144 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 
As thin mists are glorified 
By the light they cannot hide, 
All who gazed upon him saw, 
Through its veil of tender awe, 
How his face was still uplit 
By the old sweet look of it, 
Hopeful, trustful, full of cheer 
And the love that casts out fear.” 
And the summer went on, with its succession of 
joyous mornings, beautiful days, and calm nights, 
with every charm of sea and sky; the master with 
us all day long, ever ready to speak words of help 
and encouragement, ever ready to give us from his 
own stock of learning. The boundless enthusiasm 
which surrounded him like an atmosphere, and 
which sometimes gave the appearance of great 
achievement to the commonest things, was never 
lacking. He was always an optimist, and his 
strength lay largely in his realization of the value 
of the present moment. He was a living illustra- 
tion of the aphorism of Thoreau, that “ there is no 
hope for you unless the bit of sod under your feet 
is the sweetest in this world —in any world.” The 
thing he had in hand was the thing worth doing, 
and the men about him were the men worth helping. 
He was always picturesque in his words and his 
work. He delighted in the love and approbation 
of his students and his friends, and the influence of 
his personality sometimes gave his opinions weight 
beyond the value of the investigations on which 
they were based. With no other investigator have 
the work and the man been so identified as with 
Agassiz. No other of the great workers has been 
equally great as a teacher. His greatest work in 
