Ti8 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [5:5— may, 1909 



there is no logical way out so long as she lives in a world where 

 lamb chop, beefsteak and roast chicken are articles of ordinary- 

 diet, — a world in fact where every meal is based upon the death 

 of some creature. For if she places much emphasis upon the 

 sacredness of life, the children soon begin to question whether it 

 be right to slay the lamb or the chicken for their own food. It 

 would seem that there is nothing for the consistent nature-study 

 teacher to do but become a vegetarian, and even then there 

 might arise refinements in this question of taking life, and she 

 may have to consider the cruelty to asparagus in cutting it off in 

 its plump infancy or the ethics of devouring in the turnip the 

 food laid up by the mother plant to perfect her seed. In fact, a 

 most rigorous diet would be forced upon the teacher who would 

 refuse to sustain her own existence at the cost of life; and if she 

 should attempt to teach the righteousness of such a diet, she 

 would undoubtedly forfeit her position, and yet what is she to do! 

 She will soon find herself in the position of a certain lady who 

 placed sheets of sticky fly paper around her kitchen to rid her 

 house of flies, and then in mental anguish picked off the buzzing, 

 struggling victims and sought to clean their too adhesive wings 

 and legs. 



In fact, drawing the line between what to kill and what to let 

 live, requires the use of common sense rather than logic. First of 

 all, the nature-study teacher Avhile exemplifying and encouraging 

 the humane attitude toward the lower creatures and repressing 

 cruelty which wantomly causes suffering should never magnify 

 the terrors of death. Death is as natural as life and the inevi- 

 table end of physical life on our globe. Therefore, every story 

 and every sentiment expressed which makes the child feel that 

 death is terrible is wholly wrong. The one right way to teach 

 about death is not to emphasize it one way or another, but to 

 deal with it as a circumstance common to all; it should be no 

 more emphasized than the fact that the creature ate, or fell 

 asleep. David Starr Jordan deals with this subject in all his 

 children's stories in an ideal manner. In his story of a salmon he 

 states: "Then there were many more little salmon with him, 

 some larger and some smaller, but they all had a very merry 

 time. Those who had been born soonest and had grown largest 

 used to chase the others around and bite off their tails, or still 

 better, take them by the heads and swallow them whole; 'for,' 



