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Louis Agassiz. 



to but one object ; to see him was to love him ; to 

 know him was to willingly promise service to science 

 for all time, and to feel amply repaid in fulfilling 

 that promise. 



Learned men and statesmen, and educated, 

 brilliant women had hung on his words, and had 

 paid the same tribute : all mourn with the same 

 sorrow. In our hearts he can never be forgotten ; 

 in the centuries hence, his influence and labours will 

 assure students there were intellectual giants in these 

 days. 



To others, more intimate with his daily life and 

 thoughts, must be left the analysis of that powerful 

 hold which he maintained on all classes of men. Sim- 

 plicity and purity of character, singleness of purpose, 

 directness, and comprehensiveness of the highest 

 order, were the bases for that subtle power which 

 gathered facts from observation, combined and cor- 

 related them, thence deduced order, and placed them 

 so lucidly and attractively before the learned and 

 unlearned. 



With the permission of the Academy, I make this 

 the occasion to say a few words upon the impetus, 

 direction, and steadily preserved influence which he 

 exerted upon scientific study in the United States ; 

 not only in his particular lines of investigation, but 

 upon every other branch of knowledge. In 1846, 

 fresh from contact with the advanced scientific men 

 of Europe, and endowed with the amplest powers of 

 body and mind, he saw and was delighted with the 

 broad and untrammelled field in the country of his 

 adoption. One rule he at once established for him- 



