THE ZOOLOGICAL CLUB 103 



had become in a way intimate in the houses of some of his 

 friends in Boston. 



In my room my master became divinely young again. He 

 would lie on the sofa, drink what I had to offer, I brought 

 with me the then Southern habit of offering wine to guests, 

 take a pipe and return in mind to his student days, or to his 

 plans for work, or to his scheme of a museum which should 

 present the animal and vegetable kingdoms so plainly that he 

 who ran would perforce read and deeply. I have never known 

 a mind of such exuberance, of such eager contact with large 

 desires. I was in thorough sympathy with this museum and 

 with his projects, so that I had large profit from these inter- 

 esting meetings, for they awakened an enthusiasm for con- 

 structive work which I doubt if any other accident of life would 

 have aroused. 1 



The meetings of the Zoological Club, at which all sorts of 

 problems were discussed, were never attended by Agassiz. To 

 our request that he would join us his answer was that we had 

 better work alone, though he advised us to gather about us all 

 who were interested in our problems, and to give our joint 

 studies a wide range. I see now that, while much concerned for 

 our advancement, his aim was to have us stand alone, or at 

 least to lean only on our mates. Although he could not help 

 shaping those about him to his mode of thought and was often 

 indignant with them when they departed from his path, he 

 had a sound practical sense of the danger of founding a school 

 of followers; more than once he commented on this error of 

 other masters. 



It was Agassiz's habit to use his students to explore fields 



i In Mr. Shaler's note-book for April 7, 1860, is this entry : " Professor Agassiz in his 

 lecture this morning dwelt upon the requirements of a scientific man who would be more 

 than a mere species-describer. The great test, he said, was to be able to deal with your sub- 

 ject in different ways. In amplifying the idea he said it was well to be able to give in a 

 single sentence the whole matter of months of labor, in a form so true that a scientific 

 man could read in it not only the extent of your knowledge but also the habit of your 

 mind. He declared he could learn all this from an answer couched in the most laconic 

 form. He said he should require of us in our several departments first a monograph, sec- 

 ond a scientific lecture, third a popular lecture, fourth a simple child's tale." S. P. S. 



