!8o THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [ 2:s - may, x 9 o6 



esthetic nature, to lay a foundation for geography or for literature, to 

 give the first steps in scientific knowledge. 



Thus we see that various people have proposed various aims for 

 nature-study, and I believe its aims are various. Many of these are 

 important, but I believe all are either subordinate or incidental to a 

 higher aim, toward which the accomplishment of the others is only 

 a series of progressive steps. That aim is the developing and making 

 per ma nent of a loving and sympa the tic conta ct or fellows h ip with na ture . 

 And if the intellect, feelings and will of the individual are in right 

 relations with nature, great progress has been made in the formation 

 of ritrht character. 



IV. The Source 



Possibly no statement could be more truly axiomatic than that the 

 fundamental source of subjects for nature-study should be nature her- 

 self, and not second-hand statements about, or representations ot 

 nature, such as are found in pictures and books, or as may be made 

 by persons. Nevertheless I say with all confidence in the correctness 

 of my view that more children, by far, are placed in the position of 

 endeavoring to get their ideas of nature from books and from the 

 statements of persons, especially teachers, than are taken or sent to 

 nature or have nature brought to them, as a first hand source. 



I wish to emphasize with all the force I can command that the chief, 

 the fundamental, the pre-eminent source of nature-study should be nature 

 herself. Not until the child has become acquainted with the object 

 through his physical senses should he be set to reading about it in 

 books, or made to listen to statements concerning it by his teacher. 



I do not wish to be understood as under-rating the value of nature 

 books, nor of vocal instruction by a good teacher; but these should 

 follow, not precede, the first-hand contact with nature herself. It is 

 only when there is in the child a mental concept of that part of nature 

 which is being dealt with, that literature can be appreciated or the 

 teacher's statements comprehended and understood. 



Nature in her own haunts is the pre-eminent source; but there are 

 supplemental sources which may be used to great advantage. Of 

 these the museum is most closely allied to nature first-hand. Some 

 of the second hand sources that have great value, after first impres- 

 sions have been made from nature herself, are statements made orally 

 by persons and found in books, and representations made by pictures. 



