24 MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



feel, onlj as we can use the fact acquired to lead on to another to be 

 gained can we win that independence of thought and reason that make 

 us truly the children of God. 



But one must strive to learn not merely the truth and nothing but 

 the truth, but best of all, the whole truth. And the whole truth that 

 a simple flower may present is not alone its parts, their number, their 

 arrangement and the function of its seeds; it must include, to be com- 

 plete, the plant itself, its provisions for growth and nurture, its rela- 

 tions to soil and atmosphere, to the bee that sips its nectar, to other 

 plants that struggle with it for its place and to the w^hole animate 

 world that it may affect" or that may be affected by it. The physics 

 and chemistry of its growth and other life processes are as much a 

 part of the flower as its petals themselves. The story of the flower is 

 indeed long. We ma}' not hope to know it all, but we may at least 

 learn to glimpse its meaning and its multitudinous relations to the 

 universe of which it forms a small, though never an insignificant part. 



"Flower in the crannied wall, 



I pluck you out of the crannies; 



Hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 



Little flower — but if I could understand 



What you are, root and all, and all in all, 



I should know what God and man is." 



It became evident early in the history of the race, that a knowledge 

 of things apart w^as of little worth. The man who knew by name and by 

 structure a thousand plants would never become a botanist but as he 

 grouped them. This truth applies to all records of data, be they in 

 the mind or on the printed page. This idea may be brought very close 

 to the child and he ma^' be easily led to look for likenesses and thus to 

 classify his knowledge. Classified knowledge leads to scientific insight, 

 but our task is yet incomplete. 



It is the lot of the many to toil. Day by day they accumulate data, 

 year by year they add to them, generations devote themselves to the 

 task, and it is a worthy one. But some day, marked great in the cal- 

 endar of time, a genius is born and a Darwin delves and stirs the accu- 

 mulations of the centuries, throws them into form, and Truth, so long 

 obscured, leaps into view and their final cause is achieved. That such 

 men have lived is profound cause for thankfulness to God and ours 

 the task to train from the ver}- outset in the path that leads to these 

 noble ends. Not to many is such power given, for few indeed know 

 the patience, the careful tests from which these world ideas have sprung. 

 Few Newtons have arisen in the historv of the world, but we can at least 

 save those who otherwise would die with their powers all unknown to 

 others or to themselves. 



The object of nature study is often misconceived and its result there- 

 fore far different from that to be desired. Let me say at once, then, 

 that its highest aim is not to teach science. This is an end undoubt- 

 edly valuable in itself, but the true purpose of nature study is broader 

 and deeper. Nature study is a study in correct methods of thought. 



Let me not be misunderstood. I am not advocating the introduction 

 of science into the grades. Nothing could be further from my purpose. 

 The science that is taught in these hours with nature should be, as I 



