EDITORIAL 



39 



ing Christ Who had quite evidently 

 something else to do besides swinging 

 Indian clubs. He took to the woods 

 and fields in all his spare time. He told 

 us about the birds and flowers and the 

 trees and the vines that He had ob- 

 served. When a Y. M. C. A. has none 

 of these things to do it is not fully car- 

 rying out its mission in the name of the 

 great lover of nature who told us to 

 "consider the lilies of the field, how 

 they grow." Within a gymnasium you 

 cannot watch the growing lilies of the 

 field. 



It is a good thing to build elaborate 

 hospitals for the care of consumptives. 

 The writer can speak with authority 

 and deep personal feeling on this sub- 

 ject because his mother died of con- 

 sumption and he lost a large number 

 of near relatives by that dread disease, 

 tuberculosis. Cod liver oil, swings, 

 vaulting horses and hospitals for the 

 victims of tuberculosis all have their 

 value but all combined are not equal 

 to Mother Nature's sanitorium pro- 

 vided in her realms there is proper in- 

 terest and activity. Nearly a half a 

 century ago after a farmer had in vain 

 exhausted his entire financial resources 

 on various other members of the fam- 

 ily, in the remedies so-called for con- 

 sumption, a wise doctor told him, "Let 

 that boy take to the woods and keep 

 him interested therein." That is the 

 reason he is here giving you the good 

 advice of going to Mother Nature as 

 a preventive. Thousands of dollars 

 have been given to cure the victims of 

 consumption where a penny has been 

 given to prevent the boy or girl from 

 having it. 



It is good, it has been over and over 

 again proved to be good, to get the 

 business man, or the professional man, 

 or the society woman out of the city 

 into a country home. Why not learn 

 wisdom from this and get the boy or 

 girl from the center of Greenwich into 

 the country or among suburban at- 

 tractions and teaching and influences? 

 Greenwich, it is true, is not a large 

 city, but there are boys and girls 

 within Greenwich as completely iso- 

 lated from nature as are those around 

 the City Hall of New York City. Why 

 in both places do they play? Because 

 "there is nothing to do." Oh, those 

 five words are ponderous with their 

 load of meaning. Consider them care- 



fully. Much of the future welfare of 

 the nation depends upon your method 

 of handling that significant load of 

 meaning. Why do so many men, 

 weary with the day's labor in the fac- 

 tory, go to the saloon? Because "there 

 is nothing else to do." They know 

 nothing else. They have been taught 

 nothing else. Why are there so many 

 cheap and frivolous pastimes for chil- 

 dren? Because "there is nothing else 

 to do." Why so much thoughtless idle- 

 ness, so much repulsive, perhaps ma- 

 licious gossip, so many evil occupa- 

 tions? Because "there is nothing else 

 to do." Simply this and nothing more, 

 "Nothing else to do." 



But not so are the principles of The 

 Agassiz Asociation. We believe in 

 activity for the entire person, the body 

 as well as the mind, in the play of the 

 woods and the fields, the walk in the 

 meadows, the uplift of flowers and 

 birds, the country home or the sub- 

 urban cottage, the seeing of things and 

 not only the running after a ball. 

 These should come in to supply the 

 missing link, the tremendously vital 

 missing link that Mrs. Anderson recog- 

 nizes and deplores when she says be- 

 cause "there is nothing else to do." 



The Knowledge He Prizes. 

 The college may turn out a linguis- 

 tic automaton, with mind blank to 

 chemistry, history, economics, and 

 psychology ; but the result is too 

 dreadful to contemplate. As it is, the 

 scientific training of most of us poor 

 bachelors of art is desultory and pica- 

 yune. The only science that I was 

 taught was a little biology and ge- 

 ology ; but slender as is that knowl- 

 edge, I cling to it with great affection. 

 The broadening effect of even one 

 science is incalculable. When I com- 

 pare the glorious vistas that historic 

 geology laid open before my very soul 

 with Plato's story of the death of 

 Socrates — and there is nothing finer in 

 Greek literature — I stand unhesitat- 

 ingly by the geology. A tribolite is 

 preferable to a second aorist. He, at 

 any rate, is animate. And to think that 

 had it not been for the pornographic 

 plays of Terence, some knowledge of 

 astronomy or botany might have been 

 mine!— Walter Phelps Hall in "Why 

 I have a Bad Education," in "The Out- 

 look." 



