Mr. Rose's Address 205 



doing nothing, or taking a reading-book course of 

 lessons. 



And here it is necessary to digress slightly in order 

 to touch upon a somewhat difficult matter. 



Is there not some fear that injudicious attempts to 

 force this subject will be putting a temptation in the 

 way of teachers to debase Nature-study to the level of 

 reading-lessons? 



Do not many of the excellent and usually well- 

 informed so-called object-lesson and Nature-study 

 readers act somewhat as a snare? 



For the pity of it is, that often, the more reliable 

 the book the more is the teacher using it tempted to 

 trust to its full descriptions and its exquisite pictorial 

 aids rather than bother to hunt up Nature's actual 

 instances. 



Is there not, to say the least, a temptation to learn 

 and know the book matter rather than to know the 

 living things themselves? 



For the whole essence of Nature- study is that it 

 shall be concrete; and unless the teacher possess the 

 necessary inclination and, might we not add, inspira- 

 tion in this direction, he will, if he do anything, pro- 

 bably attempt a book-conducted journey through a 

 large variety of subjects bewilderingly wanting in 

 anything like orderly sequence or purpose. 



If anything is to be achieved, the teacher's per- 

 sonality must be the prevailing motive force over and 

 above any books he may use. 



So that his first aim in choosing or constructing a 

 scheme will be to keep well within his own powers. 



He may by inclination be something of a geologist, 

 a botanist, or a physicist. 



