Louis Agassiz

“ On December 14, 1873, Louis Agassiz died at Cambridge, in the shadow of the walls of the great University [Pg 55] of which he had become so loyal a member. Above his grave a simple granite boulder from the glacier of the Aar, sent by loving friends in the land of his birth, gives in its brief inscription the name of a man whom the United States proudly claims as citizen, and whom the world honors as a man. ”

“ Agassiz deserves a large page in the annals of science, while as an enthusiastic student of nature and as one who communicated her enthusiasm to her students, and at the same time held up before them the highest ideals of womanhood, she is sure of a portion of that immortality which has been decreed to her illustrious life-partner, Jean Louis Agassiz. ”

“ I wish it may be said of Louis Agassiz that he was the first naturalist of his time, a good citizen, and a good son, beloved by those that knew him. I feel within myself the strength of a whole generation to work toward this end, and I will reach it if the means are not wanting. ”

“ America is no longer behind the nations of Europe in the number of its scientific workers, but among them all are none to take the places left vacant by Agassiz and Newcomb.
Alexander Agassiz was endowed at birth with the heritage of his great father, Louis Agassiz, whose work at Harvard he carried forward. Born in Switzerland, he came to the United States in 1849 at the age of fourteen and graduated from Harvard College in 1855, continuing graduate studies in mining and chemistry in the Lawrence Scientific School. ”

“ No one will deny to Louis Agassiz a prominent place among these immortals—these “names that were not born to die.” So recently a living force among us, the echoes of eulogy still linger with us. With many a reader of The Chautauquan his name is doubtless a household word. Not for these, but for the younger class of readers, we gather from our scrap book something about the eminent naturalist, which they may not have met with elsewhere—something perhaps that may awaken the desire to know more of him. It is to be regretted that we have not yet a complete biography of so remarkable a man. ”

“ THE influence which Louis Agassiz had in the development of American science is to be estimated not by his published works, but by the enthusiasm he instilled into all who came under his instruction. In the years from 1861 to 1864 there were gathered at Cambridge as his pupils eight men, each of whom has made a name for himself in science. These eight were Alexander Agassiz, Alpheus Hyatt, Edward Sylvester Morse, Alpheus Spring Packard, Frederick Ward Putnam, Samuel Hubbard Scudder, Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, and Addison Emory Verrill. ”

“ It would be a mistake, however, to let it appear that nine months of collecting with Louis Agassiz were nine months wasted. There are some men whom it is an education to work under, even though the affair in hand be foreign to one's ultimate concern. Agassiz was such an one, "recognized by all as one of those naturalists in the unlimited sense, one of those folio-copies of mankind, like Linnæus and Cuvier." Thirty years after, James could still say of him: "Since Benjamin Franklin we had never had among us a person of more popularly impressive type.... ”

“ Agassiz had gradually gathered about him, chiefly from among his more special students, a staff of assistants who were familiar with his plans and shared his enthusiasm. To these young friends he was warmly attached. It would be impossible to name them all, but the knot of younger men who were for years his daily associates in scientific work, whose sympathy and cooperation he so much valued, and who are now in their turn growing old in the service of science, will read the roll-call between the lines, and know that none are forgotten here. ”

“ The citizens of his adopted town expressed their appreciation of his loyalty to them in a warm letter of thanks, begging, at the same time, his acceptance of the sum of six thousand francs, payable by installments during three years.
The summer of 1837 was a sad one to Agassiz and to his whole family; his father died at Concise, carried off by a fever while still a comparatively young man. The pretty parsonage, to which they were so much attached, passed into other hands, and thenceforward the home of Madame Agassiz was with her children, among whom she divided her time. ”

“ I act oftener than I answer. I know that I like to do good, and this consciousness gives me tranquillity in spite of my over burdened life. You are happy, my dear Agassiz, in the more simple and yet truly proud position which you have created for yourself. You ought to take satisfaction in it as the father of a family, as an illustrious savant, as the originator and source of so many new ideas, of so many great and noble conceptions.
Your admirable work on the fossil fishes draws to a close. ”

