SEEING BY AID OF THE LEXS 



309 



"Science and the Boy." 



The Duty of the Teacher. 



"Instill the love and reverence which you feel, 

 The sweet delight in flowers and the sky, 

 By pictures', books ; in landscape fair and 



wide, 

 In the high mountains and the boundless sea. 

 Teach him to love all these ; moreover, name 

 The petals of each flow'ret, class each shell: — 

 Mark well the wondrous fashion of God's 

 work, in bird, animal, and insect." 



Hundreds of persons now purchase 

 microscopes from the force of imita- 

 tion, and a laudable desire to obtain 

 an insight into the wonders of creative 

 skill, which are, perhaps, more as- 

 tounding- in the apparently boundless 

 regions of the minute, than even in the 

 unfathomable depths of celestial space ; 

 but they are apt to be discouraged by 

 the technical difficulties in the way of 

 collecting and preparing materials for 

 the investigations or research. Some 

 do not know how to begin work on 

 the subject, what books are best suited 

 to the subject or within the price of 

 their pocketbook. Others, when they 

 see the objects under their microscopes, 

 do not know what they are. To whom 

 can they go? Who is there in their lo- 

 cality willing to help a fellow over the 

 stile, to stimulate and encourage a 

 willing but timid amateur to learn the 

 road to pleasure, not only for him- 

 self but many others? To none can 

 nature be selfish and never can she 

 fail to donate something for thought, 

 for work, for pleasure, for business, for 

 profit or for cash. In every walk of life 

 she is there. In every line of work she 

 needs a microscope to fathom the won- 

 drous methods of her compilations, to 

 the physicists, the chemists, the physi- 

 cians, the biologists, the agriculturists, 

 the business man in textiles, the lawyer 

 for inks, parchments and forgeries, the 

 forensic expert in murders and poison- 

 ings, the revenue and treasury depart- 

 ments, the food and analyst's office, 

 the engineer in all his special branches, 

 the artist, the pottery workers, the 

 zoologists and the botanists the photog- 

 rapher, the optician, even to the lum- 

 berman and the stockvards. These are 

 only a few and I must only add the 

 ''hobbyist," if I mav coin a word. To 

 these and all I can only add, with vour 

 "auto," vour health, a long or a short 

 purse, the will to learn, the desire to 

 encourage the youth for a clean and 



moral uplift, the seeking for health and 

 rest, these are yours for a little effort 

 and a remembrance. To return to na- 

 ture a little of what she desires, to 

 propagate her kind for others' benefits 

 and above all be not selfish, take not if 

 only one specimen of a kind, tear up 

 nothing from its home unless absolute- 

 ly needed. The microscope needs very 

 little to keep you busy and the ruthless 

 destruction of life is a grave and serious 

 error, not only to you, but to those for 

 future years and all time. Remember if 

 seeds and plants are destroyed neither 

 they nor animals can develop without the 

 beginnings of life and their natural 

 wants. Many localities to-day are wastes 

 and barren spots, and all due to the 

 destructive and meaner traits of man. 

 The early inhabitants of this country 

 have been driven away by graft, by 

 giving of drink and by civilization of 

 the wrong kind to become a degenerate 

 and a fading race of mankind. To the 

 man who says, "I have nothing to 

 study," or, "Where can I obtain ma- 

 terial for examination?" I would say 

 Everywhere, out of doors, indoors, in 

 your pantry, bread jars, jam pots, damp 

 cellars, woodpiles, foods, barnyards, 

 water barrels, fences, garden and 

 plants. It is bright and sharp eyes 

 that find, fingers that make, patience 

 that helps, the will to do, and the plan- 

 ning to use your odd time, not from 

 the necessary business of the dav but 

 the spare and recreative hours which 

 are often a sadly wasted item and that 

 never return. 



"Recreative Science." 



By this we understand the cultiva- 

 tion of the various branches of physi- 

 cal and mathematical inquiry in a way 

 to afford amusement as well as in- 

 struction. Every science has its re- 

 creative features ; every separate and 

 single fact in nature has a sunny side 

 and when we have solved a hard prob- 

 lem we may find repose and refresh- 

 ment in tracing out what poetical anal- 

 ogies it may yet induct us to in the 

 consideration of its recreative features. 

 To enlist the sympathies of the young, 

 and brace up the powers of the ma- 

 ture mind in the investigation of nat- 

 ural phenomena, will be the object of 

 the little department now offered to 

 the public. Truth will have herein all 



