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THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



AFTER A THAW. 

 Photograph by Wm. S. Davis. Cut by courtesy of "The Photographic Times," New York City 



Strong Statements by John Burroughs 

 I have a suspicion that "nature- 

 study" as now followed in the 

 schools — or shall I say in the col- 

 leges? — this classroom peeping and 

 prying into the mechanism of life, dis- 

 secting, probing, tabulating, void of 

 free observation, and shut away from 

 the open air — would have cured me of 

 my love of nature. For love is the 

 main thing, the prime thing, and to 

 train the eye and ear and acquaint one 

 with the spirit of the great-out- 

 of-doors, rather than a lot of minute 

 facts about nature, is, or should be, 



the object of nature-study. Who cares- 

 about the anatomy of the frog? But 

 to know the live frog — his place in the 

 season and the landscape, and his life- 

 history — is something. If I wanted to- 

 instill the love of nature into a child's 

 luart, 1 should do it, in the first place, 

 through country life, and, in the next 

 place, through the best literature,, 

 rather than through classroom investi- 

 gations, or through books of facts 

 about the mere mechanics of nature. 

 Biology is all right for the few who- 

 wish to specialize in that branch, but 

 for the mass of pupils, it is a waste- 



