14 THE NA TURE-STUDY REIVE IV u . ,_ JAN ., Ig0& 



that in nature-study the purpose is not the accumulation of facts, 

 it is the development of power or an attitude of mind. This 

 remains true, however, that the facts clearly and definitely 

 perceived are the very ones that are clearly and definitely re- 

 lated and that those which have become a part of the furniture 

 of the mind by right of conquest by the senses, constitute the 

 raw material of subsequent acts of reason and judgment. Power 

 is not exhausted in order to accumulate facts. Facts are used 

 that power may be developed. If one wishes to climb a mountain 

 he may choose any one of many paths with absolute confidence 

 thac if persistently followed it will lead him to the summit. 

 The path he chooses may be determined because of the side of 

 the mountain on which he finds himself, or because it is hard or 

 because it is easy, but whatever the determinative factor of 

 the choice, the path leads to the summit. It is so in the develop- 

 ment of power in the external senses; anyone of many materials 

 may be chosen with the absolute certainty that it will lead to the 

 summit of power if it be persistently followed. The uniformity 

 lies in the result, not in the methods by which the result is 

 reached. The uniformity lies in the attitude of mind, not in the 

 material used to induce that attitude. 



The net results sought in nature-study may be summarized 

 somewhat as follows: The development of: (i) the external 

 senses to a high degree of rapidity and precision; (2) an attitude 

 of close and sympathetic relationship with nature in her varied 

 manifestations; (3) an avidity for further knowledge through 

 conquest by the senses; (4) a sturdy self-reliance born out of 

 first-hand knowledge. 



Science concerns itself with a definite body of knowledge and 

 the laws which may have been deduced from that body of 

 knowledge. These laws it seeks to verify or disprove, to broaden 

 or limit by new facts, by more critical and recondite observations. 

 Its assumption is that the pupil possesses power for the mastery 

 of the subject. This means a mastery of the facts themselves, 

 of their relations and of the deductions drawn from them. The 

 primarv purpose is the mastery of the facts. What power is 

 possessed is of course increased by its exercise; but this is an 

 incident of the work, not its purpose. This purpose is the 

 mastery of a bodv of facts definitely organized and referred so far 

 as our knowledge permits to laws of greater or less comprehensive- 

 ness. 



