210 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 86. 



were not men who taught from text-books 

 or even read lectures made up of extracts 

 from original works. They were them- 

 selves original investigators, daily contribu- 

 ting to the sum of human knowledge * *^ 

 and they were not only our teachers but 

 our friends >i< ^ *. We were often the com- 

 panions of their walks, often present at their 

 discussions, and when we met for conversa- 

 tion or to give lectures among ourselves, as 

 we constantly did, our professors were often 

 among our listeners, cheering and stimu- 

 lating us in all our efforts after independent 

 research. My room was our meeting place 

 — bed room, study, museum, library, lecture 

 room, fencing room — all in one. Students 

 and professors used to call it the little 

 academy * * *. It was in our little academy 

 that Dollinger, the great master in physi- 

 ology and embryology, showed to us, his 

 students, before he had even given them to 

 the scientific world, his wonderful prepara- 

 tions exhibiting the vessels of the villosities 

 of the alimentary canal ; and here he taught 

 us the use of the microscope in embryological 

 investigation." 



A rare privilege is it, my fellow teachers, 

 to be not only teachers, but friends to our 

 students. For Agassiz, Humboldt and Cu- 

 vier were his teachers and friends ; for Dar- 

 win, were Henslow and Sedgwick. Darwin 

 paid his debt of gratitude by never turning 

 a deaf ear to an inquirer ; and in the Origin 

 of Species, the Descent of Man and his 

 other works he becomes a companion to all 

 of us and takes us into his confidence. And 

 Agassiz, what shall we in America not 

 say in gratitude to him! Who like him 

 breathed confidence into the ardent young 

 men who now are bearing the burden and 

 heat of the day in the noble onward march 

 of American science? Who like Agassiz 

 showed us our rich inheritance and inspired 

 this New World to arise and take possession 

 of its own ? As in holiness, so in literature, 

 so in science, it is the living gospel 



the living teacher whose inspiring touch 

 awakens a spirit that thenceforward can 

 never repose in idleness and indifference, 

 but with a noble enthusiasm ever presses 

 onward. 



But, after all, the student comes back in 

 his own mind to the serious personal ques- 

 tion : How shall I begin; what can I do to 

 gain this mental culture? Though the 

 practice is difficult, the theory is simple. 

 Observe, study, reflect. But reflection must 

 always follow the others or there will result 

 only empty subtleties, while without reflec- 

 tion observation and study are barren and 

 fruitless. Perhaps it is unnecessary to add 

 that zoological culture does not come from 

 the study of a fourteen weeks' course, pre- 

 pared by a man who does not know the 

 subject at first hand. Learning the names 

 and a little of the structure and some of 

 the habits of a few animals is not zoological 

 culture, although it may be' a beginning. 

 It is such a beginning as learning the Greek 

 alphabet is for the appreciation of the im- 

 mortal epic of Homer and the whole 

 glorious array of Greek art and literature. 

 Or it is such a beginning as a knowledge of 

 the multiplication table is for mathematics. 

 I have thought sometimes that in our en- 

 thusiasm for scientific study we have cut 

 and trimmed and selected for our fourteen 

 weeks' courses till verily when our students 

 ask us for bread we have only a stone to 

 offer. 



Did Darwin think out natural selection 

 and the survival of the fittest or Agassiz 

 the glacial theory in fourteen weeks ? Not 

 every pupil can spend 28 j^^ears or even a 

 tenth of that upon a single subject; it 

 nevertheless remains true that the mental 

 culture gained by the study of zoology will, 

 as with other disciplines, depend first upon 

 the original 'power of the student ^and second 

 upon the time and energy devoted to the subject. 



*The original ability of the student is mentioned 

 prominently in this paper because," in too many discus- 



