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Louis Agassiz. 



also has been the progress of science and intellec- 

 tual advancement in the nation. The increased and 

 constantly increasing interest in scientific study and 

 literature is most marked and astonishing. 



I cannot but remember, and with regret, that 

 when a boy some thirty years ago, when first I 

 became interested in the study of natural history, 

 there were neither books nor teachers. How often 

 have those early disadvantages been brought to 

 mind, from time to time, as in after years I added to 

 the muster roll of friends, the names of younger 

 men who were privileged to sit under the teachings 

 of the great master. 



As some good mother, by the fireside's glow, 

 spreads the new book upon her lap, and, calling her 

 children near, points out the pictures and explains 

 their meaning ; so he, with radiant face and winning 

 voice, gathered around him those nature-loving boys, 

 and, opening wide the book of the greater mother, 

 page by page, pointed to its living illustrations — 

 explained their history and their relations, their 

 beauty and their use. 



How shall we estimate the value of early training 

 under such a teacher? 



Of the earlier students, Stimpson has passed away. 

 He had accumulated, though but forty years of age, 

 the ample store of more than twenty years* investi- 

 gation. His manuscripts and plates were destroyed 

 by the great fire in Chicago. Of this sad event and 

 its effect upon him he wrote : My own books, col- 

 lections, manuscripts, and drawings — twenty years* 

 work — all gone/* What a pang must have shot 



