AGASSIZ AT PENIKESE. 145 



science was his influence on other men. He was a 

 constant stimulus and inspiration. 



In an old note-book of those days I find frag- 

 ments of some of his talks to teachers at Penikese. 

 From this note-book I take some paragraphs, just 

 as I find them written there : 



" Never try to teach what you do not yourself 

 know and know well. If your school board insist 

 on your teaching anything and everything, decline 

 firmly to do it. It is an imposition alike on pupils 

 and teacher to teach that which he does not know. 

 Those teachers who are strong enough should 

 squarely refuse to do such work. This much- 

 needed reform is already beginning in our colleges, 

 and I hope it will continue. It is a relic of medi- 

 aeval times, this idea of professing everything. 

 When teachers decline work which they cannot do 

 well, improvements begin to come in. If one would 

 be a successful teacher, he must firmly refuse work 

 which he cannot do well. It is a false idea to sup- 

 pose that everybody is competent to learn or to 

 teach everything. Would our great artists have 

 succeeded equally well in Greek or calculus? A 

 smattering of everything is worth little. It is a 

 fallacy to suppose that an encyclopaedic knowledge 

 is desirable. The mind is made strong, not through 

 much learning, but by the thorough possession of 

 something." 



" Lay aside all conceit. Learn to read the book 

 of Nature for yourself. Those who have succeeded 

 best have followed for years some slim thread 

 which once in a while has broadened out and dis- 

 closed some treasure worth a life-long search." 



10 



