WAYS OF NATURE 



against fact and law,&quot; and do not want or need 

 confirmation $ If nature study is only to exploit 

 your own individuality, why bother about what 

 other people have or have not seen or heard ? Why, 

 in fact, go to the woods at all ? Why not sit in your 

 study and invent your facts to suit your fancyings ? 



My sole objection to the nature books that are 

 the outcome of this proceeding is that they are put 

 forth as veritable natural history, and thus mislead 

 their readers. They are the result of a successful 

 &quot;struggle against fact and law&quot; in a field where 

 fact and law should be supreme. No doubt that, 

 in the practical affairs of life, one often has a strug 

 gle with the fact. If one s bank balance gets on 

 the negative side of the account, he must struggle to 

 get it back where it belongs ; he may even have the 

 help of the bank s attorney to get it there. If one 

 has a besetting sin of any kind, he has to struggle 

 against that. Life is a struggle anyhow, and we are 

 all strugglers struggling to put the facts upon 

 our side. But the only struggle the real nature stu 

 dent has with facts is to see them as they are, and 

 to read them aright. He is just as zealous for the 

 truth as is the man of science. In fact, nature study 

 is only science out of school, happy in the fields 

 and woods, loving the flower and the animal which 

 it observes, and finding in them something for the 

 sentiments and the emotions as well as for the under 

 standing. 



202 



