566 LOUIS AGASSIZ, 



ence felt by the whole establishment. No 

 man ever exercised a more genial personal in- 

 fluence over his students and assistants. His 

 initiatory steps in teaching special students of 

 natural history were not a little discouraging. 

 Observation and comparison being in his opin- 

 ion the intellectual tools most indispensable to 

 the naturalist, his first lesson was one in look- 

 ing. He gave no assistance ; he simply left his 

 student with the specimen, telling him to use 

 his eyes diligently, and report upon what he 

 saw. He returned from time to time to in- 

 quire after the beginner's progress, but he 

 never asked him a leading question, never 

 pointed out a single feature of the structure, 

 never prompted an inference or a conclusion. 

 This process lasted sometimes for days, the 

 professor requiring the pupil not only to dis- 

 tinguish the various parts of the animal, but 

 to detect also the relation of these details to 

 more general typical features. His students 

 still retain amusing reminiscences of their de- 

 spair when thus confronted with their single 

 specimen ; no aid to be had from outside until 

 they had wrung from it the secret of its struc- 

 ture. But all of them have recognized the 

 fact that this one lesson in looking, which 

 forced them to such careful scrutiny of the 



