SKETCH OF PROFESSOR ALPHEUS HYATT. 265 



to be the beginning of a stem. When I got to this point, he said, in an 

 impatient tone : ' Stop ! stop ! you don't know anything about it. It 

 is just what I expected. You haven't told me anything that you 

 know. Look at it again and tell me something that you see for your- 

 self ! ' I had faint book remembrances, and had been relying upon 

 these. Taken all aback at this, I began to work. I thought about it 

 all day and dreamed about it at night. Next morning I began to tell 

 him what I had found out, and before I was one quarter through he 

 stopped me, saying, 'That is good; but,' he added, *you have not 

 yet told me what I want.' "With this he pointed to the side of the 

 room where star-fishes, ophiurians, and sea-urchins were kept, and told 

 me to see what more he wanted. In this blind way, with no further 

 hint, I worked unsuccessfully for a long time ; then I found that I had 

 omitted the most conspicuous point, the star-like appearance. Not 

 knowing whether this was of importance or not, I timidly reported at 

 the next interview this resemblance to the star-fishes, and Professor 

 Agassiz was satisfied. This burned into my mind the most important 

 lesson of my life : how to get real knowledge by observation, and how 

 to use it by comparison and inference." His acquaintance with Dar- 

 win, though confined to a few letters and a short personal visit while 

 in England, had also a marked influence on his life, for he saw here 

 the greatest of naturalists living in a simple, unostentatious manner, 

 paying respectful attention to the studies of even comparatively un- 

 known young naturalists, not anxious, above all things, to claim even 

 that which was due him, but to render justice to the researches and 

 ideas of others. This was so contrary to the usual practice of claim- 

 ing all possible credit for intellectual results that it produced a pro- 

 found impression upon Professor Hyatt, and it has influenced his life 

 as it has that of many of the existing generation. 



In teaching, Professor Hyatt uses books as little as possible ; his 

 lectures, and those which he superintends before the teachers in the 

 Teachers School of Science, are delivered in a novel manner. Noted 

 investigators are chosen to deliver the courses, which cover all branches 

 of the objective sciences, as Professor Plyatt calls them, except as- 

 tronomy. The idea of the lectures is to fit teachers for teaching ele- 

 mentary sciences in the public schools. In all cases except physical 

 geography it has been found possible to give each member of the 

 audience specimens of the thing described, so that they may follow the 

 lecturer with the objects in hand, and take them away afterward. 



In connection with this branch of instruction, the Natural History 

 Society has issued a series of " Guides for Science-Teaching," of which 

 nine have already appeared. They are all prepared under the guidance 

 of Professor Hyatt, and he himself is the author of five, namely, 

 " About Pebbles," " Commercial and other Sponges," " Common Hy- 

 droids," "Corals and Echinoderms," "The Oyster, Clam, and other 

 Common Mollusks," and "Worms and Crustaceans." They are all 



