School Days. 



9 



king of the feast, previous to which a dance would 

 take place on the green in front of the home of 

 Grandfather Mayor. 



During these schooldays Agassiz's love of nature 

 grew more intense and expressed itself in various 

 ways. Late in life he said, I am conscious that at 

 successive periods of my life I have employed very 

 different means and followed very different systems 

 of study.'' When about twelve years of age, his 

 methods were very much like many boys of to-day. 

 He possessed a mania for collecting, and rapidly 

 accumulated natural objects of all kinds, while a 

 library grew under the united efforts of the two 

 brothers ; Auguste contributing his spending money 

 for this purpose. Agassiz bought such books as he 

 could find, and began a serious attempt to memo- 

 rise the names of all the animals he collected, be- 

 lieving that the Latin equivalent was essential to 

 complete knowledge. This, he says, seemed to him 

 the highest attainment and legitimate aim of a natu- 

 ralist, and he accumulated great volumes of manu- 

 script containing the names of all the animals and 

 plants he found, and modestly expressed the hope 

 that in time he might be able to give the name of 

 every known animal. 



The young naturalist made remarkable progress 

 during his schooldays at Bienne, so much so as to 

 attract the attention of all his instructors ; and dur- 

 ing the last year we find his first announcement of 

 a preference for the natural sciences. He already re- 

 belled at the prospect before him of having to enter 

 mercantile life, and outlined his wishes in a paper 



