he cities
and towns, met the citizens individually and in masses, visited the
factories and shops, and thus I became well acquainted with the habits
of the people, their industries and modes of life. In each year I
held twelve teachers' institutes and each institute continued five days
in session. A portion of each day was given to criticisms, during
which time the teachers of the institute and the lecturers were freely
criticised by cards sent to the chair without the names of the critics.
Hence there was the greatest freedom, and no one on the platform was
allowed to escape. It is an unusual thing to find a speaker, even of
the highest culture, who can speak an hour without violating the rules
of pronunciation, or showing himself negligent in some important
particular. The teachers of the teachers gained daily by these
critical exercises.

Among the lecturers and teachers were some men of admitted eminence.
Agassiz was with me about two years as lecturer in Natural History.
His skill in drawing upon the blackboard while he went on with his oral
explanation was a constant marvel. He was not a miser in matter of
knowledge more than in money. Of his vast stores of knowledge he gave
freely to all. Any member of a class could get from him all that he
knew upon any topic in his department. When he was ignorant he never
hesitated to say: "I don't know." He was very chary of conjectures in
science. Indeed, I cannot recall an instance of that sort. He chose
to investigate and to wait. In all his ways he was artless. He was a
well built man with a massive head and an intelligent face. His
presence inspired confidence.

Associated with him by nativity and ties of friendship, was Professor
Guyot. Professor Guyot taught physical geography, and previous to 1855
he had wrought a change in public opinion in regard to the method of
introducing the science to children. All the then recent text-books
omitted physical geography, or reserved it for a brief chapter at the
close of the work. Guyot changed the course of study. His motto was
this: "We must first consider this earth as one grand individual."
On this foundation he built his system. Morse, the father of the
inventor of the system of telegraphic communication, was the author of
a geography published in the eighteenth century, and he commenced with
physical geography. His successors, Cummings, Worcester, and others
abandoned that scientific arrangement and