136 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 



you hint that a check-rein would not be amiss on 

 the enthusiastic professor who is responsible for 

 all this. 



" Do you not see that the way to bring about a 

 well-proportioned development of all the resour- 

 ces of the University is not to check the Natural 

 History department, but to stimulate the others? 

 Not that the Zoological school grows too fast, but 

 that the others do not grow fast enough? 



" This sounds invidious and somewhat boastful, 

 but it is you and not I who have instituted the com- 

 parison. It strikes me that you have not hit upon 

 the best remedy for this want of balance. If sym- 

 metry is to be obtained by cutting down the most 

 vigorous growth, it seems to me that it would be 

 better to have a little irregularity here and there. 

 In stimulating by every means in my power the 

 growth of the Museum and the means of education 

 connected with it, I am far from having a selfish 

 wish to see my own department tower above the 

 others. I wish that every one of my colleagues 

 would make it hard for me to keep up with him ; 

 and there are some among them, I am happy to 

 say, who are ready to run a race with me." 



In one of his addresses Agassiz said: 



"The physical suffering of humanity, the wants 

 of the poor, the craving of the hungry and naked, 

 appeal to the sympathy of every one who has a 

 human heart. But there are necessities which 

 only the destitute student knows ; there is a hunger 

 and thirst which only the highest charity can 

 understand and relieve, and on this solemn occa- 

 sion let me say that every dollar given for higher 



