[00:00.00]Text
[00:02.61]In the Laboratory
[00:07.58]I entered Professor Agassiz's laboratory,
[00:11.83]and told him I had enrolled my name in the Scientific School
[00:16.80]as a student of natural history.
[00:20.45]"When do you wish to begin?""Now,"I replied.
[00:25.50]This seemed to please him,and with an energetic"Very well!"
[00:30.64]he reached from a shelf a huge jar of specimens in yellow alcohol.
[00:36.10]"Take this fish,"he said,"and look at it;
[00:40.25]by and by I will ask what you have seen."
[00:44.70]With that he left me.
[00:47.65]I was disappointed,for gazing at a fish did not seem to be challenging enough to an eager student
[00:54.49]and the alcohol had a very unpleasant smell.
[00:59.04]But I said nothing and began to work immediately.
[01:03.58]In ten minutes I had seen all that could be seen in the fish,
[01:08.44]and started to look for the Professor who had,however,left.
[01:13.59]Half an hour passed an hour another hour;the fish began to look disgusting.
[01:20.74]I turned it over and around;looked it in the face ghastly;
[01:26.52]from behind,beneath,above,sideways just as ghastly.
[01:32.37]I must not use a magnifying glass,nor instruments of any kind.
[01:38.25]Just my two hands,my two eyes,and the fish:
[01:43.00]it seemed a most limited filed of study.
[01:47.68]With a feeling of desperation again I looked at that fish.
[01:52.33]I pushed my finger down its throat to feel how sharp the teeth were.
[01:57.39]I began to count the scales in the different rows,
[02:01.52]until I was convinced that was nonsense.
[02:05.57]At last a happy thought struck me I would draw the fish;
[02:11.03]and now with surprise I began to discover new features in the creature.
[02:15.99]Just then the Professor returned.
[02:19.44]"That is right,"said he,"a pencil is one of the best of eyes.
[02:25.61]"With these encouraging words,he added,"Well,what is it like?"
[02:31.80]He listened attentively to my brief description.
[02:35.64]When I finished,he waited as if expecting more,
[02:40.68]and then,with an air of disappointment;
[02:45.15]"You have not looked very carefully;why,"he continued more earnestly,"
[02:51.00]you haven't even seen one of the most visible features of the animal,
[02:55.86]which is as plainly before your eyes as the fish itself;
[03:00.40]look again,look again!"and he left me to my misery.
[03:05.86]I was hurt.Still more of that wretched fish!
[03:11.43]But now I set myself to my task with a will,
[03:16.00]and discovered one new thing after another,
[03:20.15]until I saw how just the Professor's criticism had been.
[03:25.40]The afternoon passed quickly;
[03:28.88]and when,towards its close,the Professor inquired,"Do you see it yet?"
[03:34.94]"No,"I replied,"I do not,but I see how little saw before."
[03:41.78]"That is next best,"said he earnestly,"But I won't hear you now;
[03:47.42]put away your fish and go home;
[03:50.77]perhaps you will be ready with a better answer in the morning.
[03:55.23]I will examine you before you look at the fish."
[03:59.39]This was disconcerting
[04:02.73]Not only must I think of my fish all night,studying,
[04:07.30]without the object before me,
[04:10.75]what this unknown but most visible feature might,
[04:15.32]but also,without reviewing my discoveries,
[04:19.40]I must give an exact account of them the next day.
[04:23.76]The friendly greeting from the Professor the next morning was reassuring.
[04:28.72]He seemed to be quite as anxious as I that I should see for myself what he saw.
[04:34.29]"Do you perhaps mean,"I asked,"
[04:37.66]that the fish has symmetrical sides with paired organs?"
[04:42.51]His thoroughly pleased"Of course!"
[04:46.28]repaid the wakeful hours of the previous night.
[04:50.64]After he had talked most happily
[04:54.30]and enthusiastically as he always did upon the importance of this point,
[05:00.17]I asked what I should do next.
[05:03.52]"Oh,look at your fish!"he said,and left me alone again.
[05:09.11]In a little more than an hour he returned,and heard my new list.
[05:13.84]"That is good,that is good!"he repeated,"but that is not all;go on.
[05:19.87]"And so for three days he placed that fish before my eyes,
[05:24.73]forbidding me to look at anything else,or to use any artificial aid.
[05:30.48]"Look,look,look,"was his repeated instruction.
[05:35.44]The fourth day,a second fish of the same group was placed beside the first,
[05:41.39]and I was told to point out the similarities and differences between the two;
[05:46.67]another and another followed,until the entire family lay before me.
[05:52.42]This was the best lesson I ever had.
[05:56.18]It has influenced the way I have studied ever since
[06:00.44]It was something the Professor gave me,which we could not buy,
[06:05.40]with which we could not part.
[06:08.64]While training the students in the method of observing facts and their orderly arrangement
[06:15.61]Professor Agassiz urged them not to be content with just facts.
[06:21.96]"Facts are stupid things,"he would say,"
[06:25.83]until brought into connection with some general law." |