VIII 



REVIEW 



IN the increasing complexities of our lives we 

 need nothing so much as simplicity and repose. 

 In city or country or on the sea, nature is the 

 surrounding condition. It is the universal environ- 

 ment. Since we cannot escape this condition, 

 it were better that we have no desire to escape. 

 It were better that we know the things, small and 

 great, which make up this environment, and that 

 we live with them in harmony, for all things are 

 of kin ; then shall we love and be content. 



All men love nature if they but knew it. The 

 methods and fashions of our living obscure the 

 universal passion. The more perfect the machinery 

 of our lives the more artificial do they become. 

 Teaching is ever more methodical and complex. 

 The pupil is impressed with the vastness of knowl- 

 edge and the importance of research. This is 

 well ; but at some point in the school-life there 

 should be the opening of the understanding to 

 the simple wisdom of the fields. One's happiness 

 depends less on what he knows than on what he 

 feels. 



There are men and women who pursue science 

 for science's sake without thought of its relation 

 to human lives. They are the explorers of the 



(86) 



