THREE KIN@DM5. 



CHAPTER I. 

 HISTORY OF THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION THE ORIGIN. 



The Agassiz Association, for the observation and 

 study of natural objects, was founded in 1875 by the 

 writer, in connection with a school which he was then 

 teaching in Lenox, Mass. It was the outgrowth of a 

 life-long love for nature, and a belief that education is 

 incomplete unless it include some practical knowledge 

 of the common objects that surround us. For several 

 years the little school society continued its work pleas- 

 antly and with profit. The president gradually came to 

 the opinion (strengthened by reading an account of a 

 somewhat similar, though far more limited, organiza- 

 tion in Switzerland), that there might be other communi- 

 ties in which a like society would be welcomed, and sev- 

 eral branch societies were organized. To test the matter 

 more fully, having obtained the cordial cooperation of 

 the editors of St. Nicholas, a general invitation to unite in 

 the work was published in 1880, in the November number 

 of that magazine. It was substantially as follows: 



THE INVITATION. 



You must know that, across the ocean and over the 

 Alps, the boys and girls of Switzerland have a bright idea. 

 They have formed a society, and they have a badge. 

 The badge is a spray of evergreen, and the society is a 

 Natural History Society. 



