122 LOUIS AGASSIZ 



facts, and thought it worth while to look 

 for them. Agassiz had from the be- 

 ginning the modern habit of hearing 

 testimony first and giving judgment 

 afterward. Even as a student, he dis- 

 agreed with many of Oken's ideas ; and 

 as a teacher, he repeatedly and earnestly 

 warned all students against listening to 

 any witness but Nature herself. Much 

 more must Agassiz have rejected Schel- 

 ling's scientific ukases. It is not likely 

 that Schelling influenced him on any 

 purely zoological matter, but he evi- 

 dently had much influence on Agassiz' s 

 idea of ivhat constitutes an explanation. 

 Had there never been any question about 

 facts, zoological theories would still be 

 interesting, because it must be interest- 

 ing to get at what any thinking man 

 considers a satisfactory stopping-place in 

 explanation whether he rests the world 

 on a tortoise or insists on supporting the 

 tortoise by a protozoon, or perhaps 

 underwrites it all by the Word which 

 was in the beginning. 



