INTRODUCTORY NOTE 



WHEN the question was put to Agassiz, 

 'What do you regard as your great- 

 est work?' he repHed: 'I have taught 

 men to observe.' And in the preamble to his 

 will he described himself in three words as 

 'Louis Agassiz, Teacher.' 



We have more than one reason to be inter- 

 ested in the form of instruction employed by 

 so eminent a scientist as Agassiz. In the first 

 place, it is much to be desired that those who 

 concern themselves with pedagogy should give 

 relatively less heed to the way in which sub- 

 jects, abstractly considered, ought to be taught, 

 and should pay more attention than I fear 

 has been paid to the way in which great and 

 successful teachers actually have taught their 

 pupils. As in other fields of himian endeavor, 

 so in teaching: there is a portion of the art 

 that cannot be taken over by one person from 

 another, but there is a portion, and a larger 



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