INTRODUCTORY NOTE 



the question was put to Agassiz, 

 'What do you regard as your great- 

 est work?' he replied: * I have taught 

 men to observe.' And in the preamble to his 

 will he described himself in three words as 

 'Louis Agassiz, Teacher.' V 



We have more than one reason to be inter- 

 ested in the form of instruction employed by 

 so eminent a scientist as Agassiz. In the first 

 place, it is much to be desired that those who 

 concern themselves with pedagogy should give 

 relatively less heed to the w r ay in which sub- 

 jects, abstractly considered, ought to be taught, 

 and should pay more attention than I fear 

 has been paid to the way in which great and 

 successful teachers actually have taught their 

 pupils. As in other fields of human endeavor, 

 so in teaching: there is a portion of the art 

 that cannot be taken over by one person from 

 another, but there is a portion, and a larger 



