DEATH OF SIR ROGER

Heu pietas! heu prisca fides!

-Virg. Æn. VI. 878.

Mirror of ancient faith!

Undaunted worth! Inviolable truth!

-Dryden.

[With the punctuation, spelling, and capitalization of the original Spectator.]

WR

E LAST Night received a Piece of ill News at our Club which very sensibly afflicted every one of us. I question not but my Readers themselves will be troubled at the hearing of it. To keep them no longer in Suspense, Sir ROGER DE COVERLEY is dead. He departed this Life at his House in the Country after a few Weeks Sickness. Sir ANDREW FREEPORT has a Letter from one of his Correspondents in those Parts, that informs him the old Man caught a Cold at the County Sessions, as he was very warmly promoting an Address of his own penning, in which he succeeded according to his Wishes. But this Particular comes from a Whig-Justice of Peace, who was always Sir ROGER'S Enemy and Antagonist. I have Letters both from the Chaplain and Captain Sentry which mention nothing of it, but are filled with many Particulars to the Honour of the good old Man. I have likewise a Letter from the Butler, who took so much Care of me last Summer when I was at the Knight's House. As my Friend the Butler mentions, in the Simplicity of his Heart, several Circumstances the others have passed over in Silence, I shall give my Reader a Copy of his Letter without any Alteration or Diminution:

Honoured Sir:

Knowing that you was my old Master's good Friend, I could not forbear sending you the melancholy News of his Death, which has afflicted the whole Country, as well as his poor Servants, who loved him, I may say, better than we did our Lives. I am afraid he caught his Death at the last County Sessions, where he would go to see Justice done to a poor Widow Woman, and her Fatherless Children, that had been wronged by a neighbouring Gentleman; for you know, Sir, my good Master was always the poor Man's Friend. Upon his coming home, the first Complaint he made was, that he had lost his RoastBeef Stomach, not being able to touch a Sirloin, which was served

up according to Custom; and you know he used to take great Delight in it. From that time forward he grew worse and worse, but still kept a good Heart to the last. Indeed, we were once in great Hope of his Recovery, upon a kind Message that was sent him from the Widow Lady whom he had made love to the Forty last Years of his Life; but this only proved a Light'ning before Death. He has bequeathed to this Lady, as a token of his Love, a great Pearl Necklace, and a Couple of Silver Bracelets set with Jewels, which belonged to my good old Lady his Mother: He has bequeathed the fine white Gelding, that he used to ride a hunting upon, to his Chaplain, because he thought he would be kind to him, and has left you all his Books. He has, moreover, bequeathed to the Chaplain a very pretty Tenement with good Lands about it. It being a very cold Day when he made his Will, he left for Mourning, to every Man in the Parish, a great Frize-Coat, and to every Woman a black Riding-hood. It was a most moving Sight to see him take leave of his poor Servants, commending us all for our Fidelity, whilst we were not able to speak a Word for weeping. As we most of us are grown Gray-headed in our Dear Master's Service, he has left us Pensions and Legacies, which we may live very comfortably upon, the remaining part of our Days. He has bequeath'd a great deal more in Charity, which is not yet come to my Knowledge, and it is peremptorily said in the Parish, that he has left Mony to build a Steeple to the Church; for he was heard to say some time ago, that if he lived two Years longer, Coverly Church should have a Steeple to it. The Chaplain tells every body that he made a very good End, and never speaks of him without Tears. He was buried, according to his own Directions, among the Family of the Coverly's, on the Left Hand of his father Sir Arthur. The Coffin was carried by Six of his Tenants, and the Pall held up by Six of the Quorum: The whole Parish follow'd the Corps with heavy Hearts, and in their Mourning Suits, the Men in Frize, and the Women in Riding-Hoods. Captain SENTRY, my Master's Nephew, has taken Possession of the Hall-House and the whole Estate.

When my old Master saw him a little before his Death, he shook him by the Hand, and wished him Joy of the Estate which was falling to him, desiring him only to make good Use of it, and to pay the several Legacies, and the Gifts of Charity which he told him he had left as Quitrents upon the Estate. The Captain truly seems a courteous Man, though he says but little. He makes much of those whom my Master loved, and shows great Kindness to the old Housedog, that you know my poor Master was so fond of. It would have gone to your Heart to have heard the Moans the dumb Creature made on the Day of my Master's Death. He has ne'er joyed himself

since; no more has any of us.

'Twas the melancholiest Day for the poor People that ever happened in Worcestershire. This being all from,

Honoured Sir,

Your most Sorrowful Servant,

EDWARD BISCUIT.

P. S. My Master desired, some Weeks before he died, that a Book which comes up to you by the Carrier should be given to Sir Andrew Freeport, in his Name.

This Letter, notwithstanding the poor Butler's Manner of writing it, gave us such an Idea of our good old Friend, that upon the reading of it there was not a dry Eye in the Club. Sir Andrew opening the Book, found it to be a Collection of Acts of Parliament. There was in particular the Act of Uniformity, with some Passages in it marked by Sir Roger's own Hand. Sir Andrew found that they related to two or three Points, which he had disputed with Sir Roger the last time he appeared at the Club. Sir Andrew, who would have been merry at such an Incident on another Occasion, at the sight of the old Man's Hand-writing burst into Tears, and put the Book into his Pocket. Captain Sentry informs me, that the Knight has left Rings and Mourning for every one in the Club.

Complete. From the Spectator.

JEAN LOUIS RODOLPHE AGASSIZ

(1807-1873)

HE idea which gives Agassiz his distinct individuality as a
thinker belongs to the highest poetry of science.
He sug-

gests it in his essays on Classification by expressing his belief in the existence in every animal "of an immaterial principle similar to that which by its excellence and superior endowments places man so much above animals.» «The principle exists unquestionably," he adds, "and whether it be called soul, reason, or instinct, it presents in the whole range of organized beings a series of phenomena closely linked together and upon it are based not only the higher manifestations of the mind, but the permanence of the specific differences which characterize every organism."

This is the logical antithesis of the Darwinian hypothesis against which Agassiz was one of the few great scientists of Darwin s generation whose protest was unqualified. He made no concessions to it, declaring it inconceivable that any force of mere physical heredity supposable as innate in matter could transmit the life and the traits of one individual of a species to another.

He was the son of a Swiss clergyman, and was born May 28th, 1807, in his father's parish of Motier. Educated at Lausanne, Zurich, Heidelberg, and Munich, he took his degree in medicine only to abandon that profession for the scientific research to which he devoted his life. His greatest work was as a specialist in the study of ichthyology, and some of his most far-reaching generalizations on the governing laws of life in all its forms are directly suggested by his study of turtles. After such researches had made him one of the most famous men of Europe, he came to the United States in 1846 to deliver a series of lectures at the Lowell Institute. He held professorships at Harvard and in Charlestown. The museum of natural history at Cambridge is a monument of his American work. His "Contributions to the Natural History of the United States" are among the most interesting of his numerous publications, and the essays on Classification which they embody show a faculty of clear statement and succinct generalization, suggesting the best work of Aristotle. He died December 14th, 1873. One of his sayings should be forever memorable in America and in the world. Tempted with lucrative employment which would have called him away from his scientific work, he answered: "I have no time to make money."