CONCL USION. 155 



birds not only, but every living thing never needlessly 

 to hurt or to destroy. 



What, after all, is our purpose in studying Nature ? 

 Is it to get for ourselves collections of rare and beau- 

 tiful objects ? Is it to amuse us during our leisure 

 hours ? Is it to train our powers of observation and 

 strengthen our minds by careful discipline ? Is it to 

 satisfy our natural thirst for knowledge, and to become 

 familiar with all the little strangers of the roadside 

 and the wood ? It is all this, but it should be much 

 more. We ought to be learning the grand and solemn 

 lesson that a Divine mind is showing its wisdom in 

 every leaf and pebble, and that a Divine heart is ex- 

 pressing its iove in every raindrop and in every flower. 

 This was the truth that filled the heart of him for 

 whom our Association is named this was the secret 

 of his untiring zeal, and the key to his deep love of 

 Nature. It has grown to be a pleasant custom for 

 our chapters to celebrate Professor Agassiz's birthday 

 (May 28), by means of an excursion or picnic, com- 

 bined with appropriate literary exercises ; and perhaps 

 on such an occasion nothing will more truly bring 

 home to us the sweet spirit of the great naturalist 

 than Whittier's poem, ' The Prayer of Agassiz ; ' or 

 Longfellow's lines on his fiftieth birthday, which, by 

 the courtesy of his publishers, we are able to repro- 

 duce. 



THE FIFTIETH BIRTHDAY OF AGASSIZ. 



MAY 28, 1867. 



IT was fifty years ago, 



In the pleasant month of May, 



In the beautiful Pays de Vaud, 

 A child in its cradle lay. 



