Editorial. 4 1 9 



Perhaps no other book so well voices the judgment of 

 those who stand close to the American school system as 

 Hodge's Nature Study and Life.' It is a book which reveals 

 the nature lover as well as the trained scientist in its author. It 

 presents a sensible, highly practical scheme for the study of 

 animals and plants in the graded school, while at the same time 

 filling the reader with faith in the possibilities of the work for 

 training, and with enthusiasm for Nature Study. Enter into the 

 spirit of the life about you ; do not live to search for truth, no 

 matter what kind, but search for knowledge, understanding and 

 sympathetic appreciation of Nature in order that life may be 

 fuller, freer, and more nearly perfect — this is the injunction of 

 the book. Learn to know the living beings as thoroughly as 

 does the scientist, and to love and sympathize with them as he 

 too often does not. There is inspiration for the reader in this 

 book, for the author's faith in his cause and his enthusiasm are 

 contagious. No one should read it who does not care to have 

 his interest in Nature Study, both in and for itself and as a 

 means of training the child, greatly increased. 



Great depth of insight into the significance of the signs of 

 the times in natural science is not necessary in order that one 

 should be able to say that the next generation of Americans is 

 to be a generation of naturalists. Interest in Nature is rapidly 

 increasing and the introduction of Nature Study in the schools 

 is now going to equip our future scientific specialists with an 

 intimacy of acquaintance and sympathetic appreciation of Na- 

 ture that will enable them to live the better and enter the more 

 fully into the truth of their subjects. The important thing is 

 that this general interest in Nature Study be made to contribute 

 truly earnest investigators rather than dilettanti. 



The study of animal behavior, of the life-histories, habits, 

 instincts, and intelligence of organisms, of their relations to hu- 

 man industries, is only a small part of Nature Study, to be 

 sure, but for those of us whose interests center about the func- 



' C. F" HoncE. Nature Study and Life. Ginti (Sr' Coiiipnny, Boston, 1902. 

 )i.50. 



