WHAT IS NATURE-STUDY? 5 



distinct — they should be contrasted rather than 

 compared. 



Nature-study is not science. It is not knowl- 

 edge. It is not facts. It is spirit. It is con- 

 cerned with the child's outlook on the world. 



Nature-study will endure, because it is natural 

 and of universal application. Methods will 

 change and will fall into disrepute; its name 

 will be dropped from curriculums ; here and there 

 it will be encased in the schoolmaster's "method'* 

 and its life will be smothered; now and then 

 it will be overexploited ; with many persons it 

 will be a fad: but the spirit will live. 



So common is the misconception of the mean- 

 ing and mission of the nature-study movement, 

 that I cannot resist the temptation to bring 

 together in book form a few notes and essays on 

 some of the more salient features of it, even if the 

 resulting book lack somewhat in homogeneity and 

 have some repetitions. These pieces have been 

 written at intervals in the past six years. Most of 

 them were prepared for specific occasions, for the 

 purpose of discussing disputed points or of answer- 

 ing challenges ; some have been prepared specially 

 for this collection. Some of them have been 

 published. They are offered in all humility, 

 since every person's view is necessarily colored by 

 his own field of observation; but on the main 

 thesis — that nature-study teaching is one thing 

 and that science-teaching for science's sake is 

 another — I have no hesitation. 



