222 



Louis Agassiz. 



He has not lived to see it. For a quarter of a 

 century he has fought to obtain the means to perfect 

 it, and has really succeeded as no other man upon 

 this continent could have hoped for. But he has 

 infused among our people the sentiment of more 

 liberal assistance to science, and the full fruition of 

 his labour will come to his successors. 



It seems a marvel how much of the enthusiasm 

 and industry of Agassiz has been developed among 

 those who have studied or come in contact with him. 

 If there were any that became weary with the heat 

 and burthen of the day, they have dropped by the 

 wayside. The young, the earnest, the ambitious, 

 are scattered over the globe, searching, working, and 

 studying to increase our knowledge. The men of 

 mark who have been students under him are not 

 few ; although, perhaps, differing from many of his 

 views, they are working with his indomitable ardour. 



From him they have learned that their real student 

 life but just commences when they quit the college 

 halls for the broader and more suggestive fields 

 where animal life exhibits itself in a thousand new 

 relations, and suggests new methods and solutions. 



In the last quarter of a century there has arisen 

 in America a large body of the ablest naturalists, 

 geologists, and palaeontologists ; and I attribute the 

 thoroughness of their investigations, their enthusiasm 

 and success, to the direct and reflected example 

 of Agassiz. 



But the impetus which he gave to the interesting 

 study of natural history, to fossil ichthyology, to 

 geology, and especially to glacial action, had its effect 



