240 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



all that was required was the literary side of education 

 for such a degree. I now ask that the scientific side 

 have the same chance. I do not want to interfere in any 

 way in that direction, but I do not want the literary 

 side to dictate terms, which if dictated by the scientific 

 side would deprive nine tenths of the students of their 

 degree, and yet we might not be asking more than you 

 think every well-educated man should know. 



This is to me a most serious matter. I have fought 

 in vain to obtain recognition thus far ; but those who 

 feel as I do are numerous, they are many of them warm 

 friends of the college, and something must be done to 

 satisfy one half of the patrons of the college. 



Excuse this long epistle, it may be worded somewhat 

 dogmatically, but I must acknowledge that since I have 

 had anything to do with college matters I have never 

 felt so hopelessly helpless as when attempting to attack 

 the circumlocution office of Faculty — Overseers — 

 Corporation. 



Agassiz frequently said that the idea that a classical 

 education was the only education was a survival of the 

 days when, if a boy was to be taught anything, the 

 only people who could do it were the monks who knew 

 nothing but the dead languages. He did not deny the 

 value of a classical training, but maintained that an 

 equally good one could be given by other methods, to 

 boys whose tastes lay in different directions ; and 

 greatly resented the assumption of the classical scholar, 

 who calmly assumed that the scientific man was unedu- 

 cated unless he was on familiar terms with the classics, 

 while he himself was most probably ignorant of the 

 causes of the simplest things happening about him. 



