TOPICS OF THE MONTH.

BY THE EDITOR.

THE NEW YEAR.

WE enter on the New Year with our best wishes to the readers of the Magazine. We trust that the coming year will be a prosperous year to them all, that health and wealth may be granted to them, and, above all the rest, that they may be going on into richer experiences, grander truths, more gracious and generous acts, and so be fulfilling the truest and highest purposes of life. We shall do what we can to help them. From promises made to us, we hope to be able to enrich our pages with able discussions of some of the greatest questions of the day, and at the same time furnish the practical lessons and helps in Christian living which may make our Magazine a welcome Sunday inmate in many homes, awakening a more devout and catholic spirit, helping to larger sympathies and a truer and warmer faith, a more living habit of prayer and fidelity to God, and a more loving sense of obligation to labor and study for the good of man.

LOUIS JOHN RUDOLPH AGASSIZ.

The death of this distinguished naturalist is a loss to the whole world. He was born in Switzerland, in May, 1807, and died in Cambridge, Mass., Dec. 14, 1873. It does not lie within our province to give an account either of his life, or of the many and valuable contributions which he has made to science in his chosen departments. He was unquestionably one of the four or five foremost scientific men of the present century, inferior to no one in his special province, and superior to all others, with the exception perhaps of Humboldt, in breadth of mind, in largeness of culture, and especially in the rare characteristic of genius by which, in a single lecture, on apparently the most insignificant of subjects, he could lay open the laws by which a whole realm. of nature is governed.

The last time we heard him speak was at a meeting of the Social Science Association to consider the Higher Education of Women. An elaborate address by a very competent man introduced the subject, and able and earnest speeches were made. But Mr. Agassiz' remarks were those which made the strongest impression upon us. They were more catholic in spirit. They seemed to go round the subject so as to take it in all its bearings. While very decided in his views, he was just to the views and motives of others. A genial and humorous liberality marked all that he said. It was as if a consciousness of power, and of mental and moral rectitude, enabled him, with all his earnestness, to treat his subject almost in a sportive vein, and to utter his weighty words with a charming playfulness and ease.

The one feature, however, in Mr. Agassiz' life and teachings which impressed us most, and which lay at the centre of his influence, was the high purpose, the lofty ideal, with which he carried on the work of his life. Too many of our scientific men catch the money-making mania that rules the world, and the lofty aim of science in the search after truth is brought down in obedience to some mercenary design. The professor, set apart to train our youth in the love and pursuit of knowledge, and to hold up to them the high and generous aims of a liberal education, sometimes carries the tone of the market-place into our highest seminaries of learning, and so the office of teacher loses its sacredness. Mr. Agassiz never yielded to this temptation. He gave the powers of his great mind, and the enthusiasm of his large and richly endowed nature, to the study of natural history. He recognized everywhere the mind and the hand of God. It was motive and reward enough for him to be admitted into new fields of knowledge, and in his chosen walk to be allowed to lay open to men "things which had been kept secret from the foundation of the world." He felt the sacredness of the calling which devolved on him as a searcher after truth. In opening his school, last, summer at Penikese, he bowed his head in silent prayer to the unseen Power whose works it was his privilege to explore. When, at any time, he found

that his discoveries were beginning to have a pecuniary value, and he was asked so to direct them and carry them on as to secure a pecuniary profit from them, he turned away from the suggestion as if his love of truth might be soiled, and. the elevation of his life-long work lowered, by the admixture of some inferior motive.

We have heard shrewd business men complain of him for this very thing, because he would not make his knowledge more practical. But what is of practical value? He who adds a new luxury to our tables, or a dollar to our income, is a practical man. And shall we deny this title, or refuse to recognize as a great public benefactor, him who gives us a new insight into the laws of nature, who enlarges the sphere of human knowledge, and heightens our love and reverence for the truth? All honor and praise to the modest student of nature, the great teacher, the man of generous and comprehensive aims, who walked in the domain of nature as a child in the presence of God, who in his capacious mind had room enough for a hearty appreciation of all human interests, whose views on all subjects partook of the largeness of his mind, and whose life, even more than his knowledge, has been an inspiration to thousands of young persons, leading them to look reverently and devoutly into the mind of God as they find it revealing itself in his works.

