Agassis at 



TEACHINGS OF AGASSIZ. 



LECTURES DELIVERED TO THE ANDERSON SCHOOL 

 OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



The following reports of some of the lec- 

 tures delivered by Prof. Louis Agassiz before 

 the Anderson School of Natural History on 

 Penikese Island, during July and August, 

 1873, have been compiled from the note-books 

 of students present at their delivery. Though 

 necessarily incomplete, and to a certain ex- 

 tent fragmentary, they will be found, as far 

 as they go, substantially accurate ; and it is 

 believed that in them the more important of 

 Prof. Agassiz's discourses at Peuikese are 

 fairly represented. 



FIRST WORDS TO STUDENTS. 



PROFESSOH AGASSIZ'S OPENING LECTURE AT THE 

 ANDERSON SCHOOL, DELIVERED JULY 9, 1873. 



LADIES AND GENTLEMEN : Were I about to teach 

 a class ia the ordinary sense I should make a very 

 different beginning. My intention is not, however, 

 to impart information, but to throw the burden of 

 study on you. If I succeed iu teaching you to ob- 

 serve, my aim will be attained. I do not wish to 

 communicate knowledge to you, you can gather that 

 from a hundred sources, but to awaken in you a 

 faculty which is probably more dormant than the 

 simple power of acquisition. Unless that faculty is 

 stimulated, any information I might give you about 

 natural history would soon fade and bo gone. I am 

 therefore placed in a somewhat difficult and abnor- 

 mal position for a teacher. I must teach and yet 

 not give information. I must, in short, to all in- 

 tents and purposes, be ignorant before you. 



The very first subject to which I will call your 

 attention is one where you would naturally come to 

 me with questions. Do not ask them, for I shall not 

 answer, but I shall try to lay out your work in such 

 away that you will find your own path without 

 too much difficulty. What is the nature of the soil, 

 and what is the geological constitution of this island ? 

 I believe I know all about it; but I wish to prepare 

 you to solve this problem, which is, by the way, no 

 easy one, for yourselves. Try first to find how 

 the island lies. Wo have no compass, but our 

 main building runs East and West. Let 

 that be your compass. You will find position 

 an essential element in the study of geological char- 

 acters. Perhaps you have already noticed the gene- 

 ral outline of our island. You may have seen that a 

 gravelly, water- worn neck of land connects a smaller 

 island with the main one, and that the two run 

 parallel. What is the meaning of the curve between 



47 



these two islands I What is the meaning of the flat 

 beyond the curve ? What is the moaning of the 

 loose materials about us ? What is the meaning of 

 bowlders scattered over the surface ? It would bo 

 easy to explain all these features upon well known 

 theories, but I should do you a poor service by any 

 such ready-made interpretation. 



There are many other points to be considered 

 before you will solve the problem. You must, for in- 

 stance, distinguish the difference between materials 

 in contact with the water and those above it; 

 between the various dimensions of these loose mate- 

 rials and their relative size as found above or below 

 the tide level. What relation does the island bear to 

 the adjoining islands? How are they connected? 

 When J T OU have occasion to do so, extend this inquiry 

 to the main land. These are the elements for a com- 

 prehensive appreciation of the way in which this 

 island has been formed. This investigation would 

 in itself be enough for a Summer's work. If you 

 could answer me in two months the questions I 

 have put to you here. I should say you have 

 indeed done well. I wanfc you to learn practically 

 how wide is the field of science ; how much investi- 

 gation of a valuable kind may be found even in this 

 small area. And the method of investigation you 

 apply here will enable you to examine the same 

 subjects wherever you live. You will find the same 

 elements of instruction all about you, where you 

 are each teaching ; and you can take your classes 

 out and show them the same lessons, and lead them 

 to the same subjects you are now studying here. 

 And this mode of teaching children is so natural, so 

 suggestive, so true ! That is the charm of teaching 

 from Nature herself. No one can warp her to suit 

 his own views, ehe brings us back to absolute 

 truth as often as we wander. 



Until our apparatus comes of various sorts which 

 has not arrived, we roust occupy ourselves with the 

 geology, and I would advise you to begin by collect- 

 ing all the various kinds of rock on the island. You 

 will be surprised to hear, perhaps, that you will 

 find on this small space three-fourths, perhaps nine- 

 tenths, of all the rocks in the United States. 



With these and a few words on the animals the 

 students were already begiuing to collect, the mode 

 of handling them, &c., this introductory address 

 closed. It can hardly be fairly appreciated by any one 

 who did not hear the next session two or three hours 

 later, after the first ramble was over, when the 

 Professor collected his class again, and drew them 

 out by questions, and without telling them anything 

 except a few facts which they could not by any 

 possibility find for themselves in the neighborhood, 

 showed them what they had in their own minds, 

 and led them by comparison and combination to un- 

 derstand the significance of what they had already 



