AGASSIZ 



firmly refuse work which he cannot do suc- 

 cessfully. 



• It is a false idea to suppose that everybody 

 is competent to learn or to teach everything. 

 Would our great artists have succeeded equally 

 well in Greek or calculus? A smattering of 

 everything is worth little. It is a fallacy to 

 suppose that an encyclopaedic knowledge is 

 desirable. The mind is made strong, not 

 through much learning, but by the thorough 

 possession of something. . 



Lay aside all conceit. Learn to read the 

 book of nature for yourself. Those who have 

 succeeded best have followed for years some 

 slim thread which has once in a while broadened 

 out and disclosed some treasure worth a life- 

 long search. 



A man cannot be a professor of zoology on 

 one day, and of chemistry on the next, and do 

 good work in both. As in a concert all are 

 musicians — one plays one instrument, and one 

 another, but none all in perfection. 



You cannot do without one specialty; you 

 must have some base-line to measure the work 



[64] 