“ But as I had been among men who had a free swing, and for a year among people who seemed to me to be cold and super-rational, hungry as I doubtless was for human sympathy, Agassiz's welcome went to my heart—I was at once his captive. It has been my good chance to see many men of engaging presence and ways, but I have never known his equal. ”

“ I approve highly the Neuchatel plan, and hope, in case of need, to contribute to its success. One must aim at a settled position in life.
Pray excuse, Madame, the brevity of these lines, and accept the assurance of my respectful regard.
HUMBOLDT. The letter which lifted such a load of care from Louis and his parents was as follows:—
HUMBOLDT TO LOUIS AGASSIZ. PARIS, March 27, 1832.
I am very uneasy, my dearest M. Agassiz, at being still without any letter from Cotta. Has he been prevented from writing by business, or illness perhaps? You know how tardy he always is about writing. ”

“ After the birth of her son, sorrow came upon the family, for the heavy expenses demanded by the publication of Louis Agassiz's numerous elaborate monographs with their hundreds of illustrations had exhausted not only their author's means, but had drained the resources of the entire community of Neuchâtel in so far as they could be enlisted for the cause of science. Thus in March, 1846, Louis Agassiz was forced to leave Neuchâtel, and to begin the long journey toward America, where he found a wider field for his great endeavors. ”

“ At Cambridge, Professor Sedgwick said, "Give my love to Agassiz. Give him the blessing of an old man." In London, Sir Roderick Murchison said, "I have known a great many men that I liked; but I LOVE Agassiz." In the Isle of Wight, Darwin said, "What a set of men you have in Cambridge! Both our universities put together cannot furnish the like. Why, there is Agassiz,—he counts for three." ”

“ HUMBOLDT TO LOUIS AGASSIZ. BERLIN, August 15, 1840.
I am the most guilty of mortals, my dear friend. There are not three persons in the world whose remembrance and affection I value more than yours, or for whom I have a warmer love and admiration, and yet I allow half the year to pass without giving you a sign of life, without any expression of my warm gratitude for the magnificent gifts I owe to you.* (* Probably the plates of the "Fresh-Water Fishes" and other illustrated publications.) ”

“ But if Agassiz, in order to develop independence and accuracy of observation, threw his students on their own resources at first, there was never a more generous teacher in the end than he. All his intellectual capital was thrown open to his pupils. His original material, his unpublished investigations, his most precious specimens, his drawings and illustrations were at their command. This liberality led in itself to a serviceable training, for he taught them to use with respect the valuable, often unique, objects entrusted to their care. ”

“ When the task of helping was done, then Agassiz skilfully came to the point of his business—the skeletons—and this so dexterously and sympathetically, that the men were, it seemed, ready to turn over the living as well as the dead beasts for his service. I have seen a lot of human doing, much of it critically as actor or near observer, but this was in many ways the greatest. ”

“ They accepted and ascended to Fort Garry. Agassiz, full of scientific enthusiasm, wrote out his theory about the prehistoric lake. And science, now, the world over, calls the Red River Valley, "Lake Agassiz." With Louis Agassiz was his son Alexander, a fine young man with pedagogic bent, headed for his father's place as Curator of the Museum at Harvard. [Pg 420]
From Winnipeg the party was supplied an Indian guide, who took them across to Lake Superior. ”

“ One of the brightest and greatest of men I know in this nation [Louis Agassiz] , a man who, perhaps, has done as much for its intellectual life as any other, told me not many months ago that he had made it the rule of his life to abandon any intellectual pursuit the moment it became commercially valuable ”

“ As the distance and expense made it impossible for Agassiz to spend his vacations with his family in Switzerland, it soon became the habit for him to pass the holidays with his new friend at Carlsruhe. For a young man of his tastes and acquirements a more charming home-life than the one to which he was here introduced can hardly be imagined. The whole atmosphere was in harmony with the pursuits of the students. ”

