went, and their effect upon pedagogy was electric.... While on the Thayer
expedition [to Brazil, in 1865], I remember that I often put questions to
him about the facts of our new tropical habitat, but I doubt if he ever
answered one of these questions of mine outright. He always said: "There,
you see you have a definite problem. Go and look, and find the answer for
yourself."' [Footnote: William James, _Louis Agassiz, Words Spoken ...
at the Reception of the American Society of Naturalists ..._ [Dec. 30,
1896]. Pp. 9, 10. Cambridge, 1897.]




IX

OBITER DICTA BY AGASSIZ

[Footnote: The first nine of these utterances were taken down by Dr.
David Stair Jordan at Penikese, in the summer of 1873, from Agassiz's
talks to teachers; see _Popular Science Monthly_ 40. 726-727, and
Holder, _Louis Agassiz, his Life and Works,_ 1893, pp. 173-176.
The next five come from the article entitled 'Louis Agassiz, Teacher,'
by Professor Burt G. Wilder, in _The Harvard Graduate's Magazine,_
June, 1907, and the last three from Agassiz's posthumous article,
"Evolution and Permanence of Type," in the _Atlantic Monthly,_
Jan., 1874 (vol. 33).]


Never try to teach what you yourself do not know, and know well. If
your school board insists on your teaching anything and everything,
decline firmly to do it. It is an imposition alike on pupils and