1904J Nature Study — No. 14. 77 



NATURE STUDY— NO. XIV. 



SOME UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES, METHOD AND SYSTEM OF NATURE 



STUDY. 



C. W. G. ElFRIG. 



Most educators, and people of alert mind generally, have 

 come to recognize the usefulness and even necessity of Nature 

 Study for people in general and the young in particular. I hold 

 that to Study and know something about nature and the objects in 

 it, among which we live, which we see, hear and are brought in 

 more or less close proximity to, is as useful and profitable for a 

 person as some of the branches of science and art hitherto taught 

 in schools and colleges to the exclusion of everything else. For 

 instance, if we learn at school, where a certain city or river is situ- 

 ated in the world, which we shall perhaps never see or even hear 

 of again, it is just as valuable to know where certain trees arid 

 plants grow, especially in our neighborhood, and why, and where 

 the different individuals or families of living things stay and where 

 they do not as well as for what purpose. If we read in history of the 

 irruptions of, say, the Huns into Europe and their defeat A. D. 453, 

 or of the imigration of the Anglo-Saxons into Britain 449 A.D., 

 etc., it is just as important and valuable for people to know about 

 the irruption and migration, the appearance and disappearance ot 

 insects, birds, mammals, fishes, plants, etc., which may affect 

 our lives favorably or unfavorably, destroy our crops or trees, or 

 help us to overcome such pests, etc. If we derive endless pleasure 

 by studying the gems of thought and diction in literature, why 

 overlook the gems of God's own handiwork in His mineral, 

 vegetable and animal kingdoms surrounding us! And these can 

 be found and enjoyed not from dusty books, but out in the sweet- 

 scented air and healthgiving sunshine. If a person not used to 

 it, once tries to see and observe things in nature, he will soon 

 find how little he is able to see and hear and differentiate correctly, 

 how little he can use his senses properly, showing that while his 

 head may be crammed full of book knowledge, his faculties to 

 rightly observe things near him have been neglected, and he 

 will perceive, that, though he knows a good deal about things far 

 removed from him by space or time, he knows little or nothing 



