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gees 1901. | Nature Study. 239 
Rearnectly wish that nature study had been left untilled 
| ground. 
_ The Here and the Now are the categoricals of nature study. 
It is Thoreau who says that every hill may be an Olympus, 
where the gods may be seen by those who train their eyes to 
see them; and you may remember the story of the old Greek 
Sohilosopher, which impressed both Aristotle and Lessing. 
Heraclitus was visited by some friends when he was warming 
himself in a stable, and they hesitated to enter. “Come ages 
he said, “for here also are the gods.” To illustrate what I 
mean, suppose we want to show an example of a synergid 
we need not exhibit a picture of the umbrella-like alga found 
4 the Bay of Naples, and by no means common there, when 
+we can gather Vawcheria or Bryopsis in handfuls not far from 
our own doors. If we wish to illustrate the movement of 
leaves, it would be well to avoid a tropical Desmodium as an 
example for the lantern screen (although it is given in many 
German text-books, and so finds its way into ours), so long as 
similar phenomena may be seen in wood-sorrel or clover. 
_ There is another reason for teaching nature study in 
“schools, besides that of attaining a fiche educational ideal. 
Purely intellectual reasons are rarely if ever enough to bring 
about great reforms: some economic or social need must be 
iP esent to give impetus to the movement; and social and 
economic causes are at work to promote nature study. These 
_have been recognised in America, where the people are more 
ready to adopt new ideas than they are in the old country. 
or some time there has been in America, as there has been 
in Europe, an extensive migration of country people into 
the larger towns. The population is increasing much more 
rapidly in the cities than in the country. In fact, the recent 
American census shows a decrease in population in some 
of the rural districts. The Americans have set themselves 
im a very far-seeing way to endeavour to increase the attrac- 
tiveness of the country by teaching the boys and girls—who 
| will soon be themselves citizens, and ere long parents of a 
ew generation—to see some of the beauties and interests 
of country life. In several States leaflets and pamphlets 
have been carefully prepared for the use of public-school 
teachers to help them to present to their pupils nature study 
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