1 84 



Louis Agassiz. 



most direct indication of some of these relations, 

 always appreciable under every circumstance, other 

 considerations should not be neglected which may 

 complete our insight into the general plan of 

 creation." 



With the types which he termed embryonic he 

 recognises others which he called prophetic. He 

 thus writes in his essay on Classification : 



I confess that this question as to the nature and 

 foundation of our scientific classifications appears to 

 me to have the deepest importance ; an importance 

 far greater, indeed, than is usually attached to it. If 

 it can be proved that man has not invented but only 

 traced this systematic arrangement in nature ; that 

 these relations and proportions which exist through- 

 out the animal and vegetable world have an intel- 

 lectual, an ideal, connection in the mind of the Crea- 

 tor ; that this plan of creation, which so commends 

 itself to our highest wisdom, has not grown out of 

 the necessary action of physical laws, but was the 

 free conception of the Almighty Intellect, matured 

 in His thought before it was manifested in tangible 

 external forms ; if, in short, we can prove pre^nedita- 

 tion prior to the act of creation, we have done once 

 and forever with the desolate theory which refers us 

 to the laws of matter as accounting for all the 

 wonders of the universe, and leaves us with no God 

 but the monotonous unvarying action of physical 

 forces, binding all things to their inevitable 

 destiny. . . . 



"To me it appears indisputable that this order 

 and arrangement of our studies are based upon the 



