1 62 THE NA TUKE-STUD Y RE VIE W U = 5-mav, 1908 



less in his destruction of animal life only because he has not a 

 sympathetic knowledge of its proper place in nature's plan. 

 Throughout the grades the child should not be taught to see ani- 

 mals, birds and insects with the eye of the zoologist, but rather to 

 look on them as fellow creatures whose lives with their manifold 

 doings become objectsof sympathetic interest. The finesthumane 

 education comes through the channels of the unconscious posi- 

 tive training of a well-regulated nature-study course. 



Sympathetic insight into the home industries falls within the 

 limits of a comprehensive nature-study course. In rural districts 

 and small towns there is an opportunity to see first hand the 

 agricultural and horticultural methods pursued in the country 

 adjacent to the schools. In the larger cities the child can be 

 brought into sympathetic touch with the innumerable industries 

 which keep the complex mechanism of city life going. 



A consideration of our moral and civic difficulties viewed in the 

 light of nature-study opens up a field of discussion large enough 

 to occupy a separate paper. Only a few salient points can be 

 touched in a paper of this type. Nature-study educates towards 

 the simple life in an age where there is an inordinate love for 

 material things, and a feverish struggle for wealth and power and 

 position. Nature -study educates towards the healthful life by 

 emphasizing in a thousand ways the old saying that it is of ut- 

 most importance to have a "sound body as well as a sound 

 mind. ' ' These things alone which are the direct results of nature- 

 study would amply justify our giving it freer scope in our educa- 

 tional system. There are other silent and indefinable influences 

 which react on the public good and make nature-study worthy 

 to hold both now and in the future a high place as a practical way 

 of realizing high ideals. 



