AGASSIZ AT PENIKESE. 135 
this he said: ‘I told the publishers that I was not 
the man to do that sort of thing, and I told them, 
too, that the less of that sort of thing which is 
done the better. It is not school-books we want, 
it is students. The book of Nature is always open, 
and all that I can do or say shall be to lead young 
people to study that book, and not to pin their 
faith to any other.” 
He taught natural history in Harvard College as 
no other man had taught in America before. He 
was the best beloved of teachers, because he was 
the most genial and kindly. Cambridge people 
used to say that one had “less need of an over- 
coat in passing Agassiz’s house”’ than any other in 
that city. In the interest of popular education as 
well as of scientific research, Agassiz laid the foun- 
dation of the Museum of Comparative Zodlogy. 
Here, in the face of all sorts of discouragements, 
he worked with a wonderful zeal,—a zeal which 
showed its results in the prosperity of everything 
with which he had to do. Less energetic pro- 
fessors complained that Agassiz’s department re- 
ceived too much attention. Even Emerson ven- 
tured to suggest, in one of his lectures in 1864, 
that Harvard University was in danger of a one- 
sided growth. To this criticism of Emerson Agassiz 
responded in a most characteristic personal Jetter, 
This letter gives the key-note of the modern idea 
of university development. 
From this letter I quote a few paragraphs: — 
“ You say,” says Agassiz, “that Natural History 
is getting too great an ascendency among us, that 
it is out of proportion to other departments, and 
e 
