A NATIONAL GAME POLICY 771 



"I do not know how such haphazard education, if continued, would 

 fit him for participation in the 'practical' affairs of life, but I am con- 

 vinced that if all the little beauties of spirit that can now be seen 

 budding could be allowed free, clean growth quite away from the 

 brutal hand of mass influence, we'd have nothing less than the full and 

 perfect flowering of a human soul : and in our reaching towards super- 

 manhood none can do more. 



"Rockwell went for a walk in the woods ; he has a delightful time on 

 his rambles, discovering goats' wool on the bushes, following paths of 

 the porcupines to their holes, and today, finding the porcupine himself. 

 He always returns with some marvelous discovery or new enthusiasm 

 over his explorations. These things are of infinite nature, and in 

 eveiy one of us in just proportion. 



"Here is an example of his imagination that it is hard to picture as 

 surviving in the atmosphere of a large school. Rockwell, for two or 

 three years, has called himself the 'Mother of all things.' It is not a 

 figure of speech with him but an attitude towards all life. 



"For the wilderness is a kind of a mirror that gives back as its 

 own all and only all that the imagination brings to it. It is that which 

 we believe it to be. It is wonderland itself. The King's road. The 

 giant's path where stands the 'ten-pound butter tree.' " 



I have quoted the observations of Mr. Rockwell in regard to the 

 development of his boy's character while living on an island in Alaska, 

 as it shows so clearly the value of the open and the wild life in the 

 development of human qualities. 



There is an army officer, who in his youth had a keen appreciation 

 developed by his surroundings and the active enthusiasm of a devoted 

 father. This officer, in viewing the values in his life, wishes above 

 all things, to hand on to his five children those which have been such 

 a big asset in developing the standards of his character. The wild 

 life as he knew it in his youth has passed forever so these children 

 cannot have the father's experience rn its fullness ; so the officer has 

 set himself the task of preserving to the utmost all the wild life which 

 can be produced upon the reservation of the arsenal of which he is 

 in charge. Through an acquaintance with this life he expects these 

 children to develop a quickness of thought, a keenness of observation 

 and perception, and an unselfish sympathy, in fact, a depth and breadth 

 of character that will carry them far. 



This officer realizes, that with these children as with himself, be- 

 tween the ages of 5 and 2], lasting impresisons are received from a 

 knowledge of wild life and the forest. This is the entire period that 

 bridges over that critical time between childliood and maturity, that 



