MEANING OF NATURE-STUDY 29 



in geography. Let the child draw the twigs ; 

 but always be careful lest the drawing become 

 more important than the twigs. 



What may be the results of nature-study ? 



Its legitimate result is education — the develop- 

 ing of mental power, the opening of the eyes 

 and the mind, the civilizing of the individual. 

 As with all education, its central purpose is to 

 make the individual happy ; for happiness is noth- 

 ing more nor less than pleasant and efficient 

 thinking. It is often said that the ignorant man 

 may be as happy as the educated man. Relatively, 

 this is true ; absolutely, it is not. A ten-foot 

 well is not so deep as a twenty-foot well ; and 

 although the ten-foot well may be full to the brim, 

 it holds only half as much water as the other. 



The happiness of the ignorant man is largely 

 the thoughts born of physical pleasures; that of 

 the educated man is the thoughts born of 

 intellectual pleasures. One may find comradeship 

 in a groggery, the other may find it in a dandelion ; 

 and inasmuch as there are more dandelions than 

 groggeries (in most communities), the educated 

 man has the greater chance of happiness. 



Some persons object to nature-study because it 

 is not systematic and graded. They think that it 

 leads to disjunctive and discursive work. My 

 first answer is that the discursiveness may be its 

 charm. Thereby comes the contrast with the 

 perfunctory school work ; and thereby, also, arises 

 its naturalness. Again, I answer that nature-study 



