THE A SSOCIA TION'S FRIENDS, 151 



what we have tried to do than derided for our failures 

 or censured for our faults. Scientific men of highest 

 repute, men like Ramsay of England, and men like 

 Agassiz, Hyatt, Winchell, Remsen, Gould, Oilman, and 

 Scudder of America, have extended to us the hand of 

 recognition. 



The press has almost always been indulgent; and, 

 although we have often exposed ourselves to fair 

 attacks of satire, our real desire to do honest work has 

 turned the most caustic pen to kindness. 



In speaking of our helpers, I should be unjust if I 

 failed to mention with renewed gratitude and honor 

 the large number of scientists who have voluntarily 

 devoted their valuable time to the cheerful and patient 

 assistance of our needs. More than fifty gentlemen 

 representing all departments of science hold them- 

 selves always ready to answer the questions that puzzle 

 us. Thanks to their benevolence, the boy who lives in the 

 remotest and smallest village can send his bit of stone 

 or his curious beetle to one of these men, and learn its 

 name and history, and, better still, be taught how he 

 may best study by himself its structure and its history. 

 Some of these professors have even volunteered to 

 conduct courses of study in various branches. We have 

 had courses in botany, entomology, and mineralogy. 



It seems at first thought difficult, if not impossible, 

 to suggest any general principle of study that can 

 apply to the whole Association, for it is composed of 

 elements so diverse. We are of all ages, of varying 

 capacities and differing desires, living in places widely 

 distant and strangely different. Some of us pick our 

 violets in June, others in January: But there is a com- 

 mon ground on which all stand love for nature, and 

 desire to learn. And there is one principle that under- 

 lies and determines the methods of our study. It is 

 this : Nature must be studied from her own book. 



