MASTER AND APPRENTICE 



885 



the matter with John, except that he's got no soul." " I believe 

 you're right, and now," said Mr. Shaler cheerfully, "we must 

 set to work to make one." And, strange to say, after a while 

 there did appear the faint glimmerings of a soul stirred later 

 to warmer life by the call to arms ; and then through the gates 

 of death this feeble soul, doubtless, elsewhere won its happier 

 chance. 



Hundreds of letters from Mr. Shaler's students and their 

 mothers show their attitude of mind toward the teacher. It is 

 very clear that in many cases the way to knowledge was through 

 the gateway of affection. No one knew better than he the ad- 

 vantages of the naturalist method of instruction. But in this 

 instance, whatever the system, it was the man himself who 

 drew his students near to him. The method of instruction by 

 experiment, he says, "consists in the close relation which it 

 secures between the teacher and the pupil and the more sym- 

 pathetic nature of their contacts. . . . Very soon the student 

 finds himself dependent upon him. Such are the depths of the 

 phenomenal world that this mutual relation may indefinitely 

 continue and always afford beautiful opportunities for sym- 

 pathetic contact between men who are united in the work as 

 master and apprentice." 



That these "beautiful opportunities" were so freely made 

 use of is a noble tribute to the master's outgoing sympathy and 

 to the generous response of the apprentice. 



