528 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



anxieties of his earlier career. The occupa- 

 tion of teaching was so congenial to him that 

 his part in the instruction of the school did 

 not at any time weigh heavily upon him. He 

 never had an audience more responsive and 

 more eager to learn than the sixty or seventy 

 girls who gathered every day at the close of 

 the morning to hear his daily lecture ; nor did 

 he ever give to any audience lectures more 

 carefully prepared, more comprehensive in 

 their range of subjects, more lofty in their 

 tone of thought. As a teacher he always dis- 

 criminated between the special student, and 

 the one to whom he cared to impart only such 

 a knowledge of the facts of nature, as would 

 make the world at least partially intelligible 

 to him. To a school of young girls he did 

 not think of teaching technical science, and 

 yet the subjects of his lectures comprised very 

 abstruse and comprehensive questions. It 

 was the simplicity and clearness of his method 

 which made them so interesting to his young 

 listeners. " What I wish for you," he would 

 say, " is a culture that is alive, active, suscep- 

 tible of farther development. Do not think 

 that I care to teach you this or the other spe- 

 cial science. My instruction is only intended 

 to show you the thoughts in nature which 



