COOPER 



not tell you how Agassiz used to lock a student 

 up in a room full of turtle-shells, or lobster- 

 shells, or oyster-shells, without a book or a 

 word to help him, and not let him out till he 

 had discovered all the truths which the objects 

 contained. Some found the truths after weeks 

 and months of lonely sorrow; others never 

 found them. Those who found them were 

 already made into naturalists thereby — the fail- 

 ures were blotted from the book of honor and 

 of life. • "Go to nature; take the facts into 

 your own hands; look, and see for yourself 1" — 

 these were the maxims which Agassiz preached 

 wherever he went, and their effect upon peda- 

 gogy was electric. '. . . While on the Thayer 

 expedition [to Brazil, in 1865], I remember 

 that I often put questions to him about the 

 facts of our new tropical habitat, but I doubt 

 if he ever answered one of these questions of 

 mine outright. He always said: "There, you 

 see you have a definite problem. Go and look, 

 and find the answer for yourself."' 1 



'William James, Louis Agassiz, Words Spoken . . . at 

 the Reception of the American Society of Naturalists . . . 

 [Dec. 30, 1896]. Pp. 9, 10. Cambridge, 1897. 



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