results of scientific investigation in a popular form,
made a vivid impression upon the Boston public. All his lecture courses
were largely attended. These and his continued presence among us gave a
new impetus to the study of natural science. In his hands the record of
the bones and fossils became a living language, and the common thought
was enriched by the revelation of the wonders of the visible universe.
Agassiz's was an expansive nature, and his great delight lay in
imparting to others the discoveries in which he had found such intense
pleasure. This sympathetic trait relieved his discourse of all dryness
and dullness. In his college days he had employed his hour of
intermission at noon in explaining the laws of botany to a class of
little children. When required to furnish a thesis at the close of his
university course, he chose for his theme the proper education of women,
and insisted that it ought not to be inferior to that given to men.

I need hardly relate how a most happy marriage in later life made him
one of us, nor how this opened the way to the establishment in his house
of a school whose girl pupils, in addition to other valuable
instruction, enjoyed daily the privilege of listening to his clear and
lucid exposition of the facts and laws of his favorite science.

His memory is still bright among us. The story of his life and work is
beautifully told in the "Life and Correspondence" published soon after
his death by his widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, well known to-day
as the president of Radcliffe College. His children and grandchildren
are among our most valued citizens. His son, Professor Alexander
Agassiz, inherits his father's devotion to science, while his daughter,
Mrs. Quincy Shaw, has shown her public spirit in her great services to
the cause of education. An enduring monument to his fame is the
Cambridge Museum of Comparative Zooelogy, and I am but one of many still
surviving who recall with gratitude the enlargement of intellectual
interest which he brought to our own and other communities.

Women who wish well to their own sex should never forget that, on the
occasion of his first lectures delivered in the capital of Brazil, he
earnestly requested the emperor that ladies might be allowed to be
present,--a privilege till then denied them on grounds of etiquette. The
request was granted, and the sacred domain of science for the first time
was thrown open to the women of South America.