MRS. AGASSIZ 



students of natural history were not a little 

 discouraging. Observation and comparison be- 

 ing in bis opinion tbe intellectual tools most 

 indispensable to the naturalist, his first lesson 

 was one in looking. He gave no assistance; 

 he simply left his student with the specimen, 

 telling him to use his eyes diligently, and 

 report upon what he saw. He returned from 

 time to time to inquire after the beginner's 

 progress, but he never asked him a leading 

 question, never pointed out a single feature of 

 the structure, never prompted an inference or a 

 conclusion. This process lasted sometimes for 

 days, the professor requiring the pupil not only 

 to distinguish the various parts of the animal, 

 but to detect also the relation of these details 

 to more general typical features. His students 

 still retain amusing reminiscences of their 

 despair when thus confronted with their single 

 specimen; no aid to be had from outside until 

 they had wrung from it the secret of its struc- 

 ture. But all of them have recognized the 

 fact that this one lesson in looking, which forced 

 them to such careful scrutiny of the object be- 

 fore them, influenced all their subsequent habits 

 [12] 



