Volume I Part 7 (2/2)
His friendshi+ps were of the most constant because of this temper, and it was only their serenity and alid to those whose te, injustice to nation,--he could be hot enough on occasion; though the quiet warmth of his affection for his friends was like the sun of May But undoubtedly his greater passion was for the truth in whatever form he could find it
Of all theelse survives with the vividness of ht I had of hiypt, he ca the decay of age, but as alert and interrogative as ever with his insatiate intellectual activity And as I look back froether, he rises above all his conte peaks when seen froest inthe space of some of his companions, even in our little assemblies Emerson was the best listener I ever knew, and at the other -place where I saw him occasionally, the Saturday Club, his attention to what others were saying was far more notable than his disposition to enter into the discussions Now and then he flashed out with a coht, but in general he shone unconsciously I re the nature of genius, some one turned to E, and he instantly replied, ”The faculty of generalizing froood and concise a definition There is a portrait of him by Roho knew and loved him well, which renders this side of Emerson in a way that makes it theEmerson
His insatiability in the study of human nature was shown curiously in our first summer's camp He had the utmost tenderness of animal life and had no sympathy with sport in any forun,”--and erehe at first refused to take a rifle; but, as the discussion of make, calibre, and quality went on, and everybody else was provided, he at length decided, though no shot, to conform, and purchased a rifle
And when the routine of caerness of the hunters and the passion of the chase, the strong return to our heredity of huradually involved him, and made him desire to enter into this experience as well as the rest of the forest emotions He must understand this passion to kill
One Sunday , when all the others went out for the drive of the deer,--necessary for the larder, as the drive the day before had failed,--Emerson asked me to take him out on the lake to some quiet place for meditation We landed in a deep bay, where the seclusion was most complete, and he went into the woods toof the hound as he circled round the lake, on the hillsides, for the deer at that season were reluctant to take to the water, and gave a long chase; and, as he listened, he began to take in the exciteo after the deer;” and down the lake ent, flying at our best, but we arrived too late,--Lowell had killed the deer
He said to ht ent out ”jack-hunting” to enable hi, as , much employed by the hunters for the market, and so destructive to the deer that it is now forbidden by the law in all the Adirondack country The deer are stalked by night along the shores, where they coht so shaded that it illulare blinding the animal so that he does not see the boat or the boatman In this way the deer may be approached within a few yards if the paddler is skillful; but as he stands perfectly still, and is difficult to see in the dienerally misses hiuide gave the signal to shoot; but E a deer, and finally the creature took fright and ran, and all we got of hi a moment, when at a safe distance, to snort at the intruders, and then off again We kept on, and presently came upon another, tohich we drifted even nearer than to the first one, and still Euish the deer fro which he stood; and ere scarcely the boat's length fro still unable to see hi hi drive was always uncertain, I shot him We had no other opportunity for the ”jack-hunt,” and so Elad, no doubt, when he recalled the incident, that he had failed
The guides--rude h and illiterate, but with all their physical faculties at a maximum acuteness, senses on the alert and keen as no townsman could comprehend them--were Emerson's avid study This he had never seen,--the man at his simplest terms, unsophisticated, and, to hie he would ever be able to examine; and he studied every action
When the dinner was over, and the twilight co on, he sohtfall and watch the ”procession of the pines,” that weird and ghostly phenoeneration has passed since then Twenty-five years afterward I went back to the scene of theExcept myself, the whole co has disappeared down to its geological basis, pillaged, burnt, and beco the e of E kinshi+p with the forest stands out alone, and I feel as if I had stood for a uration, and seen, as if in a vision, the typical American, the noblest in the idealization of the American, of all the race Loas of a e of sympathies and affections, accepted and bestowed, and to me a friend, loved as Jonathan loved David; but, as a unique, idealized individuality, Emerson looms up in that Arcadian dream more and more the dominant personality It is as character, and not as accomplishment or education, that he holds his own in all comparisons with his contemporaries, the fine, crystallized mind, the keen, clear-faceted thinker and seer I loved assiz and Lowell, but we shall have ain Attainreater, and discovery and accoo on, but to _be_, as Eassiz was, of all our coed master; loved by all, even to the unlettered woodsmen, who ran to meet his service as to no other of the company; by all the est in personality and in universality of knowledge of all the men I have ever known No one who did not know him personally can conceive the hold he had on everybody who came into relations with him His vast command of scientific facts, and his ready command of them for all educational purposes, his enthusias way of i it to others, had even less to do with his popularity than the netism of his presence and the sympathetic faculty which enabled him to find at once the plane on which he should meet whomever he had to deal with Of his scientific position I cannot speak, though I can see that his was the most powerful of the scientific influences of that epoch in A it was always in ations prompted, wherever there seemed to be a proed and netted water and air wherever ent, and of course there arose a certain kind of intimacy, which was partly that of a _camaraderie_ in which ere approximately equals, that of the backwoods life in which I was, if a comparison were to be made, the superior, and partly that of teacher and pupil; for, with trifling attainments, I had the passion of scientific acquisition, and all that Agassiz needed to open the store of his knowledge was the willingness of another to learn
