CORRESPONDENCE AND INFORMATION 



69 



time to give to the aesthetics of nature 

 study. 



England is an old country, and Eng- 

 land is far ahead of us in the matter 

 of nature study. There many people 

 study nature in its recreational phases. 

 In this country the first to give any 

 attention to nature as a mental and 

 spiritual stimulus was Henry David 

 Thoreau of Concord, Massachusetts, — 

 more than half a century ago. About 

 fifteen years ago through the influence 

 of Professor Jackman of the Chicago 

 Normal School, nature study first came 

 into use as a pedagogical term. Only 

 about twenty-five years ago a depart- 



ment of nature study for boys and girls 

 was for the first time established in a 

 magazine and during the few past years 

 many books on nature have been pub- 

 lished and a wealth of magazines has 

 arisen. The Agassiz Association is the 

 pioneer and from that have spread 

 various imitations and workers. 



I have but briefly referred to the 

 duration, the intimacy and the re- 

 sourcefulness of the relations between 

 nature and men. These relations are 

 not only the oldest recorded facts in 

 the history of the race but they are also 

 cumulative in their influence and pro- 

 phetic in their character. 



=5f 



( orrespondence 



"~~ Information 



AND 



Encouraging Words from a University 

 Professor. 

 The University of Nebraska, 

 Department of Botany, 



Lincoln. Nebraska, U. S. A. 

 March 12, 1908. 

 To the Editor : 



I have been so pleased with The Guide 

 TO Nature that I cannot any longer re- 

 frain from writing to tell you what I 

 think of it. It is good all the way 

 through. But I am especially pleased 

 with your editorial article on the "Dese- 

 cration of Nature." That is admirably 

 put, and in just the right words and right 

 spirit. 



Now do you know what I am going to 

 do? Every little while I am called upon 

 to tell the young people who are teach- 

 ing science in the Nebraska schools wliat 

 to read. Many of them have a feeling that 

 they should be taking some magazine 

 which will help them to keep somewhat 

 in touch with nature. I have been wait- 

 ing for a long time for something that I 

 could heartily and unreservedly com- 

 mend to these young people. They are 

 not scientists (see that word! I hate it, 

 and yet I am obliged to use it), but they 



are young people engaged in teaching the 

 rudiments of science. They know very 

 little about nature yet. for they are young 

 and have in most cases just emerged 

 from a few years of higher schooling, 

 and yet they would like to be able to give 

 to their pupils the right notions and the 

 right point of view. The Guide to Na- 

 ture meets better their demands than 

 anything that I have yet seen. I think I 

 told you once some years ago that the 

 thing that helped me most when I was a 

 beginner in this work was the "American 

 Naturalist," under its old, early manage- 

 ment along in the 70's. Barring the fact 

 that nowadays we are able to make use 

 of reproductions of photographs, there is 

 much similarity between The Guide To 

 Nature as you are now managing it, and 

 the "xAmerican Naturalist" in its earliest 

 years. In its later years it has become so 

 scientific and so technical that no one but 

 a specialist can get anything out of it 

 that is helpful to him. I am very sorry 

 that it has undergone this change. No 

 doubt I had something to do with bring- 

 ing about the change myself during the 

 period (nearly twenty years) in which I 

 was one of the editors. But all the same 



