HOW AGASSIZ TAUGHT 



After my appointment to Cornell University in 

 October, 1867, he arranged for me to give a 

 course of six 'University Lectures,' and warned 

 me to prepare for them carefully, because he 

 should give me a 'raking down.' He attended 

 them all (at what interruption of his own work 

 I realize better now), and discussed them and 

 my methods very frankly with me. Omitting 

 the commendations, the following comments 

 may be useful to other professorial tyros: 

 1. The main question or thesis should be stated 

 clearly and concisely at the outset, without 

 compelling the hearer to perform all the mental 

 operations that have led the speaker to his 

 own standpoint. 2. In dealing with the history 

 of a subject, the value of each successive con- 

 tribution should be estimated in the light of 

 the knowledge at the period, not of that at the 

 present time. 



[39] 