The _odium scientificuicuassiz the floods of its opprobrius of physical science bark at his nareater contemporaries knew and esteemed him better The revival of the evolutionary hypothesis by Darwin, and the controversies growing out of it, then filled the air, and Agassiz paid the penalty of his erounded by his master, Cuvier He was attacked and insulted by men who had never made an observation, and, as ical prejudices of the past But in ical persecution of hiht be considered the forerunner of the doctrine of evolution,--the declaration that the hu of one Ada The result of this was to bring on his head the execrations of the theological world in a storet or take for other than what it was, the proof of his absolute scientific honesty,--a proof needed by no one who knew him personally, but which, in view of the later animosity shown him, requires reaffirmation
As I was much with him at this time, and perhaps, out of his fareatest freedo to my own intense interest in it, it cannot be amiss that I state his exact position as far as he let me see it It must be remembered that the doctrine of evolution, as he knew it, and in the only form in which it was then stated, was simply and purely that of develop on chance variation, and differingbeen rejected by the scientific world at large We have seen since then that this priely suppleer stands before the scientific world in the bare sih even he, at a later date, claimed natural selection not as the only but as the ency of variation of species in creation; repudiating, however, a plan in the universe, and not deassiz's primary objection to the doctrine was that it left the creator out of creation, for it distinctly repudiated the elenize the Creator of Genesis, he could not dispense with the supreme mind
Myself a convert to the doctrine of evolution, in as absolute a forh differently, I ah to see the latest development of it he would have accepted it, as did Professor Oas, like Agassiz, and possibly even ner of the universe The fundaassiz's rejection of it is stated by hie, as follows: ”I believe that all these correspondences between the different aspects of ani consciously with intention towards one object fro to end This view is in accordance with the working of our nition of aitself in nature For this reason, more than any other, perhaps, do I hold that this world of ours was not the result of the action of unconscious organic forces, but the work of an intelligent, conscious power” Whatever ht have been the process by which the orderly creation was produced (into which he did not inquire), it was the result of a definite plan and the work of design
The iical consequence of this theory, and that, it seems to me, is the substantial difference between hiassiz was no sectarian, and held no other creed than a belief in the Creator In the fibre of the man was the consciousness of the immanent deity, rooted, perhaps, in that influence of his early theological environage froainst it; and the almost universal deduction by the scientific world fron in creation It was this negation of the direction of the great artist in the process of creation against which Agassiz rebelled; and although, at a later phase of the conflict, Darwin hiainst the implication sometimes drawn from his theory, there can be no question that at that eneral evolutionary opinion was that the hypothesis of a divine authorshi+p of creation was superfluous Agassiz maintained the presence of ”Conscious Mind in Creation;” Darwin did not deny it explicitly, nor did he admit it
As a matter of observation, no case of a development of one species from another has ever been noted, and the evidence for it is precisely analogous to that adduced by Agassiz, ”that it is in accordance with the working of our hts which science has thrown on it since Agassiz died The ulti to the bias for or against the ”conscious otten that one of the e evolution was the discovery by Agassiz that the eh an evolution similar to that of the ani French scientist and an evolutionist--says of Agassiz: ”Another of these precursors of assiz The oldest fossil foranization than the later ones, and represent soe of the embryonic developassiz, has, htened the history of creation, and prepared for the generalization by which the whole may be comprehended The oldest fishes known are all more or less related to the sharks and skates; their teeth and scales only, with small portions of the skeleton, have been preserved Their for species, recalls that of the eassiz was the first to proclaiine du Monde organique_]
