TIME AND CHANGE 



on the farm. When we look upon Nature with fond 

 ness and appreciation she meets us halfway and 

 takes a deeper hold upon us than when studiously 

 conned. Hence I say the way of knowledge of Na 

 ture is the way of love and enjoyment, and is more 

 surely found in the open air than in the school-room 

 or the laboratory. The other day I saw a lot of col 

 lege girls dissecting cats and making diagrams of the 

 circulation and muscle-attachments, and I thought 

 it pretty poor business unless the girls were taking 

 a course in comparative anatomy with a view to 

 some occupation in life. What is the moral and in 

 tellectual value of this kind of knowledge to those 

 girls? Biology is, no doubt, a great science in the 

 hands of great men, but it is not for all. I myself 

 have got along very well without it. I am sure I 

 can learn more of what I want to know from a kit 

 ten on my knee than from the carcass of a cat in 

 the laboratory. Darwin spent eight years dissecting 

 barnacles; but he was Darwin, and did not stop at 

 barnacles, as these college girls are pretty sure to 

 stop at cats. He dissected and put together again 

 in his mental laboratory the whole system of animal 

 life, and the upshot of his work was a tremendous 

 gain to our understanding of the universe. 



I would rather see the girls in the fields anr* wx&amp;gt;ods 



studying and enjoying living nature, training their 



eyes to see correctly and their hearts to respond 



intelligently. What is knowledge without enjoy- 



250 



