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THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



EDITORIAL 



Let Us Be Thorough. 



Our readers will recall that delightful 

 story ("Great Expectations") by Dick- 

 ens, in which Joe and Pip engage in the 

 delights of correspondence. Pip, sitting 

 in the chimney corner with his slate, ex- 

 pended much effort on a letter to Joe in 

 the opposite corner. He had an alphabet 

 on the hearth at his feet for reference, 

 and after laboring for an hour or two he 

 printed an epistle of about four lines in 

 which "caps" and "small caps" were de- 

 lightfully and impartially mingled. Pip 

 delivered the slate to Joe, who received it, 

 Dickens tells us, "as a miracle of erudi- 

 tion." Then occurred the following 

 dialogue : 



" T say, Pip, old chap!' cried Joe, open- 

 ing his blue eyes wide, 'what a scholar 

 you are ! Ain't you ?' 



" T should like to be,' said I. glancing 

 at the slate as he held it : with a misgiving 

 that the writing was rather hilly. 



" 'Why, here's a J,' said Joe, 'and a O 

 equal to anythink ! Here's a J and a O, 

 Pip, and a J-O, Joe.' 



"I had never heard Joe read aloud to 

 any greater extent than this monosyllable, 

 and I had observed at church last Sunday, 

 when I accidentally held our Prayer- 

 book upside down, that it seemed to suit 

 his convenience quite as well as if it had 

 been all right. Wishing to embrace the 

 present occasion of finding out whether 

 in teaching Joe, I should have to begin 

 quite at the beginning, I said, 'Ah ! But 

 read the rest, Joe.' 



" 'The rest, eh, Pip?' said Joe, looking 

 at it with a slowly searching eye. 'One, 

 two, three. Why, here's three Js, and 

 three Os, and three J-O, Joes, in it, Pip !' 



"I leaned over Joe, and, with the aid 

 of my forefinger, read him the whole 

 letter. 



" 'Astonishing !' said Joe, when I had 

 finished. 'You ARE a scholar.' 



"'How do you spell Gargery, Joe?' I 

 asked him, with a modest oatronage. 



" 'I don't spell it at all.' said Joe. 



" 'But supposing you did?' 



" 'It can't be supposed,' said Joe. 'Tho' 

 I'm oncommon fond of reading, too.' 



" 'Are you, Joe?' 



" 'On-common. Give me,' said Joe, 'a 

 good book, or a good newspaper, and sit 

 me down afore a good fire, and I ask no 

 better. Lord !' he continued, after rub- 

 bing his knees a little, 'when you do come 

 to a J and a O, and says you, "Here, at 

 last, is a J-O, Joe," how interesting read- 

 ing is !' " 



***** 



What would one say if literature were 

 taught in our schools only to that extent ? 

 What kind of appreciation would there 

 be in the present deluge of books and 

 magazines, if we were to go no further 

 in our reading than to say, "J-O, Joe, 

 how interesting reading is!" Yet the 

 painful part is, that Joe's method of read- 

 ing is not altogether a paraphrase ; it is 

 too often a sad reality. 



Some modern methods of reading 

 nature, are on a parity with Joe's method 

 of reading Pip's letter. We have trouble 

 in interesting people generally in nature, 

 l)ecause the subject in general, notwith- 

 standing the earnest efforts of some mem- 

 bers of our Association, is not properly 

 understood. We find, from remarks 

 made by visitors at ArcAdiA, that the 

 true method of studying nature is not un- 

 derstood in the slightest degree nor even 

 dreamed of. We do not believe, and do 

 not teach, that everyone must spend, as 

 I have known a student to spend years 

 in studying earthworms, and half a dozen 

 years in studying a bumblebee cut into 

 thin slices. It is necessary to progress 

 beyond Joe's stage in the art of reading 

 to become a technical student of compara- 

 tive literature; but to take an enjoyable 

 interest in nature, it is not necessary for 

 everyone to become a technical scientist. 

 Yet nature should be read by everybody, 

 extendedly, thoroughly and as enthusias- 

 tically as one may take delight in reading 

 general literature, or current books and 

 magazines. 



A short time ago a cultured person 

 asked two or three simple questions that 

 had nothing to do with nature study, but 

 with the method of caring for an aqua- 

 rium. These were answered, when the 



