246 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [2 : 7 -oct., .906 



This fact itself speaks volumes for the content of the subject and 

 gives courage which would otherwise be hard to entertain. 



The most valuable asset in equipment is sympathy. This is the 

 keynote of success in our dealings with the world about us. It unlocks 

 the doors of treasure vaults in scientific research. In so far as the 

 scientist is able to divest himself of himself and imbibe the spirit of the 

 thing which he investigates, in just so far is he making himself capable 

 of interpretations which are of real and permanent value. When the 

 farmer comes into sympathy with the soil and learns that his business 

 is not all a game of grab, but that the soil must be ministered unto, 

 then will he reach the condition where it will return to him his richest 

 harvest. 



So the teacher in sympathy with nature is thrice armed. He enters 

 into her moods; learns her facts, open or hidden; and peers into her 

 future with prophetic eye. How can we attain this? To some souls 

 it appears to be given as a benediction from above; to many it may 

 be secured by contact with the things themselves; for the rest it may 

 cost conscious effort and exercise of will. 



The second element in equipment is scientific knowledge. First 

 place must be given to facts. Cold and hard and uninviting as they 

 may be, they are the foundation stones upon which we must build. 

 To them we must always return when the tempests have scattered 

 our castles in the air. Second in importance we shall place the great 

 principles of science. The master minds have given us these as the 

 yard sticks with which we may measure the facts about us. Third, 

 a mastery of the scientific method. The psalmist wished for the 

 wings of the bird and bequeathed to us this legacy. How much that 

 is false and visionary might have been avoided, how much of human 

 suffering, how many blasted human hopes might have been averted if 

 men had known how to interpret the world about them ? Much of 

 nature-study, so called, must fall to pieces because it will not with- 

 stand this battering ram of modern thought. 



The third element is pedagogical method. It is not our purpose 

 to discuss this problem further than to call attention to a distinction 

 which may be helpful. The ordinary science teacher teaches from 

 the standpoint of his subject. That is his center. He seeks to find 

 the light which will make his subject visible to the pupil. That is 

 one reason why so many students find science studies uninteresting, 

 not from any fault in the subject or the pupil, but because the line 



