262 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



Dr. Hertzberg's Appreciation of The 

 Agassiz Association. 



Dr. G. R. R. Hertzberg of Stamford 

 recently inspected the equipment and 

 work of The Agassiz Association and 

 as a result soon afterwards sent Dr. 

 Bigelow the letter published herewith. 

 This letter so preeminently has the 

 right conception of ArcAdiA as a na- 

 ture institution of world-wide value 

 as to be worth careful consideration. 

 It not only well portrays the dignity 

 of the ambitions and scope of The Ag- 

 assiz Association as meriting the devo- 

 tion of a lifetime and many thousands 

 of dollars, but tends to correct popular 

 error on the part of those who insist 

 upon looking on nature study as a fad 

 or hobby well enough to be given in 

 moderate doses to the children or to 

 be dabbled in by a fanatical few. 

 My dear Doctor Bigelow : 



Permit me to contribute the enclosed 

 small check of ten dollars toward re- 

 leasing ArcAdiA from the bondage of 

 debt. Let us hope that in the very 

 near future The Agassiz Association 

 may start the collection of an endow- 

 ment fund, the income from which 

 shall serve to pay you and your able 

 co-workers a living salary. 



This work I am sure, would be car- 

 ried much beyond even its present 

 magnificent scope by you, were you 

 able to give to it all your time, unhar- 

 ried by material care. I firmly believe 

 that The Agassiz Association owes it 

 to you and to itself, to finance the work 

 in such a manner, as to enable you to 

 devote all your splendid powers and 

 energy to this task alone. The poten- 

 tial power of ArcAdiA even at the pre- 

 sent status is a thing of wonder. Its 

 capacity and facility as arranged by 

 you to reach every student, no matter 

 of what age or what his bent, cannot 

 be excelled with the equij^ment and 

 material at hand. 



Tt must be a revelation to the visitor 

 to ArcAdiA who has heard of it as a 

 thing to amuse children to see the 

 facilities given to not only children, 

 l)ut to any and all nature students of 

 whatever age, to follow any line of 

 "nature study," be it the unravelling 

 of the mysteries of the starry heavens, 

 or the community life of the busy bee, 

 or the entrancing life metamorphosis 

 of the lowly caterpillar, or to make the 



acquaintance of our numerous beauti- 

 fully garbed and flute-throated, feath- 

 ered friends, or a knowledge of nature's 

 very own carpet, woven in growths of 

 wondrous beauty, by which she covers 

 even the coldest and roughest places 

 of the earth, plants and flowers, shrubs 

 and vines — always something new, 

 something more beautiful than seen 

 before. All this you have opened up 

 to any and all who may want to learn. 



To bring to people a love of the 

 great outdoors is to make them live 

 fuller and richer lives. Every man or 

 woman that loves the green fields, the 

 woods and the creatures of the air and 

 the wild places is a better man or wom- 

 an for that love. For in attempting 

 to solve the mysteries of the little lives 

 around us, we are taken out of our- 

 selves, away from the petty cares and 

 vexations of daily life and our identity 

 merges into the sublimity of the crea- 

 tion and we forget our trouljles and 

 tribulations. 



To afford to limitless numl)ers of all 

 kinds and conditions of people, an op- 

 portunity to start where they wish and 

 to go as far as they like in their study 

 of nature, is certainly a great work and 

 should receive recognition and en- 

 couragement. In your arrangement of 

 ArcAdiA, your unselfish and untiring 

 devotion to your ideal, and in your de- 

 sire to spread this love of nature, you 

 have accomplished a task that any man 

 ma}- well be proud of, and I hope that 

 many years may be given you to carry 

 on this chosen work of yours on a larg- 

 er and unhampered scale. 



Yours sincerely. 

 (Signed) R. Hertzberg. 



Personal Expression for Public Good. 



We begin to ap])roach this time by 

 the support, through semi-pul^lic agen- 

 cies, of persons to accomplish certain 

 results or to undertake special pieces 

 of work, particularly of research ; but 

 we have not yet attained the higher 

 aim of endowing individuals to ex])ress 

 themselves personally. There are lib- 

 erated personalities, rare and prophetic, 

 who are consumed only in making a 

 living but who should be given unre- 

 servedly to the people : the people are 

 much in need. Never have we needed 

 the separate soul so much as now. — L. 

 H. Bailey in "The Holy Earth." 



