WAVES OF INTEREST. 139 



condition and progress of the Agassiz Association at 

 large, and be led to take an active interest in its 

 growth and prosperity. In the second place we must 

 be prepared for inconstancy and defection, to a certain 

 extent, in despite of our most conscientious efforts to 

 maintain interest ; and, when it comes, we must neither 

 be indignant nor discouraged. We must not be indig- 

 nant, because steady, persevering action is not natural 

 in young persons, but comes as the result of unusual 

 native endowment or of careful training. The interest 

 boys take even in their sports is fitful. They have 

 ' fevers ; ' the baseball fever, the kite fever, the col- 

 lecting fever, the Agassiz Association fever. Moreover 

 many causes conspire to make the interest less at some 

 times than others, the fluctuations of the weather, 

 the inequalities of health, the presence of unusual 

 outside attractions, the pressure of approaching exam- 

 inations. We must not be discouraged, because all 

 these causes of a lack of interest are transient. Base- 

 ball will be played just as vigorously when next season 

 comes around ; the now neglected kites are sure to be 

 tugging again at their strings by and by ; the collec- 

 tion, now forgotten and covered with dust, will be 

 cleaned and put in order after a time ; and the interest 

 in our Association work that languishes in December, 

 will certainly bloom again in May. More than this, 

 when the next wave of interest comes, it will come with 

 more staying power ; we shall all be a little older ; we 

 shall have profited by the errors of the past. The 

 best chapters we have to-day, many of them, are chap- 

 ters that have disbanded once or twice, and once and 

 again reorganized. It is from these considerations that 

 we were led to insert that clause in our rules, by which 

 so long as even one member retains his interest, he is 

 allowed to retain the name and number of a chapter, 

 once properly organized, and maintained for six 