But, beyond this question as to the evidence of assiz did not find, he took the position ”that the hypothesis of the method of creation by evolution exceeded physical science and becay, into which he had no intention of venturing” That was his state the interval between the two attacks of brain trouble fro, was observation and classification, arrange the causes or _s becast the evolutionists whom I have known there have been several who did not accept without modification the theory of natural selection, and supplereat Auished of Darwinians,--who accepted the method of evolution as the _ence Professor Jeffries Wyassiz in the University, as one of the doctors of our Adirondack company, accepted in a qualified manner the theory of evolution, but his premature and lamented death set the seal to his conclusions before they were coh I have always had the impression that his position was similar to that of Gray To my question one day as to his conclusions, he replied, with a caution characteristic of the assiz before the question which the Sphinx proposes still, ”An evolution of so more would he say The loss to American science in his death can never be estimated, for his mind was of that subtle and inductive nature which is needed for such a study, fine to poetic delicacy, penetrating with all the acuination, but assiz that he would with reluctance give expression to a difference froh that he did differ was no occasion for abateard Wyassiz's its prose, and they offered a remarkable example of ht have been expected through their association in study
Wyanization, wedded unfortunately to a fragile constitution, but the friendshi+p he held for the robust and doreat Switzer was to the utenerous as large He had absolutely no scientific jealousy or sectarian feeling The rancor which was shown him by some of the Darwinians never disturbed his serenity an instant; for of the world's opinion of him and his ideas, even when the ”world” was scientific, he never took account other than to regret that science was the loser, by running off on what he considered side issues We had much conversation on the question of evolution and allied topics, in which my part was naturally that of listener and only occasional questioner, and I remember the warm appreciation he always expressed for Darwin and his researches, for his fineness of observation and scientific honesty He regarded the widespread acceptance of the theory of natural selection as one of the epidemics which have swept the scientific world from time to time, and looked with absolute serenity to the return of science one day to the conception of creation by design
I aassiz as a scientist, or institute any kind of comparison of his relative authority, and probably the time is far away at which his comparative eminence can be estimated impartially I have only to do with his personality as it appeared to me in our relations, and, as the latest survivor of those who enjoyed that greenwood intireat, lovable, enerosity and indifference to personal advantage, his freedom from scientific jealousy, everybody who came in contact with him itness He refused all offers of es for the aggrandizereat natural-history e The propositions of the Emperor Napoleon III he had declined with thanks as soon as ht He had come to America to study natural history, and did not propose to be diverted froent who offered hi a course of lectures in the principal cities of the Union, he replied that he had no time to make money; and he died of overwork, insatiate in the pursuit of the completion of his museum and the classification of his observations I have heard him speak with pain of the anilacial investigations, who had once been his warm advocate, but there was no bitterness in his manner I am convinced that there was no bitterness in hi was overshadowed and minimized by his absolute devotion to scientific truth, with his loyalty to which nothing ever interfered
His influence even on the business islature of the State of Massachusetts was the most real and matter-of-fact community, for he had only to announce that he wanted for his museum or department in the University a donation or an appropriation, to obtain either, so absolutely recognized was his unselfish devotion to science by all classes There are few of us left who can remember the sudden shadow that fell on our corief that told of the hold he had on the entire nation; and theextended far beyond the circle of personal acquaintance with Agassiz Even men who had no interest in physical science took it into consideration on account of him, carried away by his enthusiastic advocacy of its advancenation at his repudiation of Adae it found froence, as Creator of all things, though to theological contentions he never gave the slightest consideration
It is needless to say that this was the effect, not of scientific education or of the capacity in the great e of a theory or a scientific line of demonstration, but of the dominance of personal character in the man, his inflexible honesty and disinterestedness The last tilen of the White Mountains, where I was enca, and which was in part colacier, and brought, perhaps, from beyond Lake Superior He had then had the first attack of the brain trouble, fro a mountain trip where he could, if possible, study and rest at once But his want of coard to overwork prevented his recovery, and he died just as he was beginning to elaborate his conclusions on the doctrine of evolution, for which he had a colossal plan, cut short in its opening He was always too hurried in his work, as if he knew that his life would not suffice for its completion, if indeed completion were possible in such work, and he persisted in accumulation of material without pause either to coordinate his ideas or to rest and reflect I one day said to hi to write a little book, and he exclaimed: ”Oh, I wish I had tie, and I have not the time to condense them”
CHAPTER XIV
LOWELL