154 THE PIvANT WORLD 



Briefly, these are the main factors with which we must cope. Some- 

 thing may be done with the last class mentioned, but the druggist, 

 manufacturer, and lumberman feel that they can not afford to listen to 

 us ; the real estate agent values graded lots above shaded ones, and will 

 continue to do so as long as the former sell. But most discouraging 

 seems the larger class of the careless, the selfish and the ignorant who 

 will continue to despoil our hedges, meadows, and woodlands. Most of 

 them will never see our pamphlets nor hear our lectures. How can we 

 reach them ? How can we influence them ? A child who lives in a 

 paved, walled street will pick and pull the flowers at last within his 

 reach until he can hold no more. How can we control this? 



Answer this with another question. How do we propose to reach, 

 control, and elevate the masses brought into our country daily ? We 

 shall find our answers identical — through our schools. But we have 

 no right to claim it here unless it be for the highest good of the child. 

 Having shown that, it will not be too much to ask that all educational 

 leaders should lend their aid to preserve the native plants. 



The wholesale, ruthless destruction, the instantaneous gratification of 

 desire, the ignoring of other and of future rights have undoubted effects 

 upon the characters of all yielding to them. A bird in the hand is not 

 worth two in the bush. A broken, bedraggled flower, lying limp in the 

 hand, is not worth the sturdy growing one, with its bright, upturned face, 

 at which price it was purchased. How little was gained by its momentary 

 possession may be told by the speed with which the child discards it. 

 Could he be made to feel this and the price of his fleeting sense of satis- 

 faction, the safety of many of our threatened plants would be assured. 

 Children are devoid of the higher appreciation of the beautiful. A little 

 girl from New York looked long into the cup of a dainty, pink orchid, 

 and then asked, " Why did He turn pink, Auntie? " Can not this finer 

 sense be used to advantage ? It will not be difficult as we ignorantly as- 

 sume. This desired preservation will mean unselfishness and forbear- 

 ance or self-restraint. What higher individual aim than the first ? What 

 greater test of character than the second ? Here temptation takes a visi- 

 ble form and the results are no less tangible. What better material is there 

 for the work educators are striving to accomplish ? The psychological 

 values of these claims can but appeal to educational leaders and their co- 

 workers. Is it too much to ask for concerted, definite action, leading 

 ultimately to the development of the high, noble character described by 

 Emerson when he wrote the following lines on forbearance ? 



" Hasl thou named all the birds without a gun ? 

 Loved the wood -rose and left it on its stalk ? 

 At rich men's tables eaten bread and pulse? 

 Unarmed, faced danger with a heart of trust ? 

 And loved so well a high behavior 

 In man or maid, that thou frota speech refrained, 

 Nobility more noble to repay ? 

 O, be my friend and teach me to be thine. " 



State Normal School, Trenton, N. J. 



