marks his grave at Mount 

 Auburn, or the great ice-river that bears his name in 

 the Alaskan mountains above the Malaspina glacier. 



The death of Agassiz, like that of Darwin, created 

 12 



