~ 1900-1901.] Nature Study. 245 
| the stage the active young larve almost as transparent as 
glass. Three or four scenes of moulting succeed, then there 
_is the great transformation scene of pupation, and lastly the 
emergence of the winged insect into a new element. The 
changes which have taken place in the organism before our 
“eyes have been enormous—changes of the external organs, 
-a sort of liquefaction and reconstruction of the internal, 
waste nitrogenous matter thrown off at each moulting—a 
‘eurious way of obtaining and getting rid of our clothes; 
and the great problems of heredity presented in an entirely 
‘new light. Whether we give a biological or a poetical 
interpretation to many things in metamorphosis—and the 
phenomena admit of both—we could not be spectators at 
drama fuller of meaning than that of the life-history of 
a gnat. You remember Browning’s 
“ Fancy which turned a fear, 
Because the membraned wings, 
So wonderful, so wide, 
So sun-suffused, were things 
Like soul, and nought beside.” 
—“Fifine at the Fair.” 
_ The want of a garden is no reason why we cannot still 
play the rdle of the developed, metamorphosed gardener. 
We can grow numbers of alge in a tumbler of water, and 
obtain from them a working model of the origin and evolu- 
tion of sex. Numberless other illustrations will occur to you. 
I know it will be said we have no time in this busy age 
for such studies. I would reply that we live in the richest 
empire the world has ever seen, and there is a great deal of 
 Teisure if we use it well. Laveleye, the economist, has a fine 
paragraph, which I copied out of one of his books (‘ Luxury ’) 
| long time ago. Laveleye says, “ When our rational wants 
ure satisfied, what we need is not to create a superfluity for 
he satisfaction of spurious needs, but to employ our leisure 
m cultivating our minds, enjoying the society of our fellows, 
und fostering our love of the beautiful. The higher a man 
rises in culture and knowledge, the less he cares for fine 
clothes and sumptuous fare.” This is only another version 
af Wordsworth’s ideal— plain living and high thinking.” 
If nature study formed a part of education, and if our 
VOL. IV. 8 
