206 



able training which has enabled me to pursue my studies 

 with the proper feeling of responsibility wdiich every true 

 naturalist must experience. 



The teachings of Agassiz were thorough. His object 

 was to prepare students for reliable work in the future, 

 and his constant restraint upon them, preventing their 

 publishing crude ideas, has been the cause of much mis- 

 understanding regarding his method of teaching ; but 

 those who have passed through the drill never regret its 

 enforcement. 



The death of Agassiz is indeed a loss to American 

 science ; for to whom can we look as his successor in the 

 minds of the people ? It may be that his official positions 

 can be readily filled ; but who is there that wull occupy, 

 or is capable of occupying, the position which Agassiz has 

 held in his relations to the science of the wdiole country? 



It was his peculiar sphere to make science not only 

 popular but respected as well, and it is to his great labors 

 and peculiar ac]a])tability for the w^ork that we owe, more 

 than to all other causes combined, the immense advances 

 made in Natural Sciences in America during the last 

 quarter of a century. But few men have done so much, 

 or have had such power in iniluencing others in the cause 

 of science as Agassiz. His name has been a household 

 word, his fame and his kindness to all who loved science 

 have brought students to him from all parts of the 

 country, and his disinterestedness in his great work, com- 

 bined with the enthusiasm with which he pursued it, has 

 opened the purses of the rich and the treasury of the 

 State to an extent unequalled in the annals of science. 

 To wish, with him, has of late years been almost synon- 

 ymous with to have ; and well did he earn the right for 

 it to be so. Working for the future of science in this 

 country more than for bis own immediate aud personal 



