62 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



With 'scutcheons of silver the coffin is 



shielded, 

 And pages stand mute by the canopied pall : 

 Through the courts, at deep midnight, the 



torches are gleaming ; 

 In the proudly arched chapel the banners are 



beaming : 

 Far adown the long aisle sacred music is 



streaming, 

 Lamenting a Chief of the People should fall. 



But meeter for thee, gentle lover of nature, 

 To lay down thy head like the meek moun- 

 tain lamb, 

 When, wildered, he drops from some cliff huge 

 in stature, 

 And draws his last sob by the side of his 

 dam. 

 And more stately thy couch by this desert 



lake lying, 

 Thy obsequies sung by the gray plover flying, 

 With one faithful friend but to witness thy 

 dying, 

 In the arms of Helvellyn and Catchedicam. 



Three years ago I found a knoll — a 

 miniature compared to the real Helvel- 

 lyn. But it is my real Helvellyn. 

 Thirty minutes from the city, and the 

 cares of the day are forgotten on a 

 wooded knoll covered with forest trees 

 and plants, and alive with birds and in- 

 sects. When I am asked, "Whence 

 the name?" the answer is, "Read 

 Scott's 'Helvellyn.' " 



Poor investment? Absolutely so — 

 from the banker's viewpoint. But to 

 the naturalist the dividends are enor- 

 mous. 



The good cheer of Helvellyn soon 

 leavens the soul of every one that en- 

 ters its woods. 



The Chasm Between the Real and the 

 Artificial. 



Our State Representative for Ten- 

 nessee, Mr. Robert S. Walker of Chat- 

 tanooga, in a recent personal letter 

 uses these expressive words : 



"As I pass by dwellings, the lights 

 burning brightly, and the family 

 grouped over a card table where they 

 spend many hours at least three days 

 in the week, I wish that I might have 

 the power to direct some of their hours 

 to the study of nature." 



Every naturalist, every general lover 

 and real student of nature knows what 

 these words mean. He realizes how 

 broad is the chasm between himself 

 and those whom he would help, those 

 who have no knowledge of what it 

 means to study nature, to make it a re- 

 source and an enjoyment in life. To 

 the naturalist there is no pastime. He 



does not need to kill time. He recog- 

 nizes that life is too short to observe 

 even a fair percentage of the attrac- 

 tions of nature. 



Every true naturalist possesses the 

 missionary spirit. Everywhere nature 

 lovers are trying to interest others, 

 working against their own financial in- 

 terests, holding positions for a mere 

 pittance of salary, and devoting their 

 spare time to the beloved pursuit. No 

 religious missionary is more genuinely 

 zealous to help his fellows than the 

 naturalist. Yet wide is the chasm. Re- 

 cently while talking with a good friend, 

 a lawyer, 1 exclaimed enthusiastically. 

 "What do you think of the last number 

 of The Guide to Nature! Wasn't it 

 a beauty !" 



"Oh, yes," he said, "it is nice me- 

 chanically and has many beautiful pic- 

 tures, but what of it all? What does 

 it really amount to? It is just nature, 

 and everybody knows nature. I know 

 nature up in our cornfield. We raised 

 a nice crop this last year." 



And then he talked about the pos- 

 sibility of making money by farming in 

 Connecticut. But from the real es- 

 sence, the real educational uplift, the 

 resourceful spirit of The Guide to Na- 

 ture, he was as far away as we are 

 from the moon. All that he sees are 

 the dollars and cents in his cornfield. 

 To him the country amounts to noth- 

 ing unless he can sell an old farm to 

 a city resident. How can such a man 

 be brought to a realization of the en- 

 joyment, the inner meaning of nature? 

 He is a thoroughly intelligent man of 

 the type of many that are so difficult 

 to reach, and have so much difficulty, 

 or perhaps reluctance, in comprehend- 

 ing the meaning of the whole thing, 

 and of knowing "what it really 

 amounts to." 



There is no intellectual craze so 

 absurd as not to have a following 

 among educated men and women. 

 There is no scheme for the renova- 

 tion of the social order so silly that 

 educated men will not invest their 

 money in it. There is no medical 

 fraud so shamless that educated men 

 will not give it their certificate. There 

 is no nonsense so unscientific that men 

 called educated will not accept it as 

 science. — David Starr Jordan in "The 

 Stability of Truth." 



