i8o 



Louis Agassiz. 



if ever referred to religion in his works, directly or 

 indirectly, while with Agassiz the reverse holds. 

 He believed that the theories of Darwin were in- 

 compatible with a belief in an all-wise Creator, and 

 he combated them with all his power, his attitude 

 upon this question being one of the most interesting 

 features of his career. 



Agassiz always stood by the tenets of his religious 

 belief. Everything in nature was suggestive of the 

 bounty, the wisdom of a living God, and any theory, 

 any belief that threw a shadow of doubt upon this 

 was looked upon as a sacrilege. In brief, these two 

 great minds, while working for a common object, 

 were diametrically opposed on many points. Dar- 

 win's great theories, which aroused such fierce an- 

 tagonism throughout the world, found no stronger 

 antagonist and critic than Agassiz, who even to 

 the last stood by his convictions. Both men were 

 great ; both possessed of a divine genius. They were 

 born and equipped for great deeds and accomplish- 

 ments, antagonistic to each other yet each imbued 

 with highest respect for the attainments of the other. 



What a set of men you have at Harvard ! " said 

 Darwin to Longfellow. Both our universities put 

 together cannot furnish the like. Why, there is 

 Agassiz, — he counts for three.'* And of Darwin 

 personally Agassiz had none but good words, though 

 he vigorously opposed the acceptance of his ideas. 



Darwin believed that man is the result of develop- 

 ment and the highest form of the animal kingdom 

 of to-day, and that in all probability he was or is 

 a descendant or rather an ascendant of a Simian 



