MOTHERS AND NATURAL SCIENCE. 79 i 



only to those miserable beings who have little capacity for amuse- 

 ment. There should be much delight in study, but there will be 

 disagreeable drudgery as well, and any training is false which 

 does not teach the child to do the drudgery promptly and faith- 

 fully. A mother who saves her child from disagreeable tasks 

 does him the grave injury of sending him forth into adult life 

 without the fixed habits which will enable him to meet its re- 

 sponsibilities with ease and dignity. 



Now, for all this development of a child into a worthy man or 

 woman natural-science studies have peculiar fitness. To secure 

 and preserve health, considerable knowledge of these studies is a 

 necessity ; and their relations to preparation for self-support are 

 obvious. In the proper pursuit of natural-science studies the 

 capacities for accurate observation, for painstaking experiment, 

 and for unbiased sincerity are developed ; and without these ca- 

 pacities there can be no true progress in them. A slight preju- 

 dice introduced as a factor in estimating the results of a series of 

 observations will vitiate the result, and may ruin the value of 

 the whole work. Natural-science studies are as exact as mathe- 

 matics in demanding obedience to their own laws. Reflection 

 upon these considerations will show their value for intellectual 

 development and training. The moral and spiritual influence of 

 these studies is not less great. A child learns to be truthful in 

 the presence of truth that never swerves ; learns to be gentle when 

 at work where one rude touch may destroy the labor of weeks ; to 

 be brave when he sees the struggle which everything in Nature 

 makes for its own development ; to be patient in waiting for Na- 

 ture's slow processes ; persevering when he sees that she gives up 

 her secrets after repeated efforts only, often to be made under cir- 

 cumstances appalling to a spirit less mighty than her own ; mod- 

 est when he and his little come into daily comparison with her 

 and her abundance ; obedient when he sees that obedience to law 

 brings beauty, pleasure, and life, and disobedience brings deform- 

 ity, sorrow, and death ; reverent before the majesty and power 

 and glory of Him who is the life of Nature ; generous, because 

 she pours out her whole wealth to-day, never fearing that the 

 morrow will not care for itself ; joyous, because above all her 

 struggle and pain rises a perpetual paean of triumph. 



If convinced that natural-science studies have special fitness 

 for the training of children, with what study shall a mother begin 

 to work ? Although Nature herself indicates an order which may 

 be pursued with advantage, this order is not so important that it 

 need be attempted where conditions do not favor it. This order 

 takes, first, rocks and soils, with enough of chemistry and physics 

 to explain some processes of soil and rock making ; second, plants, 

 as depending on soil, air, and sunlight ; third, animal life ; and 



