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THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



You Must Be A Missionary or A 

 "Has Been." 



I recently attended a banquet given 

 by the men of St. John's Episcopal 

 Church, of Stamford, Connecticut 

 where the postprandial speeches were 

 on missionary topics. Almost the 

 opening sentence by the presiding rec- 

 tor told us that the only real church is 

 the missionary chuich. This thought 

 was the prevailing thought in all the 

 subsequent remarks. 



But is this true only of the church? 

 To keep one's self, the focus must be 

 beyond and out of one's self. The mo- 

 ment the novice in the study of music 

 ceases to think that he is to acquire 

 skill so that he may give pleasure to 

 others, at that moment the zeal of 

 study is lessened. We learn most ef- 

 fectively by teaching and by the de- 

 sire to teach. Compare the difference 

 in spirit of the boy who studies Uatin 

 yet hopes to be a business man, and the 

 one whose whole ambition is to be a 

 professor of Latin. The best and only 

 true incentive to happiness in life is an 

 effort to make ourselves useful to 

 others. 



I recently read Stanton Davis Kirk- 

 ham's book on outdoor philosophy, in 

 which he enthusiastically tells of the 

 charm of going alone to the woods. 

 His fancy seems to dwell wholly on 

 the solitary man, and yet it is evident 

 through all his eulogy of solitude in the 

 realms of nature, that he has it in mind 



to present to others the attractiveness 

 of this solitude. His point seems to be 

 that since he loves solitude, every one 

 else should emulate his example. Some 

 three years ago I was a guest of a 

 group of enthusiastic students at a cer- 

 tain public aquarium. At the sump- 

 tuous dinner to which they invited me, 

 I was, for the most part, a lisienei. 

 Judging from the enthusiasm of my 

 hosts, it would not be long before 

 they would aquariumize the entire 

 world. To have an aquarium with fish 

 in it seemed to be the one thing in life 

 worth living for. I invited these good 

 friends of mine to use The Guide to 

 Nature, and the articles came to this 

 office in such profusion that the enthu- 

 siastic writers became impatient be- 

 cause I could not get their essays into 

 our pages rapidly enough. In a short 

 time there were some changed plans. 

 In a short time the greatest enthusiast 

 of all turned his attention largely to 

 other things, and decided to give up his 

 missionary work for the aquarium, and 

 to devote his spare time to his own in- 

 terests along that line. Time passed, 

 and I wrote to one of the associates at 

 that banquet to ask regarding this 

 man's enthusiasm. The reply was, "He 

 is not at all interested in the subject 

 at present, and I doubt whether you 

 can get an answer." At the same time 

 I wrote directly to the man himself, 

 lie returned the letter with the state- 

 ment penned at the bottom that he is 



