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impetus to the study of natural science.
In his hands the record of the bones and fossils became a living language, and the common thought was enriched by the revelation of the wonders of the visible universe.
Agassiz's was an expansive nature, and his great delight lay in imparting to others the discoveries in which he had found such intense pleasure.
This sympathetic trait relieved his discourse of all dryness and dullness.
In his college days he had employed his hour of intermission at noon in explaining the laws of botany to a class of little children.
When required to furnish a thesis at the close of his university course, he chose for his theme the proper education of women, and insisted that it ought not to be inferior to that given to men.
I need hardly relate how a most happy marriage in later life made him one of us, nor how this opened the way to the establishment in his house of a school whose girl pupils, in addition to other valuable instruction, enjoyed daily the privilege of listening to his clear and lucid exposition of the facts and laws of his favorite science.
His memory is still bright among us. The story of his life and work is beautifully told in the ‘Life and Correspondence’ published soon after his death by his widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, well known to-day as the president of Radcliffe College.
His children and grandchildren
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