INTRODUCTORY NOTE 



The following passages will illustrate Agassiz's 

 ideals and practice in teaching, the emphasis 

 being laid upon his dealings with special 

 students. A few biographical details are intro- 

 duced in order to round out our conception of 

 the personality of the teacher himself. Toward 

 the close, certain of his opinions are given in his 

 own words. 



I would call special attention to an extract 

 from Boeckh's Encyclopddie, and another from 

 the Symposium of Plato, on pp. 69-74, and to 

 the similarity between the method of study 

 there enjoined upon the student of the humani- 

 ties, or indeed of all art and nature, and the 

 method imposed by Agassiz upon the would-be 

 entomologist who was compelled first of all to 

 observe a fish. ■ In reforming the mind it is 

 well to begin by contemplating some structure 

 we never have seen before, concerning which we 

 have no, or the fewest possible, preconceptions. ■ 



[5] 



