Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/275

Rh to be the beginning of a stem. When I got to this point, he said, in an impatient tone: 'Stop! stop! you don't know anything about it. It is just what I expected. You haven't told me anything that you know. Look at it again and tell me something that you see for yourself!' I had faint book remembrances, and had been relying upon these. Taken all aback at this, I began to work. I thought about it all day and dreamed about it at night. Next morning 1 began to tell him what I had found out, and before I was one quarter through he stopped me, saying, 'That is good; but,' he added, 'you have not yet told me what I want.' With this he pointed to the side of the room where star-fishes, ophiurians, and sea-urchins were kept, and told me to see what more he wanted. In this blind way, with no further hint, I worked unsuccessfully for a long time; then I found that I had omitted the most conspicuous point, the star-like appearance. Not knowing whether this was of importance or not, I timidly reported at the next interview this resemblance to the star-fishes, and Professor Agassiz was satisfied. This burned into my mind the most important lesson of my life: how to get real knowledge by observation, and how to use it by comparison and inference." His acquaintance with Darwin, though confined to a few letters and a short personal visit while in England, had also a marked influence on his life, for he saw here the greatest of naturalists living in a simple, unostentatious manner, paying respectful attention to the studies of even comparatively unknown young naturalists, not anxious, above all things, to claim even that which was due him, but to render justice to the researches and ideas of others. This was so contrary to the usual practice of claiming all possible credit for intellectual results that it produced a profound impression upon Professor Hyatt, and it has influenced his life as it has that of many of the existing generation.

In teaching, Professor Hyatt uses books as little as possible; his lectures, and those which he superintends before the teachers in the Teachers School of Science, are delivered in a novel manner. Noted investigators are chosen to deliver the courses, which cover all branches of the objective sciences, as Professor Hyatt calls them, except astronomy. The idea of the lectures is to fit teachers for teaching elementary sciences in the public schools. In all cases except physical geography it has been found possible to give each member of the audience specimens of the thing described, so that they may follow the lecturer with the objects in hand, and take them away afterward.

In connection with this branch of instruction, the Natural History Society has issued a series of "Guides for Science-Teaching," of which nine have already appeared. They are all prepared under the guidance of Professor Hyatt, and he himself is the author of five, namely, "About Pebbles," "Commercial and other Sponges," "Common Hydroids," "Corals and Echinoderms," "The Oyster, Clam, and other Common Mollusks," and "Worms and Crustaceans." They are all