MEANING OF NATURE-STUDY ::i 



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sends her messengers. The light, the dark, the 

 moon, the cloud, the rain, the wind, the falling 

 leaf, the fly, the bouquet, the bird, the cockroach 

 — they are all ours. 



If one is to be happy, he must be in sympathy 

 with common things. He must live in harmony 

 with his environment. One cannot be happy 

 yonder nor to-morrow : he is happy here and 

 now, or never. Our stock of knowledge of 

 common things should be great. Few of us can 

 travel. We must know the things at home. 



Nature-love tends toward naturalness, and 

 toward simplicity of living. It tends country- 

 ward. One word from the fields is worth two 

 from the city. ** God made the country.'* 



I expect, therefore, that much good will come 

 from nature-study. It ought to revolutionize the 

 school life, for it is capable of putting new force 

 and enthusiasm into the school and the child. It 

 is new, and therefore is called a fad. A movement 

 is a fad until it succeeds. We shall learn much, 

 and shall outgrow some of our present notions, 

 but nature-study has come to stay. It is in much 

 the same stage of development that manual-training 

 and kindergarten-work were twenty-five years ago. 

 We must take care that it does not crystallize 

 into science-teaching on the one hand, nor fall 

 into mere sentimentalism on the other. 



I would again emphasize the importance of 

 obtaining our fact before we let loose the imagi- 

 nation, for on this point will largely turn the 

 results — -the failure or the success of the movement. 



