igoi] Winter Soirees. 189 



on wha^he reads, and, unless we teach "-cv/iaf as well as /i07v, we 

 have made little real progress. Even if we take the most optimis- 

 tic view, we can get little satisfaction out of statistics bearing on 

 this question. The mass of the people read gossip or thrashy 

 fiction and consider their tastes are above the ordinary if they can 

 appreciate light magazine articles. It is extremely doubtful if the 

 percentage of English-speaking people who really enjoy Chaucer, 

 Shakspere, Milton, Wordsworth or Tennyson, is any greater than 

 it was a quarter or even a half century ago. 



What has this to do with Nature study ? In my opinion it 

 has everything to do with it. In Fra Lippo Lippi, Browning says, 

 "We're so made that we love them first when we see them painted, 

 things we have passed perhaps a hundred times nor cared to see " 

 Here we have a great truth, and it makes no difference whether the 

 artist has painted with colour or with words. Unless his work means 

 something to us, we cannot interpret it. Every great poet from 

 Homer to Tennyson has been a lover of Nature. Indeed we may 

 almost say that he has been a great poet because he was first a 

 lover of Nature. Every lover of Nature knows something of the 

 poet's thoughts, even though he lacks the power to convey them 

 to others. It is quite impossible, however, to teach either child or 

 man to appreciate the beauties of poetry, unless he has had the 

 necessary training in Nature study, because the subjects of Nature 

 study are the raw material out of which the poet forms his 

 pictures. 



Prof. Halleck, of Yale, has, after a careful study, found internal 

 evidence to prove that Shakspere knew the names, notes, habits, 

 eggs and plumage of at least forty birds. Note the following 

 from Shakspere : 



" I know a bank where the wild thyme blows. 

 Where oxlips and the nodding- violet grows, 

 Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, 

 With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine." 



Try if you can to leave out of this picture the wild-thyme, the 

 oxlips, the violet, the woodbine, the roses and the eglantine. 

 Really nothing is left that could convey any intelligible meaning. 

 May we not say then that, not only is a knowledge of nature a joy 

 within itself and an ample reward to a diligent student, but also 