The great lesson which he has taught is, the love of science for its own sake. In his view, the knowledge of the works and the laws of God is its own sufficient encouragement and reward. He could stoop to no inferior motive, nor allow science, whose sole aim should be the search after truth, to enter the market with a money-making purpose. All honor to him for this. And may his spirit be shed abroad throughout the world, and students and teachers learn from him to see and value as they ought the true dignity and greatness of their work.

HYMNS BY UNITARIANS.

We are glad to learn that the Rev. A. P. Putnam, D.D., who has paid great attention to the subject, is preparing

several essays on Hymns written by Unitarians. This is a fertile field of inquiry, and no one is better fitted to explore it than Dr. Putnam. We hope to have the privilege of publishing at least a portion of these interesting essays in our Magazine before they are all published in a volume.

REV. CHARLES BRIGGS.

The life of Mr. Briggs, though continued to an advanced age, was seldom free from depressing illness. His countenance was never lighted up with the free glow of health. And yet he conscientiously husbanded the sources of strength that were within him, and devoted them to worthy purposes. Duties, as they arose, claimed and received his first and best attentions. Embarrassments, firmly but mildly met, were suffered to present no impediments to the progress of upright endeavor or of honorable action. Sorrows, deep and heavy, were bravely met, and as bravely borne, under the blessing of an ever-present and paternal Providence. And yet his constitution, weak as it was, never failed to honor the demand made upon its capacity. The elements of industry, of fortitude, of sympathy, of Christ-like affections, were united in the formation of his character.

Charles Briggs belonged to a family of which, to its honor, three members were ministers. He was the son of Rev. Ephraim Briggs [H. C. 1764], of Halifax, Mass. He was born Jan. 17, 1791, and his death occurred Dec. 17. 1873, just eighty-two years and eleven months afterward. It was his fortune to acquire some of the principles of an independent manhood in the discipline of a dependent childhood. At the period of his birth, it seemed to be the appointed order of events that the sons of indigent and hard-working clergymen should succeed to the literary and religious honors and duties of the high places of society.

The preparatory studies of Mr. Briggs were pursued at Exeter Academy, and in 1811 he was admitted to Harvard College, under the auspices of President Kirkland. His undergraduate days witnessed in him a progress in learning fully in proportion to his health and his well-grounded ambi

tion.

He was graduated in 1815, with distinction, and thenceforward regulated all his studies with a view to an accepted position in the Christian ministry. A portion of the active period of one year after leaving college was occupied in the interests of teaching, at the Kent Academy, in Greenwich, R.I., and the subsequent year found him engaged as a tutor in Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me. In 1818, he availed himself of the advantages that Cambridge afforded, and consecrated himself wholly to preparation for the duties of the sacred profession. In November of that year, having received the usual testimonial from the neighboring association of ministers, he preached his first sermon in the New South Church, Boston. On the 28th of April, 1819, he was ordained over the First Congregational Society in Lexington to the duties appropriate to the Christian ministry. Here he engaged the affections of the people of his charge, by the simplicity of his teachings in the spirit of his Master, and by his sincerity and activity in pastoral offices. His work, however, was occasionally interrupted on account of failing health. But nevertheless it was by no slight tie that he was held to the hearts of his indulgent people. The connection, after a relationship of fourteen years, was severed, in the spring of 1835, by his election to the Secretaryship of the American Unitarian Association, and his acceptance of the office.

For the period of twelve years, he labored faithfully and successfully in the cause to which the association was dedicated. He drew around him, in the performance of his duties, by his unassuming and genial manners, the younger brethren of the church, and they were fain to accord to him in loving respect, because of his age and sympathy, the appellation of "Father." The reports that he prepared for the public meetings of the religious body which he represented bear witness to the purity of his mind, to the benignity of his heart, and to the spirit of Christ. At the close of this service in behalf of a liberal yet sanctifying gospel, he retired from all public duties, and sought tranquility and recreation in the repose and affections of a new home in Boston Highlands.