THE NATURE-STUDY 
Or (PLAN FS 
Pied 1 THEORY 
CHAPTER I 
NATURE-STUDY—ITS OBJECT AND RULES 
EFORE launching out into the deep it behoves 
me to explain shortly what is meant by Nature- 
study, and to bring to the notice of the reader a few 
points and rules which will, I trust, be of some use in 
the intelligent pursuit of his hobby or study. 
Although the term itself is a comparatively 
modern one, Nature-study is no new thing; on the 
contrary, it is the most ancient and essential of all the 
activities of the human mind, for in one or another 
of its aspects, man has persistently and of necessity 
studied Nature from the time of Adam to the present 
day. 
Its central idea is crystallized if the motto of one 
of our leading learned societies, Naturae discere 
mores, which means, ‘* To learn the ways of Nature,” 
and this is the object that the modern Nature-student 
should keep steadily before his eyes. 
He must, however, never be content only to learn 
facts, however interesting they may be; he must try 
to find out their significance in the life-history of his 
subject and their bearing upon the greater problems, 
1 
