CHARACTER OF AUDIENCE. 407 



nomenclature of science, though characterized 

 by an eager curiosity. A word respecting the 

 quality of the Lowell Institute audience of 

 those days, as new to the European professor 

 as he to them, is in place here. The institu- 

 tion was intended by its founder to fertilize 

 the general mind rather than to instruct the 

 selected few. It was liberally endowed, the 

 entrance was free, and the tickets were drawn 

 by lot. Consequently the working men and 

 women had as good an opportunity for places 

 as their employers. As the remuneration, how- 

 ever, was generous, and the privilege of lec- 

 turing there was coveted by literary and scien- 

 tific men of the first eminence, the instruction 

 was of a high order, and the tickets, not to be 

 had for money, were as much in demand with 

 the more cultivated and even with the fashion- 

 able people of the community as with their 

 poorer neighbors. This audience, composed 

 of strongly contrasted elements and based 

 upon purely democratic principles, had, from 

 the first, a marked attraction for Agassiz. A 

 teacher in the widest sense, he sought and 

 found his pupils in every class. But in Amer- 

 ica for the first time did he come into contact 

 with the general mass of the people on this 

 common ground, and it influenced strongly 



