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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1878)
in mn ! mi inn ii, ,, , mmnmim3SSnmmBmumakz No. G. 1'noFESsou Louis Agassi. 409 world culls wealth, depending much up on the government nnd private individu als to carry on his work, 3'et he might have been otherwise; for the most lucra tive positions were open to him. The business world was anxious to claim his clear braiu, untiring energy and unswerv ing integrity. The people of cither continent would gladly have listened to the thruths that fell from his silvery tongue. But to all these offers and invitation? he replied, " I have no time to make money." What an answer! An answer that speaks volumes concerning his idea of life. Surrounded by a people whose highest aim was the accumulation of wealth, he towers so far above them that their strong est desires were those that concern him least. I would not condemn this desire for wealth, yet I must honor a man who can rise above this universal passion and is willing to give his life work to the cause of science. His generous nature prevented his interest from being local, but wherever there was a scientific truth to be discovered or an inquirer after truth, there he was interested. The great mission of his life seemed ever before him. lie seemed to see the never ending book of nature spread out and inviting to read, yet to the world a scaled book, scaled because written in an unknown tongue. Agassis chose the study of this lan guage as his life work and was permitted to read a few of the truths which it re corded. In the stone-cut record of the Alpine hills he (races back for ages u part of the world's history, and establish cs the present glacier theory. The earth yields up to him her buried treasures, and from bones, petrcfled wood, and im pressions upon rocks he reads the world's history; revealing to us the different stu ges through which the earth has passed, and an immense variety of plants and animals now to us unknown. The true spirit of the man is strikingly displayed in the first line of his will. It begins thus, " Louis Agassiz, teacher." Here we see America's greatest scientist, and one upon whom English Universities have conferred their greatest titles, claim ing only that of teacher. What a noble man to head that list! He was indeed the greatest living teacher, "The Prince of Teachers." He was a great revolutionist, strongly opposing our common methods of study. Nature furnished his books, and his stud cuts were brought face to face with the great truths which they were to study. He did not say, go and study yonder cliff, but come with me and vend the works of nature, and by the aid of his guidance, and enthusiasm, nature was seen in all her beauty. Prof. Agassiz's religious views were worth' of so great a man. It seems to be considered by many that science and religion are incompatible; or when a man becomes skilled in science, he outgrows his religion. Hut Agassiz was a living witness that "Truth is perilous never to the true, nor wisdom to the wise." Too often, when by an expanse of mind man is permitted to grapple with the great problems of nature, the " ego" in him to such proportion grows, that he oversteps his bounds and tries to fathom God, and with the finite measure infinite- But Agassiz contrasted the little he knew with infinity and in the dust adored. In perhaps the last article that he ever wrote, and in which he presents some or the most conclusive arguments against Darwinism, he says, " It cannot be too soon understood that science is one, and that whether we investigate philosophy, theology, history or physics, we are deal ing with the same truth culminating in ourselves." The world to him was full of beauty Even the little jelly forms of life which the world passes without a notice, or turns from in -disgust, were to him full of interest, and he says: "These are the thoughts of the Almighty." If he saw such beauty in these lowest forms of life, Pf
