Milestones 13 



alterations be made. Sufficient funds being available, this building 

 was acquired, and on January 5, 1848, the Society met in its new 

 home. 



B 



The Thirtieth Milestone 

 . 1S60 

 Y the year 18G0 the Society had outgrown its Mason Street 



premises and had to look further afield for room to expand. 

 During the session of the Legislature in the winter of 1860-61 

 strenuous efforts were made by several members of the Society to 

 obtain a grant of land from the State on which to build a Museum. 

 These efforts proved successful and the site of the present building 

 in Berkeley Street was given to the Society by the State, and for 

 this gift the Society was as much indebted to Governor Andrew 

 as to any other man. 



Louis Agassiz was also a redoubtable ally. He made a notable 

 address in which he dwelt upon the desirableness of training the 

 young, from their earliest years, to observe and study the works 

 of God in Nature, urging this as among the best means of disci- 

 plining the intellectual powers, purifying the taste, and exalting the 

 character. He insisted that the study of the phenomena of Nature 

 was one of the most potent means of developing the human facul- 

 ties, and that such education should be introduced into the schools 

 as soon as practicable and made an indispensable part of all edu- 

 cation. He insisted that the time when the importance of this view 

 would be fully recognized was only so far remote as was necessary 

 for the preparation of teachers capable of imparting this informa- 

 tion. The whole force of his argument went to prove that such a 

 Society as ours was of inestimable importance to aid teachers in 

 their preparation. Agassiz felt with deep conviction that Natural 



