Louis Agassiz. 



delivered by the Rev. R. C. Waterson and is as 

 follows : 



ADDRESS BY REV. R. C. WATERSON. 



At a meeting of the Boston Society of Natural 

 History, June, 1869, it was moved and voted that a 

 celebration of the Centennial Anniversary of the 

 birth of Alexander von Humboldt, by this Society, 

 is highly desirable. It was also suggested that Pro- 

 fessor Agassiz be invited to deliver an address upon 

 the occasion. The invitation was extended to Pro- 

 fessor Agassiz and accepted. Various circumstances 

 connected with that memorable occasion, at a time 

 like the present, come to the mind with peculiar 

 power. 



In Professor Agassiz's public address, his intro- 

 ductory remarks were, I am invited to an un- 

 wonted task. Thus far I have appeared before the 

 public only as a teacher of Natural History. To- 

 day, for the first time in my life, I leave a field in 

 which I am at home, to take upon myself the duties 

 of a biographer.'* 



Thus this Society had the privilege of inviting 

 Professor Agassiz to a duty (most nobly fulfilled), 

 which without this invitation in all probability he 

 would never have entered upon. That being, as he 

 himself expressed it, the first time in his life he had 

 undertaken such a task ; it was also, as we now 

 know, destined to be the last. This event which, 

 on every account, had great interest, for these 

 reasons possesses a solemn and sacred import. That 

 anniversary we would keep in grateful remem- 



