THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION 



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"I have been so busy with other 

 things. You have no idea how one's 

 tune is taken up with soeial duties. It 

 does seem as if I could not spare a 

 minute to visit ArcAdiA, yet 1 know 

 there is nothing more interesting" in all 

 the world than the delightful things 

 you have here." An attempt was made 

 to show her some of those delightful 

 things, but still she chattered on. As 

 she was so intensely appreciative of 

 ArcAdiA I felt that the best was not 

 too good for her. I brought out a fine 

 microscope and placed under it a pretty 

 slide and, as I anticipated, was re- 

 warded by a torrent of verbiage. "Isn't 

 that beautiful and interesting, so mer- 

 velously beautiful and interesting! 

 What a delightful life you must live 

 among such wonders as these! If 1 

 was here, I think I would spend all 

 my time in looking at such beautiful 

 and interesting things. Will you look 

 at that? Isn't that charming?" Turn- 

 ing to the lady friend who had been 

 standing near-by smiling at the ver- 

 bose enthusiasm, she continued, "You 

 must come and see this, it is such an 

 amazing thing. Look at its wonderful 

 and graceful form. I envy anybody 

 that can live among such beauties as 

 these. Now look there, at the upper 

 part. Isn't that wonderfully interest- 

 ing? Why it looks — , why, it looks 

 like a little dog's tail. You can see it 

 there." 



I tried to show her other things, and 

 succeeded in setting free a flood of 

 gushing praise for our work. I wish 

 that I could appreciate nature as I see 

 that some people appreciate her, — as 

 they rush to catch a train or a trolley 

 car. I wish I could live in a delirium 

 of ecstasy, and rave over trees and the 

 song of birds and atmospheric color 

 effects, but my love of nature has never 

 been cultivated to that degree. It 

 should not be so much waterfall and 

 rippling brooklet, as a steady flow of 

 the stream of nature. It is love and 

 the application of all the powers of 

 mind and body, and never yet have I 

 been able to throw an unabridged diction- 

 ary of enthusiasm at her — while I have 

 been running to catch the train. 



A party of about eighty, two-thirds of 

 them children, the rest adults, were re- 

 cently spending the day at ArcAdiA. 

 They came at about ten o'clock in the 

 forenoon and made their plans to go 



home at about four in the afternoon. 

 They had plenty of time, in a favorite 

 part of the laboratory I was showing a 

 few of these visitors some things upon 

 which I had spent almost a lifetime of 

 work and that seemed to me marvelously 

 interesting. As space was limited, after 

 a few of these people had seen what I 

 had to show, they went out to make room 

 for others. An attendant outside heard 

 some of the visitors who had not been to 

 this favorite spot inquire of those who 

 were going out, "Is there anything there 

 worth going to see?" And the reply 

 was, "No, nothing at all; no use in your 

 going in there." And yet I had been 

 showing what to me seemed to be the 

 best things to be seen, but to those with 

 whom I had labored my labor had been 

 in vain. There was nothing there worth 

 going to see, notwithstanding that for 

 more than half an hour I had been ex- 

 ploiting some of the best of nature's 

 work. Then I dreamed. I saw a throng 

 of people coming from old mother earth. 

 They met those who were to visit that 

 fascinating place and heard the inquiry, 

 "Anything worth going down there to 

 see?" And the reply was, "No, nothing 

 at all." Then I awoke with a start. You 

 can see, but you won't see. You are too 

 busy with your petty affairs and thoughts 

 to take time to look at that world of 

 marvels." 



There is still another type of the 

 observer of nature that, we are thank- 

 ful to say. frequently comes to 

 ArcAdiA. He dropped in last week. 

 He came in the form of a doctor with 

 his friend from New York. I said, 

 "Are you in a hurry?" "No, we want 

 to know what you have and have come 

 prepared to take sufficient time to find 

 out." "Good!" I said, "you are a rare 

 treat. The worry of my life has been 

 the person that is rushing to catch the 

 train. I sometimes wish the depot or 

 the trolley road was farther away. Or 

 there is an almost equal annoyance in 

 the one that is so intensely apologetic 

 about 'taking much of your valuable 

 time :' " My time is valuable, I admit ; 

 it is worth at least two dollars a min- 

 ute; that is judging from the pleasure 

 I sometimes take as compared with 

 the pleasure of some people whose 

 cash income is actually two dollars a 

 minute. But I am always glad to 

 spend at least a hundred and fifty 