“ Agassiz has accustomed his listeners were found in the opening prelude; the fullness and freedom of expression which give to his lectures the character of a scientific causerie; the dignified ease of bearing, joined with the simplicity and candor of a savant who teaches neither by aphorisms nor oracles, but who frankly admits the public to the results of his researches; the power of generalization always based upon a patient study of facts, which he knows how to present with remarkable clearness in a language that all can understand. ”

“ The hopes Agassiz had formed of this expedition, as high as those of any young explorer, were only partially fulfilled. His enthusiasm, though it had the ardor of youth, had none of its vagueness. In a letter to Mr. Peirce, published in the Museum Bulletin at this time, there is this passage: "If this world of ours is the work of intelligence and not merely the product of force and matter, the human mind, as a part of the whole, should so chime with it, that from what is known it may reach the unknown. ”

“ In this conviction he remained unshaken all his life, although the development theory came up for discussion under so many various aspects during that time. His views are now in the descending scale; but to give them less than their real prominence here would be to deprive his scientific career of its true basis. Belief in a Creator was the keynote of his study of nature.
In summing up the comprehensive results of Agassiz's paleontological researches, and especially of his "Fossil Fishes," Arnold Guyot says:* (* See "Biographical Memoir of Louis Agassiz" page 28.) ”

“ When he was ten years old, Agassiz was sent to the college for boys at Bienne, thus exchanging the easy rule of domestic instruction for the more serious studies of a public school. He found himself on a level with his class, however, for his father was an admirable teacher. Indeed it would seem that Agassiz's own passion for teaching, as well as his love of young people and his sympathy with intellectual aspiration everywhere, was an inheritance. Wherever his father was settled as pastor, at Motier, at Orbe, and later at Concise, his influence was felt in the schools as much as in the pulpit. ”

“ Please give a biographical sketch of Professor Agassiz.
R. A. Coats.
Answer.—Louis John Rudolf Agassiz, the son of a Swiss Protestant clergyman, was born near Lake Neuchatel, May 28, 1807. After completing his academical course, he studied medicine at Zurich, Heidelberg, and Munich, preparatory to becoming a physician. Meanwhile Spix and Martins had returned from Brazil with a valuable collection of fossil fishes ”

“ A serious calamity at this time threatened Agassiz; his eyesight became seriously impaired, and he was obliged to live in a darkened room and to desist from writing for several months, which precautions effected a cure. In 1833 he married Cecile Braun, sister of his friend Alexander Braun, and established his household at Neuchâtel. Trained to scientific drawing by her brothers, his wife was of the greatest assistance to Agassiz, some of the most beautiful plates in "Fossil" and "Fresh-Water Fishes" being drawn by her. ”

“ During his sojourn at Bex, Agassiz's intellect and imagination had been deeply stirred by the glacial phenomena. In the winter of 1837, on his return to Neuchatel, he investigated anew the slopes of the Jura, and found that the facts there told the same story. Although he resumed with unabated ardor his various works on fishes, radiates, and mollusks, a new chapter of nature was all the while unfolding itself in his fertile brain. ”

“ AGASSIZ TO THE PRINCE OF CANINO. NEUCHATEL, April, 1843.
. . .I have worked like a slave all winter to finish my fossil fishes; you will presently receive my fifteenth and sixteenth numbers, forwarded two days since, with more than forty pages of text, containing many new observations. I shall allow myself no interruption until this work is finished, hoping thereby to obtain a little freedom, for if my position here is not changed I shall be forced to seek the means of existence elsewhere. Meantime, extravagant projects present themselves, as is apt to be the case when one is in difficulties. ”

“ As a teacher he always discriminated between the special student, and the one to whom he cared to impart only such a knowledge of the facts of nature, as would make the world at least partially intelligible to him. To a school of young girls he did not think of teaching technical science, and yet the subjects of his lectures comprised very abstruse and comprehensive questions. It was the simplicity and clearness of his method which made them so interesting to his young listeners. "What I wish for you," he would say, "is a culture that is alive, active, susceptible of farther development. ”