ioo THE NATURE-STUDY IDEA 



stead are restful sward and peaceful verdure. 

 Flowers are not to be despised, but they are 

 accessories. 



This habit of looking first at what we call the 

 beauty of objects is closely associated with the old 

 conceit that everything is made to please man : man 

 is only demanding his own. It is true that every- 

 thing is man's because he may use it or enjoy it, 

 but not because it was designed and "made" for 

 "him" in the beginning. This notion that all 

 things were made for man's special pleasure is 

 colossal self-assurance. It has none of the humility 

 of the psalmist, who exclaimed, "What is man, 

 that thou art mindful of him? " 



"What were these things made for, then?" 

 asked my friend. Just for themselves ! Each thing 

 lives for itself and its kind, and to live is worth the 

 effort of living for man or bug. But there are 

 more homely reasons for believing that things were 

 not made for man alone. There was logic in the 

 farmer's retort to the good man who told him that 

 roses were made to make man happy. " No, they 

 wa'n't," said the farmer, "or they wouldn't 'a' 

 had prickers." 



Being human, we interpret nature in human 

 terms. Much of our interpretation of nature is 

 really an interpretation *of ourselves. Because a 

 condition or a motive obtains in human affairs, we 

 assume that it obtains everywhere. The only point 

 of view is our own point of view. Of necessity, 

 we assume a starting-point; therefrom we evolve 

 an hypothesis which may be either truth or fallacy. 



