NOTES. 



Have you done anything towards establishing a school garden ? 

 If you know of any interesting efforts in that direction, we should be 

 glad if you would let us know about them. Do you know of any 

 school premises which have been planted and ornamented ? If you 

 are interested in garden-making by children, our Leaflet No. 4 (" A 

 Children's Garden") is at your disposal. Our Bulletin 160 will 

 give you suggestions for the planting of the school ground. 



■jf ^f ^ 



We wish to inaugurate a movement for flower-shows and other 

 nature study exhibitions in schools and churches. If you have had 

 experience, please give us suggestions. 



* vt -H- 



Good subjects for spring work are: The Soil (Leaflet No. 15); 

 toads (No. 9) ; tent-makers (No. 5) ; apple twigs (No. 3), particu- 

 larly in connection with the present Leaflet ; showers (No. 14) ; 

 birds (No. 10). ^- ^ ^ 



Persons frequently ask if we believe in teaching sentiment in 

 nature-study. We disapprove of sentiment and poetic interpreta- 

 tions when they give the wrong point of view, and when they sub- 

 stitute mere emotion for patient inquiry. Sentiment should be 

 incidental in any interpretation of nature. Yet we have a right to 

 the poetic interpretation. Scientists are likely to go so far as to for- 

 bid the use of figures of speech and of parables : this is unfortunate. 

 A metaphor or parable may be of distinct value when it teaches a 

 true lesson or drives home a point, even though it is not literally 

 true. One is justified in saying, to some audiences, that a potato 

 puts up a lunch for future use. Everybody knows that the state- 

 ment is a metaphor. He knows that a potato has no brains. The 

 statement does not mislead. If one cannot say that nnich about a 

 potato, it is not allowable to say that it has eyes. One can scarcely 

 speak a sentence without saying things which are not literally true 



under all conditions. Even astronomers say that the sun sets. Per- 



512 



