726 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



rounded liim like an atmospliere, and wliicli sometimes gave the 

 appearance of great acliievement to the commonest things, was 

 never lacking. 



Essentially Latin in his nature, he was always picturesque in 

 his words and his work. He delighted in the love and approba- 

 tion of his students and his friends, and the influence of his per- 

 sonality sometimes gave his opinions weight beyond the value of 

 the investigations on which they were based. With no other in- 

 vestigator have the work and the man been so identified as with 

 Agassiz. No other of the great workers has been equally great 

 as a teacher. His greatest work in science was his influence on 

 other men. 



In an old note-book of those days I find fragments of some of 

 his talks to teachers at Penikese. From this note-book I take 

 some paragraphs, just as I find them written there : 



" Never try to teach what you do not yourself know and know 

 well. If your school board insist on your teaching anything and 

 everything, decline firmly to do it. It is an imposition alike on 

 j)upils and teacher to teach that which he does not know. Those 

 teachers who are strong enough should squarely refuse to do such 

 work. This much-needed reform is already beginning in our col- 

 leges, and I hope it will continue. It is a relic of mediteval times, 

 this idea of professing everything. When teachers begin to de- 

 cline work which they can not do well, improvements begin to 

 come in. If one will be a successful teacher, he must firmly 

 refuse work which he can not do successfully. 



" It is a false idea to suppose that everybody is competent to 

 learn or to teach everything. Would our great artists have suc- 

 ceeded equally well in Greek or calculus ? A smattering of every- 

 thing is worth little. It is a fallacy to suj^pose that an encyclopaedic 

 knowledge is desirable. The mind is made strong not through 

 much learning, but by the thorough possession of something." 



" Lay aside all conceit. Learn to read the book of Nature for 

 yourself. Those who have succeeded best have followed for years 

 some slim thread which has once in a while broadened out and 

 disclosed some treasure worth a life-long search." 



" A man can not be professor of zoology on one day and of 

 chemistry on the next, and do good work in both. As in a concert 

 all are musicians — one plays one instrument, and one another, but 

 none all in perfection." 



" You can not do without one specialty. You must have some 

 base-line to measure the work and attainments of others. For a 

 general view of the subject, study the history of the sciences. 

 Broad knowledge of all Nature has been the possession of no natu- 

 ralist except Humboldt, and general relations constituted his 

 specialty." 



