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The beauty of his better self lives on
In minds he touched with fire, in many an eye
He trained to Truth's exact severity;
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.
—Lowell, Agassiz.
If it be asked why a teacher of English should be moved to issue thisbook on Agassiz, my reply might be: 'Read the Introductory Note'-forthe answer is there. But doubtless the primary reason is that I havebeen taught, and I try to teach others, after a method in essenceidentical with that employed by the great naturalist. And I might go onto show in some detail that a doctoral investigation in the humanities,when the subject is well chosen, serves the same purpose in theeducation of a student of language and literature as the independent,intensive study of a living or a fossil animal, when prescribed byAgassiz to a beginner in natural science. But there is no need toelaborate the point. Of those who are likely to examine the book, somealready know the underlying truth involved, others will grasp it whenit is first presented to them (and for these my slight and pleasantlabors are designed), and the rest will find a stumbling-block andfoolishness—save for the entertainment to be had in the reading ofbiography.
I have naturally kept in mind the needs of my own students, past andpresent, yet I believe these pages may be useful to students of naturalscience as well as to those who concern themselves with the humanities.We live in an age of narrow specialization—at all events in America.Agassiz was a specialist, but not a 'narrow' one. His example shouldtherefore be salutary to those persons, on the one hand, who think thata man can have general culture without knowing some one thing from thebottom up, and, on the other, to those who immerse themselves and theirpupils blindly in special investigation, without thought of theprima philosophia that gives life and meaning to all particularknowledge. There can be no doubt that science and scholarship in thiscountry are suffering from a lack of sympathy and contact between thedevotees of the several branches, and for want of definite efforts tobridge the gaps between various disciplines wherever this is possible.It may not often be possible until men of science generally again takeup the study of Plato and Aristotle, or at least busy themselves, asdid Agassiz, with some comprehensive modern philosopher like Schelling.But it should not be very hard for those who are engaged in thebiological sciences and those who are given to literary pursuits torealize that they are alike interested in the manifestations of one andthe same thing, the principle of life. In Agassiz himself the vitalityof his studies and the vitality of the man are easily identified.
In conclusion I must thank the publishers, Houghton Mifflin Company,for the use of selections from the copyright books of Mrs. Agassiz andProfessor Shaler; these and all other obligations are, I trust,indicated in the proper places by footnotes. I owe a special debt of