92 



THE GL'IDE TO NATURE 



Darwin, Thoreau, Gibson, Burroughs, 

 Jefferies or other great masters of 

 nature communion, are disposed to 

 think of these observers as the all in 



all of nature, and that to read, record 

 and collect like them is the end and 

 aim of a naturalist's existence. These 

 things have their place and value, it is 

 true, hut the more we read, the more 

 we study, expound and classify, the 

 more distinctly do we realize that 

 these factors are hut the means to an 

 end. that the greater the master the 

 more eager is he to send us to nature, 

 and that he usually does so with the 

 simplicity and the humility of a child. 



Sometimes it seems sacrilegious to 

 teach nature or to attempt to classify 

 and arrange her possessions. The sub- 

 ject seems too great for us to compre- 

 hend, too holy to be thus handled by 

 our petty methods. 



Burroughs has correctly expressed 

 this thought — "I would not teach 

 nature; I would introduce young 

 people and nature to each other and let 

 an understanding and intimacy spring 

 up between them." 



Fortunate are those of us who can 

 rule out the "shop," and "the ways 



and means," and return to the loving 

 understanding and the boyish inti- 

 macy. More fortunate in many re- 

 spects, are those' who can get the "pro- 

 duction" without the '"machinery." 

 The production is the direct values 

 of nature; the machinery is the tedious 

 methods of getting these values. Such 

 thoughts have deepened in the past 

 few years as my acquaintance has in- 

 creased with a man who gets as near 

 to the reality of nature as any man 1 

 have ever met, although he has never 

 written an article, newer talked of his 

 love for nature except reluctantly to 

 the members of his family and to a few 

 intimate friends. We are so inured to 

 the exploitation in magazines and else- 

 where of the leader, the one already 

 famous, that it undoubtedly will be an 

 agreeable change to learn of one of the 

 faithful workers among the rank and 

 file, one of those that are typical of a 

 point of view that must be vastly mul- 

 tiplied before we shall be able to 

 accomplish an ideal result in what we 

 call "public opinion," a result earnestly 

 labored for by those wdio do advance 

 and think, but who do so quietly. 

 Such an ideal unit that should fav- 



MR. HOYT GOES TO HIS COUNTRY HOME EVERY DAY. 

 It is a short run by automobile from his city home in Stamford. 



