196 The Ottawa Naturalist, [January 



speaks of " the manuscripts of God " as " a storybook thy Father 

 has written for thee," 



" 'T is elder Scripture, writ by God's own hand ; 

 Scripture authentic ! uncorrupt by man." 



" Nature is the incarnation of a thought and turns to thought 

 again as ice becomes water and gas The world is mind precipit- 

 ated and the volatile essence is forever escaping again into the 

 state of free thought. Hence the virtue and pungency of the 

 influence on the mind of natural objects, whether inorganic or 

 organized. Man imprisoned, man crystallized, man vegetative, 

 speaks to man impersonated." Emerson. 



In harmony with Emerson's conception, Nature Study may 

 be defined as : Active, earnest, and reverent attention to our 

 physical environment with the object of endeavoring to interpret 

 the thoughts there objectified thereby bringing ourselves into 

 unity with the Source of All. 



It may be contended that the foregoing is too transcendental 

 a definition for a subject that deals with what is material. But is 

 the ideal too high ? The greatest thought of the nineteenth 

 century is nothing more than a philosophical principle ba-ed on 

 careful Nature Study : the theory oi Evolution is a sublime inter- 

 pretation of observed facts of nature. 



Educationists have grouped the various subjects in a perfect 

 course of study into four classes, the aims of which are res- 

 pectively : 



a. The acquisition of Knowledge. 



b. The development ot Skill. 



c. The acquirement of Discipline. 



d. The attainment of Culture. 



If a subject is instrumental in furthering any one of these 

 aims it has a claim to be represented on an educational curriculum. 

 If, however, it secures all four it should unquestionably be em- 

 ployed as an instrument of education. Let us briefly consider the 

 efficiency of Nature Study from these standpoints. 



a. The first in time, but from an educationist standpoints, the 

 last in importance are the Guidance studies, the particular pur- 

 pose of which is to furnish the mind with facts, information, 



