Louis Agassiz. 



Agassiz school of science teaching. He observed 

 and investigated at first hand, and had the happy 

 consciousness of having made his discoveries him- 

 self. This was Agassiz's method. He once entered 

 a class with a bottle of grasshoppers, gravely dis- 

 tributing the kicking insects to the students, then 

 began a lucid, even charming, discourse, which was 

 followed by the students from thorax to eye, and an- 

 tennae to mouth parts and back again, after which 

 the grasshoppers were allowed their liberty. 



But it is to the after results of Agassiz's life that 

 I would refer in the present chapter, and to the in- 

 direct influence of Agassiz upon young people. 



Agassiz was a disciple of out-door studies. His 

 classes observed while walking the moors and valleys 

 and recited among the flowers or by the brookside, 

 with the song of the birds and the hum of insects 

 in their ears. This method of study is in vogue 

 to-day and the name of Agassiz is synonomous 

 with health-giving, soul-inspiring out-door studies, 

 face to face with nature and the Divine Giver of all 

 things. 



In almost every town or city in the United States 

 we find the Agassiz Association, and, happily, it is 

 fast spreading to other lands. The idea of forming 

 societies among young people to follow out the sug- 

 gestions of study made by the great teacher, is due, 

 in this country to Harlan H. Ballard of Lenox, 

 Mass., a devoted admirer of the great naturalist, 

 and an educator and lover of nature himself. 



The Agassiz Association was founded in 1875, be- 

 ing the outgrowth of a life-long love for nature, 



