558 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



where they listened to scientific papers or 

 discussed scientific matters. They took tea 

 once a week with Professor von Martius, 

 while with DiJllingcr they were still more 

 intimate. " Not only did they go to him 

 daily, but he often came to see them, bring- 

 ing botanical specimens to Braun, or look- 

 ing in upon Aga.ssiz's breeding experiments, 

 in which he took the liveliest interest, being 

 always ready with advice and practical aid. 

 The fact that Agassiz and Braun had their 

 room in his house made intercourse with 

 him especially easy. This room became the 

 rendezvous of all the aspiring, active spirits 

 among the young naturalists at Munich, 

 and was known by the name of ' The Little 

 Academj'.' . . . The friends gave lectures 

 in turn on various subjects, especially on 

 modes of development in plants and ani- 

 mals. These lectures were attended not 

 only by students, but often by the profess- 

 ors." In a letter to his father, Agassiz de- 

 scribes his life at this period as exceedingly 

 pleasant. He says : 



When onr lectures are over, we meet in the 

 evening at Braun's room or mine, with three or four 

 intimate acquaintances, and talk of Bcientitic mat- 

 ters, each one in his turn presenting a subject which 

 is first developed by him and then discussed by all. 

 These exercises are very instructive. As my share, 

 I have begun to give a course of natural history, or 

 rather of pure zoology. Braun talks to us of botany, 

 and another of our company, Mahir, who is an ex- 

 cellent fellow, teaches us mathematics and physics 

 in his turn. In two months Schimper will join us 

 and become our professor of philosophy. Thus we 

 instruct each other, learning what we teach more 

 thoroughly because obliged to demonstrate it. Each 

 session lasts two or throe hours, during which the 

 professor in charge retails his merchandise without 

 aid of notes or book. You can imagine how useful 

 this must be in preparing us to speak in public and 

 with coherence; the experience is the more impor- 

 tant, since we all desire nothing so much as sooner 

 or later to become professors in very truth. 



Again, in writing to his father, Braun 

 says of these private lectures : 



Sometimes Agassiz tries to beat French rules 

 and constructions into our brains, or we have a les- 

 son in anatomy, or I read general natural history 

 aloud to AVllliam Schimper. By-and-by I shall re- 

 view the natural history of grasses and ferns, two 

 families of which I made a special study last sum- 

 mer. Twice a week Karl Schimper lectures to us 

 on the morphology of plants. He has twelve listen- 

 ers. Agassiz Is also to give us lectures occasion- 

 ally on Sundays upon the natural history of fishes. 



An artist who was already in the employ 

 of Agassiz, and who afterward made the illus- 



trations of his works upon fossil fishes, de- 

 scribes Agassiz's life and surroundings at 

 this time as follows : 



He never lost his temper, though often under 

 great trial. . . . His studio was a [Mjrfect German stu- 

 dent's room. It was large, with several wide win- 

 dows ; the furniture consisted of a couch and about 

 half a dozen chairs, besides some tables, for the use 

 of his artists and himself. Alexander Braun and 

 Dr. Schimper lodged in the same house and seemed 

 to me to share his studio. Being botanists, they 

 too brought home what they collected in their ex- 

 cursions, and all this found a place in the atelier, on 

 the couch, on the seats, on the floors. Books filled 

 the chairs, one alone being left for the other artists, 

 while I occupied a standing desk with my drawing. 

 No visitor could sit down, and sometimes there was 

 litlle room to stand or move about. The walis were 

 white, and diagrams were drawn upon them, to 

 which by-and-by we artists aaded skeletons and 

 caricatures. In short, it was quite original. 



The second volume is devoted to Agas- 

 siz's life in America. The frontispiece is a 

 portrait taken at the age of fifty-five, and 

 bringing at once to mind the features so well 

 known to multitudes of people in all parts 

 of the country. Besides the vignette, show- 

 ing us the laboratory at Nahant, there is a 

 view of the cottage at Xahant, of the Muse- 

 um of Comparative Zoology, a portrait bust 

 by Powers, and a view of Penikese. 



Scientific Theism. By Feancis Elling- 

 vfooD AnnoT, Ph. D. Boston : Little, 

 Brown & Co. Pp. 219. Price, $2. 



This work is an attempt at developing 

 theism from science and the scientific meth- 

 od. Dr. Abbot criticises nominalism and 

 conceptualism, and argues for a noumenism 

 in which every phenomenon is, as far as it 

 goes, a real revelation of the noumenon. 

 He holds that the mind perceives true rela- 

 tions in nature, and that therefore to the 

 extent to which human knowledge has gone 

 it forms a part, however small, of that con- 

 tained in the Divine Mind. The theory of 

 the unknowable the author rejects, holding 

 that absolute knowledge of a thing would 

 consist in knowing the sum of it3 relations 

 to all other things in the universe. 



Dr. Abbot argues from the intelligibili- 

 ty of the universe to its intelligence ; and 

 hence, since it is all-inclusive, to its self- 

 consciousness. His is no external deity re- 

 lated to the universe, as machinist to ma- 

 chine, but the immanent mind, whose organic 

 life and growth, manifested to us in nature, 



