hudson] ORGANIC FIELD OF NATURE-STUDY 133 



value in education and yet it seems to be little known by teachers. 

 It is the "law of acceleration" of Cope and Hyatt. This law 

 will caution us against the common error of making the earlier 

 portions of our course too full of ancient detail. Too persistent 

 stimuli of the ancient type may be made to minister to character- 

 istics which are now on their normal way to extinction. The 

 newer parts of the field should receive the greater care. This 

 adjustment of the materials to the needs of the developing mind 

 is a question of some difficulty, but it is one that should receive 

 its proper attention. 



The aim of nature-study may well be made more definite. It 

 is not to train the child to raise cabbages and cucumbers, — 

 yet the raising or caring for something growing in the soil is very 

 essential to his obtaining a vivid basal idea concerning agri- 

 culture, and this knowledge is essential to good citizenship. He 

 must be led to realize his dependence on mother earth and to 

 learn how his race reaped the various blessings he now receives at 

 her hands. He may never become an investigator or searcher 

 for additional benefits, but as a citizen he will respect and will 

 foster research. Citizens of this stamp are needed. A com- 

 parison of the national attitudes of Russia and Japan toward 

 biological and physical research and its results are well worth 

 some earnest thought. In other words the training outlined 

 gives him a knowledge and a finer appreciation of a very vital 

 department of the history of civilization, with books in the hands 

 of his teachers but with real things in his own hands. He is 

 learning in the most fundamental manner by doing. 



Sections O to V are an attempt to indicate some directions 

 in which this study of the environment has reacted on man 

 and been an important factor in his mental development. 

 Ought not our course to be so planned as to secure in a definite 

 manner some of the effects of this reaction and is not here to be 

 found one of the most valuable things which our course might 

 give, the development of intellectual and ethical power? 



Hawthorne, in "Mosses from an Old Manse," has written: — 

 "Childless men, if they would know something of the bliss of 

 paternity, should plant a seed — be it squash, bean, Indian corn 

 or perhaps a mere flower or worthless weed — should plant it with 

 their own hands, and nurse it from infancy to maturity alto- 

 gether by their own care." Hodge, in "Nature-Study and 



