152 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



universe out of his own brain, deducing from 

 a priori conceptions all the relations of the 

 three kingdoms into which he divided all liv- 

 ing beings, classifying the animals as if by 

 magic, in accordance with an analogy based 

 on the dismembered body of man, it seemed to 

 us who listened that the slow laborious pro- 

 cess of accumulating precise detailed knowl- 

 edge could only be the work of drones, while 

 a generous, commanding spirit might build 

 the world out of its own powerful imagina- 

 tion. The temptation to impose one's own 

 ideas upon nature, to explain her mysteries 

 by brilliant theories rather than by patient 

 study of the facts as we find them, still leads 

 us away. With the school of the physio-phi- 

 losophers began (at least in our day and gen- 

 eration) that overbearing confidence in the 

 abstract conceptions of the human mind as 

 applied to the study of nature, which still im- 

 pairs the fairness of our classifications and 

 prevents them from interpreting truly the 

 natural relations binding together all living 

 beings. And yet, the young naturalist of 

 that day who did not share, in some degree, 

 the intellectual stimulus given to scientific pur- 

 suits by physio-philosophy would have missed 

 a part of his training. There is a great dis- 



