212 



Louis Agassiz. 



umes being issued, these remaining as monuments to 

 his energy and fame. The titles are : An Essay on 

 Classification^ North American Testudinata^ The 

 Embryology of Turtles^ and The Acalephs. 



If we were to select any of Agassiz's books as re- 

 presenting his best work and happiest expression, 

 this might well be the above-mentioned, as in the 

 various essays are found some of his best thoughts, 

 showing his rare intellectual development. Referring 

 to this, Theodore Lyman says : *^ To properly appre- 

 ciate this masterly disquisition, it must be remem- 

 bered that Agassiz had always a metaphysical mind, 

 and one in which the idea of intelligent power was 

 a ground principle. Although he had not accepted 

 the results of Oken, he heartily admired his spirit, 

 and ever spoke of him with pleasure. Indeed, he 

 may be said to have adopted the method of Cuvier 

 and the inspiration of Oken. Advancing from this 

 point Agassiz interprets the phenomena of Not-self 

 by those of Self. The last paper that came from 

 his hand, ' Evolution and Permanence of Type,' has 

 this sentence : 'It cannot be too soon understood that 

 science is one ; and that, whether we investigate lan- 

 guage, philosophy, theology, history, or physics, we are 

 dealing with the same problem, culminating in the 

 knowledge of ourselves' The human mind is for him 

 an entity in accord with the creating spirit, and 

 capable therefore of studying and appreciating crea- 

 tion. This study and this appreciation he considers 

 science ; and he finds in the animal kingdom the 

 physical expression of various intellectual operations, 

 some sharply defined and some shadowy, some 



