o [Reprinted, with slight change, from The Harvard Graduates’ Magazine, June, 
1907.] 
LOUIS AGASSIZ, TEACHER. 
ay @ 
TuHE phrase adopted as the title of this article begins his simple Will. 
Agassiz was likewise an investigator, a director of research, and the 
founder of a great museum. He really was four men in one. Without 
detracting from the extent and value of the three other elements of his 
intense and composite American life, from his first course of lectures 
before the Lowell Institute in 1846 to the inauguration of the Anderson 
Summer School of Natural History at Penikese Island, July 8, 1873, 
and his address before the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, 
twelve days before his untimely death on Dec. 14, 1875, Agassiz was 
preéminently a teacher. He taught his assistants; he taught the teach- 
ers in the public schools; he taught college students; he taught the pub- 
lic, and the common people heard him gladly. His unparalleled achieve- 
ments as an instructor are thus chronicled by his wife: 
‘“A teacher in the widest sense, he sought and found his pupils in 
every class. But in America for the first time did he come into contact 
with the general mass of the people on this common ground, and it influ- 
enced strongly his final resolve to remain in this country. Indeed the 
secret of his greatest power was to be found in the sympathetic, human 
side of his character. Out of his broad humanity grew the genial personal 
influence, by which he awakened the enthusiasm of his audiences for 
unwonted themes, inspired his students to disinterested services like his 
own, delighted children in the school-room, and won the cordial interest 
as well as the codperation in the higher aims of science, of all classes, 
whether rich or poor.” 
As a general statement the foregoing could not be improved. But the 
invitation to prepare this article contained a suggestion of particularity 
with which it is possible for me to comply.’ The courses given by 
Agassiz on Zobdlogy and Geology were attended by me during the three 
years (1859-62) of my pupilage with Jeffries Wyman, and the two 
years (1866-68) in which I was the assistant of Agassiz himself. Natu- 
rally, and also for special reasons, the deepest impression was made by 
the first and the last of these courses. With the former the charm of 
1 Not only have I preserved all the letters from Agassiz, the first dated Sept. 
4, 1866, and the last Nov. 25, 1878, but also my diaries in which are recorded all sig- 
nificant incidents and conversations from my first introduction in 1856 to the last 
interview, Sept. 5, 1873. 
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