140 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 
bor, a farm-house, a flag-staff, a barn, a willow-tree, 
and a flock of sheep. And here Agassiz founded 
his school. This was in the month of June in the 
| year 1873. 
From the many hundred applicants who sent in 
their names as soon as the plan was made public 
Agassiz chose fifty, — about thirty men and twenty 
women — teachers, students, and naturalists of vari- 
ous grades from all parts of the country. This 
practical recognition of coeducation was criticised 
by many of Agassiz’s friends, trained in the monas- 
tic schools of New England; but the results justi- 
fied his decision. It was his thought that these 
fifty teachers should be trained as well as might 
be in right methods of work. They should carry 
into their schools his own views of scientific teach- 
ing. Then each of these schools would become in 
its time a centre of help to others, until the in- 
fluence toward real work in science should spread 
throughout our educational system. 
None of us will ever forget his first sight ot 
Agassiz. We had come down from New Bedford 
in a little tug-boat in the early morning, and 
Agassiz met us at the landing-place on the island. 
He was standing almost alone on the little wharf, 
and his great face beamed with pleasure. For this 
summer school, the thought of his old age, might 
be the crowning work of his lifetime. Who could 
foresee what might come from the efforts of fifty 
men and women, teachers of science, each striving 
to do his work in the most rational way? His 
thoughts and hopes rose to expectations higher 
| than any of us then understood. 
Pa ae ees 
