X 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



Inspection and Cooperation. 



The cashbooks may be inspected by 

 any Member or Contributor. Every 

 detail of the work will be made clear 

 to any one. We need more money, 

 and have full confidence that, with in- 

 creased knowledge by our Members 

 and friends, and by the public in gen- 

 eral as to the exact situation, it will be 

 freely given. 



Here is a work of merit in the inter- 

 ests of humanity that should be prop- 

 erly financed for full efficiency. No- 

 where else in all the world has so much 

 been accomplished in forty years with 

 so little money ; nowhere has there 

 been greater faithfulness, or more de- 

 voted service for the uplift, the educa- 

 tion, the improvement of humanity. 



forty Vears Past: Torcper in future. 



The Agassiz Association was organ- 

 ized forty years ago on the grandest 

 principle that ever associated boys and 

 girls, men and women. It regards 

 every individual as supreme, and has 

 as common subject the Universe and 

 its Maker. "Per naturam ad Deum" is 

 its motto today as it has been for four 

 decades. 



The university, not the kindergarten, 

 has always been the point of view. No 

 one lines up a class and says, "Here is 

 the game ; I will show you how to play 

 it;" no one tells you what clothes you 

 shall wear, nor what thoughts you 

 shall think. The youngest child is as 

 free to see and to tell as is the eldest 

 member of the Association, or the vet- 

 eran technical scientist in his learned 

 monograph, whose joy of seeing and 

 telling in his way is no greater for him 

 than is that of the beginner. In fact 

 the veteran realizes better than the 

 novice that he is only a beginner, that 

 there is yet before him much for him to 

 learn. 



The Agassiz Association expresses 

 itself in terms of peace, civilization, 

 equality, and dignified self-respect. It 

 regards no one as a "tough" and treats 

 no one as needing reformation. It as- 

 sumes that human nature is not bad 

 but good. It exalts no one on account 

 of his wealth, knowledge or station. 

 The greatest thing to do is faithfully to 

 serve others. There is no exaltation of 



office. No chiefs have charge of inferiors. 

 Ever}' one is a chief when he unselfishly 

 gives of the greatest thing in the world, 

 his ability "to see and to tell," for the 

 benefit of others, not to confer a favor 

 in the seeing and the telling, but for the 

 privilege; of doing it. 



The Agassiz Association regards every 

 member as innately kind The Agassiz 

 Association embodies the law of love, not 

 the love of law. Its kindness to man be- 

 gins when he is a boy. To have him love 

 a horse, is better than to punish him in 

 court for having pounded a horse. 



The Agassiz Association requires no 

 course of study. Every member is a 

 teacher. Even the youngest goes directly 

 to Nature's storehouse, helps himself, and 

 for additional joy, points the way to some 

 one else. A child, as well as a man, may 

 play on the ocean's edge, and each may 

 be the teacher of the other, and the joy 

 of each will inspire the other. 



No one outgrows The Agassiz x^sso- 

 ciation. In old age it is not remembered 

 as a thing for boys or girls, but the en- 

 thusiasm of youth grows stronger with 

 age. As Dr. Van Dyke has truly said: 

 Let me but live my life from year to 

 year. 

 With forward face and unreluctant 

 soul, 

 Not hastening to nor turning from 



the goal; 

 Not mourning for the things that dis- 

 appear 

 In the dim past, nor holding back in 

 fear 

 From what the future veils, but with 



a whole 

 And happy heart, that pays its toll 

 To Youth and Age, and travels on 

 with cheer. 



When members of The Agassiz Asso- 

 ciation go to walk, they are not sharp- 

 eyed with one eye and blind in the other. 

 "Everything is 'fish' that comes to the 

 net of a naturalist." A bird is indeed of 

 interest but so is the tree through which 

 it flies or where it sings its song. 



The Agassiz Association seeks to de- 

 velop mind and heart. It appeals to the 

 thoughtful rather than to the thoughtless. 



Individual members and organized 

 Chapters of members are free to do things 

 in their own way. It has never been in 

 the glare of great public popularity. The 

 Agassiz Association considers it more 

 important to observe than to be observed. 



