GENERAL INTRODUCTION 21 



No nature study text-book can be made so comprehensive 

 as to be a complete guide for every school, and to pro- 

 vide in detail materials for each lesson as text-books on other 

 subjects do. The teacher must be depended upon, then, to 

 fill in the detail for each day's lesson, since a text-book can 

 work out only a general plan based upon features common 

 to the environment of most schools. It can do little more 

 than suggest possible topics for study in various localities and 

 seasons, and illustrate how these subjects may be developed 

 in the different grades. The teacher must build upon these 

 suggestions, and modify or substitute as conditions may 

 require. 



In the grammar grades the teacher may receive more 

 direct aid from the text-book ; for the pupil can be directed 

 by it as to what should be examined, methods of procedure, 

 inferences to be drawn, and applications to be made. The 

 great benefit sought is not primarily the securing of a required 

 number of facts by the pupil, but that he may be led to love, 

 appreciate, and utilize wisely the environment placed around 

 him by a benevolent Creator. 



