FIRST MEETING WITH AGASSIZ 93 



philosophy. As I recall it, this essay was the introduction to 

 Agassiz 's series, never completed, of contributions to the nat- 

 ural history of North America, the volume concerning the Tes- 

 tudinata. These creatures had interested me in my childhood ; 

 I had one of them among my first "pets" when I was about 

 ten years old, and fancied, I think with good reason, that he 

 learned to know me and to come to my call. While at Keene, 

 I became much interested in several aquatic species which were 

 new to me. The essay and the descriptions in the memoir, along 

 with the other contacts of nature in that lovely district, re- 

 awakened my enthusiasm for the world below man, so that the 

 demand of my tutor that I should set me to learning rules for 

 scanning Latin verse came most inopportunely for my college 

 education. 



At the time of my secession from the humanities, Agassiz 

 was in Europe: he did not return, I think, until the autumn 

 of 1859. I had, however, picked up several acquaintances 

 among his pupils, learned what they were about, and gained 

 some notion of his methods. After about a month he returned, 

 and I had my first contact with the man who was to have 

 the most influence on my life of any of the teachers to whom I 

 am indebted. I shall never forget even the lesser incidents of 

 this meeting, for this great master by his presence gave an im- 

 portance to his surroundings, so that the room where you met 

 him and the furniture stayed with the memory of him. 



When I first met Louis Agassiz, he was still in the prime of 

 his admirable manhood; though he was then fifty-two years 

 old, and had passed his constructive period, he still had the 

 look of a young man. His face was the most genial and 

 engaging that I had ever seen and his manner captivated me 

 altogether. But as I had been among men who had a free 

 swing, and for a year among people who seemed to me to be 

 cold and super-rational, hungry as I doubtless was for human 

 sympathy, Agassiz's welcome went to my heart, I was at 

 once his captive. It has been my good chance to see many 



