606 Louis Agassiz, Teacher. [June. 
not awaited an explosive denunciation of gaucherie, Agassiz said quietly, 
“In Natural History it is not enough to know how to study specimens; 
it is also necessary to know how to handle them,” and then proceeded 
with his lecture. 
His helpful attitude toward prospective teachers was exhibited in the 
following incidents. After my appointment to Cornell University in 
October, 1867, he arranged for me to give a course of six “ University 
Lectures,” and warned me to prepare for them carefully because he 
should give me a “raking down.” He attended them all (at what in- 
terruption of his own work I realize better now) and discussed them and 
my methods very frankly with me. Omitting the commendations, the 
following comments may be useful to other professorial tyros: 1. The 
main question or thesis should be stated clearly and concisely at the out- 
set, without compelling the hearer to perform all the mental operations 
that have led the speaker to his own standpoint. 2. In dealing with the 
history of a subject the value of each successive contribution should be 
estimated in the light of the knowledge at the period, not of that at the 
present time. 
The following educational aphorisms were uttered upon various occa- 
sions, and some have been published already. ‘They should be known 
wherever science is taught. ‘It is much more important for a naturalist 
to understand the structure of a few animals than to command the whole 
field of scientific nomenclature.” ‘‘ Methods may determine the result.” 
“The only true scientific system must be one in which the thought, the 
intellectual structure, rises out of and is based upon facts.” ‘ He is lost, as 
an observer, who believes that he can, with impunity, affirm that for which 
he can adduce noevidence.” ‘There should be a little museum in every 
school-room.”’ ‘A physical fact is as sacred as a moral principle.” 
‘A laboratory of natural history is a sanctuary; sooner than there would 
I tolerate improprieties in a church.” ‘Study Nature, not books.” 
‘“‘ Have the courage to say, I do not know.” 
The fast-diminishing number of them that enjoyed the priceless privi- 
lege of gaining instruction direct from Agassiz need not be reminded of 
the obligation implied in the memorial lines of James Russell Lowell : 
‘““He was a Teacher; why be grieved for him 
Whose living word still stimulates the air ? 
In endless file shall loving scholars come, 
The glow of his transmitted touch to share.”’ 
Burt G. Wilder, s 62, m ’66. 
CorRNELL UNIVERSITY. 
