I4O SCIENCE SKETCHES. 



bor, a farm-house, a flag-staff, a barn, a willow-tree, 

 and a flock of sheep. And here Agassiz founded 

 his school. This was in the month of June in the 

 year 1873. 



From the many hundred applicants who sent in 

 their names as soon as the plan was made public 

 Agassiz chose fifty, about thirty men and twenty 

 women teachers, students, and naturalists of vari- 

 ous grades from all parts of the country. This 

 practical recognition of coeducation was criticised 

 by many of Agassiz's friends, trained in the monas- 

 tic schools of New England ; but the results justi- 

 fied his decision. It was his thought that these 

 fifty teachers should be trained as well as might 

 be in right methods of work. They should carry 

 into their schools his own views of scientific teach- 

 ing. Then each of these schools would become in 

 its time a centre of help to others, until the in- 

 fluence toward real work in science should spread 

 throughout our educational system. 



None of us will ever forget his first sight ot 

 Agassiz. We had come down from New Bedford 

 in a little tug-boat in the early morning, and 

 Agassiz met us at the landing-place on the island. 

 He was standing almost alone on the little wharf, 

 and his great face beamed with pleasure. For this 

 summer school, the thought of his old age, might 

 be the crowning work of his lifetime. Who could 

 foresee what might come from the efforts of fifty 

 men and women, teachers of science, each striving 

 to do his work in the most rational way? His 

 thoughts and hopes rose to expectations higher 

 than any of us then understood. 



