148 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



West Point was that of chemistry, min- 

 eralogy and geology. Of course I can- 

 not absolutely refer my own tendencies 

 to heredity, but as two brothers mani- 

 fested the same, there surely is presump- 

 tive evidence. When, however, onl\ 

 nine years old, I was left entirely under 

 my father's care and became the constant 

 companion of his shorter walks, 1 have 

 never known a more loving student of 



WILLIAM WHITMAN BAILEY, LL. D. 

 Member of The Agassiz Association Council. 



nature or one with a brain better stored 

 with varied information. To this, old 

 West Point graduates tell me, and I 

 can assert myself, he added a marvellous 

 gift of instruction. "Sermons in Stones" 

 were by him made as interesting as a 

 romance. Poetic expression clothed his 

 every thought. No object was too small 

 or mean for his attention. I recall once, 

 when a lad, on one of our walks, his 

 picking up a pebble and explaining to 

 me that it had come from the Sha- 

 wangunk Mountains, quite far from 

 West Point. He told me how there the 

 same stone was found in situ, while 

 with us it was only as a pebble. This led 

 to the whole story of the ancient gla- 

 ciers. 



As a result of this early training and 



association, I entered life with a strong 

 love of nature. Many essential facts, 

 which others have to acquire, seem to me 

 to have been mine always. Finding 

 ever such intense joy in mountains, 

 woods and sea ; constantly desiring to 

 learn more about the denizens of these 

 regions, their relations and habits, 1 have 

 found increasing delight in imparting to 

 others such information as I have my- 

 self acquired. I have repeatedly point- 

 ed out to my students how well it is to 

 have a hobby, and how some one of the 

 nature studies is especially desirable. 



A walk for mere health purposes may 

 degenerate into a constitutional and be- 

 come a bore; if taken as an excursion 

 in which one has certain aims in view, or 

 at least, expectations, it is translated into 

 a joy. Many a student, including the 

 President of Brown University, has told 

 me that it was in the department of bot- 

 any that, as they expressed it, "the scales 

 first fell from their eyes," and for the 

 first time they saw as it is the wondrous 

 face of nature. Several students of di- 

 vinity I can recall, who confessedly tak- 

 ing up botany for the acquirement of 

 texts, of figures, of comparisons, have 

 been led to a wider and a more telling 

 stud\'. The minister, indeed, may make 

 botany a delightful companion, especially 

 in a country parish. It is not at all sur- 

 prising then to find many of them ac- 

 curate and enthusiastic observers. 



To the botanist there are not only the 

 field joys inherent to spring and summer, 

 but delightful closet labors in winter. In 

 such hours,, in his cosy study or library, 

 he either examines anew his microscopic 

 specimens, or unfolding his herbarium, 

 studies, arranges and mounts his dry ma- 

 terial. Next to the pleasure of the 

 fields, the association with living things, 

 there is no greater joy than that to be 

 found in one's cabinet. Each plant re- 

 calls some place or event, or it may be, 

 brings back the face of the loved and 

 lost. In a certain sense, then, the herbal 

 is a diary, and one relives with a speci- 

 men, perhaps grown on some high moun- 

 tain top, the transcendent moment of its 

 collection. 



I say then, in closing, to all my read- 

 ers, I warmly advise the study of nature, 

 for the jov of acquisition in part, but 

 more for that love of the beautiful and 

 true that will grow with the years. 



