Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1892-04-30
Recollections OF Agassiz.

/ long, and when he died he was Younger
than any Of them" So wrote Theodore
/ Lyman, one Of the great naturalist's old
students, about Agassiz when he died
President David Starr Jordan, of Leland
Stanford university, was also one OF
Agassizs students, He contributes to
The Popular Science Monthly an ad-
mirable sketch Of the man who gave
biology its impetus in America
President Jordan writes especially
about Agassiz's summer school at Peni-
keseS the pioneer Of summer schools in
America. Penikese is a desolate island
of sixty acres, eighteen miles south of
! New Bedford, off the Massachusetts
coast. In the month of June, 1878,
Agassiz began his school here, the in
structions being given in an old barn.
Ernest Ingersoll and Edward S. Morse
were among the pupils that summer at
Penikese. Perhaps from Agassiz Mr..
Morse learned his dexterity with chalk
and blackboard, for the master was sell
dom without a piece of chalk in his
hand. Above all things, Agassiz OPP
posed the use Of books in natural sci
ence. Nature, and nature only, should
be the volume the learner studied. For
the zoology committed to memory from
the printed page be had no respect.
He looked on the school at Penikese as
a mission work of the greatest impor-
lance. He was an enthusiast all his life
long, picturesque in all he said and did.
He opposed Darwinism vehemently,
perhaps on account of the natural rev.
erence of his character. His sayings are
aphorisms in themselves. Among some
quoted by Mr.. Jordan are the following:
"You cannot do without one speciality.
Those who have succeeded best have
followed for years some slim thread
which has once in awhile broadened
out and disclosed some treasure worth a
lifelong search" LAY aside all con-
ceit." 81 feel less agony at impropri-
cites in churches than in scientific
laboratory"
Perhaps the best evidence of Agassizs
success as a teacher lies in the fact that
every one of the men specially trained
by him went over to the ranks of Oar
win and the evolutionists. He taught
his pupils to think for themselves, mot
to think as he did" says Mr.. Jordan.
Consequently they thought out this
question for themselves and became
evolutionists.
At Penikese that one summer he
taught teachers how to instruct their
pupils. How they should teach natural
history, botany or any kindred topic he
by this anecdote:
In 1917 gave an address at Newton. Mass,
before teachers institute conducted by Hor- ]
ace Mann. My subject was grasshoppers l |
passed around large jar Of these insects and /
made every teacher take one and hold il while |
was speaking. II any one dropped the insect, /
l stopped till he picked it up. This was at that /
time a great innovation and excited much ]
laughter and derision. There can be no true /
progress in the teaching Of natural science IN. |
til such methods become general
Agassiz died in December, 1873. In
the summer Of 1874 there was an at
tempt made to continue the school, but .
the master spirit was gone. THE life
was gone out from Penikese, and at the
end of the summer the authorities Of the
closed the doors of the Ander-
son school forever" The buildings re-
main exactly the same to this day, how
ever
The blackboards in the lecture hall still bear
The inscriptions left on them by the students
and taken from the words of the master;
Study nature, not books"
"Be not afraid to say No"
"A laboratory is a sanctuary which nothing
1rofaue should enter"
But while the island Of Penikese is deserted
he impulse which came from Agassiz's work
here still lives, and is felt in every field OF
American science.
With all appreciation Of the rich streams
which in late years have come to us from Ger
many, 1t is still true that THE school Of all
chools which has most influence on scientific
eaching in America was held in an old barn
n an uninhabited island some eighteen miles
rom the shore. IL lasted but three months
nd in effect il had but one teacher. The
chool at Penikese existed in the personal
presence of Agassiz. When he died it van
shedl''