CHAPTER XXI. 



RELIGIOUS BELIEF. 



Friendship for Darwin — Opposition to his Theories — Letter to Dr. 

 Wilder — Strong Religious Belief — Agassiz on Evolution— Last 

 Literary Work in Opposition to Darwin's Theory — A Definition 

 of Classification — Evidences of Religious Thoughts — Denounced 

 as an Atheist — The Lectures at the Academy of Music. 



Professor Burt G. Wilder : I have read both volumes 

 of Darwin's Descent of Man, which he sent himself 

 with some very pleasant words. You know that 

 we are truly friends, much as we differ in views.'* 

 Both men believed in a Creator ; but Darwin rarely 



GASSIZ was the great theis- 

 tic philosopher of the age 

 in which he lived, and an 

 account of his life would 

 be incomplete without 

 some reference to his op- 

 position to the theories 

 advanced by Charles Dar- 

 win, in which is outlined 

 his strong religious belief. 

 Between the two men ex- 

 isted the kindest of feeling. 

 In 1 87 1 Agassiz wrote to 



