HOW AGASSIZ TAUGHT 



ever, that he did give me an effective oral 

 examination, which, as he told me, was in- 

 tended to show whether I could expect to go 

 forward to a degree at the end of fom* years 

 of study. On this matter of the degree he was 

 obdurate, refusing to recommend some who 

 had been with him for many years, and had 

 succeeded in their special work, giving as 

 reason for his denial that they were 'too 

 ignorant.' 



The examination Agassiz gave me was 

 directed first to find that I knew enough Latin 

 and Greek to make use of those languages; 

 that I could patter a little of them evidently 

 pleased him. He didn't care for those detest- 

 able rules for scanning. Then came German 

 and French, which were also approved : I could 

 read both, and spoke the former fairly well. 

 He did not probe me in my weakest place, 

 mathematics, for the good reason that, badly 

 as I was off in that subject, he was in a worse 

 plight. Then asking me concerning my read- 

 ing, he found that I had read the Essay on 

 Classification, and had noted in it the influence 

 of Schelling's views. Most of his questioning 



[19] 



