THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION. 



257 



niiy. Every fact has a meaning. It 

 is part of the relation of cause and 

 effect; and the great students of na- 

 ture are those who have been able to 

 see the fact and to look behind it to 

 the principle or law or cause of which 

 it is a visible result. I regard your 

 Association as one of the most import- 

 ant educational institutions of this 

 country. 



I congratulate you on finding in it 

 so valuable an opportunity, and I con- 



DAVID STARR JORDAN 



President Leland Stanford Junior University. 

 California. 



"I regard your Association as one of the 

 most important educational institu- 

 tions of this country." 



gratulate the boys and girls of this 

 country on finding so admirable a 

 leader. 



In an address at Buffalo some years 

 ago, I had occasion to say: 



The first relation of the child to ex- 

 ternal things is expressed in this: 

 What can I do with it? What is its 

 1 elation to me? The sensation goes 

 over into thought, the thought into 

 action. Thus the impression of the 

 object is built into the little universe 

 of his mind. The objects and the ac- 

 tion it implies are closely associated 

 as more objects are apprehended, more 

 complete relations arise, but the pri- 

 mal condition remains — What can I do 

 with it? Sensation, thought, action— 

 this is the natural sequence of each 

 completed mental process. As volition 

 passes over into action, so does science 

 into art, knowledge into power, w is- 

 dom into virtue. 



By the study of realities, wisdom is 

 built up. In the relations of objects 

 he can touch and move, the child 

 comes to find the limitations of his 

 powers, the laws that govern pheno- 

 mena, and to which his actions must 

 be in obedience. So long as he deals 

 with realities, these laws stand in their 

 proper relation. "So simple, so nat- 

 ural, so true," says Agassiz. This is 

 the charm of dealing with Nature her- 

 self. She brings us back to absolute 

 truth so often as we wander. 



So long as a child is led from one 

 reality to another, never lost in words 

 or 111 abstractions, so long this natural 

 relation remains. What can I do with 

 it? is the beginning of wisdom. "What 

 is it to me?" is the basis of personal 

 virtue. 



Very truly yours, 



rO«u*K, 5^i GlsZa^ 



