2 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE 



What things are best worth knowing is indicated in a 

 fundamental way by the relations toward nature that the 

 human race has found necessary and valuable to develop ; 

 and nowhere in literature are these relations expressed 

 with such force, beauty, and high authority as in the 

 words at the heading of this chapter. The fundamental 

 relations to nature of the race, the individual, and the 

 child have been more fully discussed elsewhere,^ and it is 

 necessary only to summarize them here briefly as follows : 



Of first importance is the fact that man's primitive 

 relations to nature are mainly biological — relations to 

 animal and plant life. 



Subjugation of Animals. — Development of these rela- 

 tions followed the order of logical necessity. Subjection 

 must come first if man is to live in safety on the 

 earth. This great process of subjugation, this hand- 

 to-hand fight against nature, must have constituted the 

 main lines of human nature study for thousands, prob- 

 ably for tens of thousands of years before language 

 took form and written history began, and it has formed 

 a large part of the work ever since. And how far have 

 vermin, weeds, insects, and microbes been brought under 

 subjection even now } To what extent this phase 

 of struggle and warfare should enter into a course of 

 nature study must remain largely a matter for individual 

 parents and teachers to decide, but that it has played an 

 important and fundamental role in development of civili- 

 zation and formation of human character there can be 

 no doubt. And it remains as true as ever that character 



1 " Foundations of Nature Study," The Pedagogical Seminary^ vol. vi, 

 No. 4, pp. 536-553; and vol. vii, No. i, pp. 95-110, No. 2, pp. 208-228. 



