of eyes. I am glad to notice, too, that you keep your specimen wet and your bottle corked." With these encouraging words, he added, "Well, what is it like?" He listened attentively to my brief rehearsal of the structure of parts whose names were still unknown to me: the fringed gill arches, the pores of the head, fleshy lips, and lidless eyes; the lateral line, the spinous fins, and forked tail; the compressed and arched body. When I had finished he waited as if expecting more, and then, with an air of disappointment, remarked, "You have not looked very carefully; why," he continued more earnestly, "you haven't even seen one of the most conspicuous features of the animal, which is as plainly before your eyes as the fish itself; look again, look again!” and he left me to my misery. I was piqued; I was mortified. Still more of that wretched fish! But now I set myself to my task with a will, and discovered one new thing after another until I saw how just the professor's criticism had been. The afternoon passed quickly, and when, toward its close, the professor inquired, “Do you see it yet?” "No," I replied; "I am certain I do not, but I see how little I saw before.' "That is next best," said he, earnestly, "but I won't hear you now; put away your fish and go home; perhaps you will be ready with a better answer in the morning. I will examine you before you look at the fish." This was disconcerting; not only must I think of my fish all night, studying, without the object before me, what this unknown but most visible feature might be, but also, without reviewing my new discoveries, I must give an exact account of them the next day. I had a bad memory; so I walked home by the Charles River in a distracted state, with my two perplexities. The cordial greeting from the professor the next morning was reassuring. Here was a man who seemed to be quite as anxious as I that I should see for myself what he saw. "Do you perhaps mean," I asked, "that the fish has symmetrical sides and paired organs?" His thoroughly pleased "Of course! of course!" repaid the wakeful hours of the previous night. After he had discoursed most happily and enthusiastically, as he always did, upon the importance of this point, I ventured to ask what I should do next. "Oh, look at your fish!" he said, and left me again to my own devices. In a little more than an hour he returned and heard my new catalogue. "That is good! that is good!" he repeated, "but that is not all; go on ;" and so for three long days he placed that fish before my eyes, forbidding me to look at anything else or to use any artificial aid. "Look, look, look!" was his repeated injunction. This was the best entomological lesson I ever had, a lesson whose influence has extended to the details of every subsequent study, -a legacy the professor has left to me, as he left it to many others, of inestimable value, which we could not buy and with which we cannot part. THE FIFTIETH BIRTHDAY OF AGASSIZ BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW It was fifty years ago In the pleasant month of May, And Nature, the old nurse, took Thy Father has written for thee." "Come wander with me," she said, 66 And read what is still unread In the manuscripts of God." And he wandered away and away And whenever the way seemed long, She would sing a more wonderful song, So she keeps him still a child, Though at times his heart beats wild For the beautiful Pays de Vaud; Though at times he hears in his dreams And the mother at home says, "Hark! And my boy does not return!" THE MARVELOUS TOWER BY WASHINGTON IRVING (See biographical sketch on page 113) This story, founded upon an old Spanish legend, is from a volume of tales which was published after Irving's death. Roderick was the last of the Gothic kings of Spain. His kingdom was invaded by the Arabs, and he was defeated and killed in 711. I The morning sun shone brightly upon the cliff-built towers of Toledo, when King Roderick issued out of the gate of the city, at the head of a numerous train of courtiers and cavaliers, and crossed the bridge that bestrides. the deep, rocky bed of the Tagus. The shining cavalcade wound up the road that leads among the mountains, and soon came in sight of the necromatic tower. This singular tower was round, and of great height and grandeur, erected upon a lofty rock and surrounded by crags and precipices. The foundation was supported by four brazen lions, each taller than a cavalier on horseback. The walls were built of small pieces of jasper and various colored marbles, not larger than a man's hand; so joined, however, that but for their different hues, they might be taken for one entire stone. They were arranged with marvelous cunning, so as to represent battles and warlike deeds of times and heroes long since passed away. The whole surface was so admirably polished that the stones were as lustrous as glass, and reflected the rays of the sun with such resplendent brightness as to dazzle all beholders. King Roderick and his courtiers arrived wondering and amazed at the foot of the rock. Here there was a narrow arched way cut through the living stone-the only entrance to the tower. It was closed by a massive iron gate covered with rusty locks of divers workmanship in the fashion of different centuries, which had been affixed by the predecessors of Don Roderick. On either side of the portal stood the two ancient guardians of the tower, laden with the keys belonging to the locks. The king alighted and, approaching the portals, ordered the guardians to unlock the gate. The hoary-headed men drew back with terror. "Alas!" cried they, "what is it your majesty requires of us? Would you have the mischiefs of this tower unbound and let loose to shake the earth to its foundations?" The venerable Archbishop Urbino likewise implored him not to disturb a mystery which had been held sacred from generation to generation within the memory of man, and which even Cæsar himself, when sovereign of Spain, had not ventured to invade. The youthful cavaliers, how |