100 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE 



will make it grow best, as we have already seen with the 

 care of the pet animal, calls into play the same logic as 

 is required in taking the best care of himself or of any 

 human life that may be intrusted to him. 



For ages before writing was invented literatures were 

 passed from one generation to another by living word of 

 mouth. In like manner no skilled gardener can even 

 tell, much less write down, a hundredth part of what he 

 knows about ^raising plants. While we cannot neglect 

 means of expression in language and drawing, nature is 

 too infinitely complicated and life too deep for our shal- 

 low formulas, and the more fully we take these facts into 

 account the better. It was thought at first that the chil- 

 dren might be induced to keep diaries or records of their 

 plants, giving just what they did and just how fast the 

 plants grew ; but it was found that their writings were of 

 little value, and were even thought to act as a chill to 

 the spontaneous interests of some of the children. This 

 method must be used with great reserve. Some children 

 have a passion to write, while in others tJie very thought of 

 writing seems to benumb every impulse. Oral lessons, on 

 the other hand, were eminently successful, the only diffi- 

 culty being, as one teacher expressed it, to "get the 

 children to stop talking about their plants." 



After throwing his plant " over the banister " because 

 it did not grow fast enough to suit him, one little boy 

 wrote : " The best thing one learns from this lesson is 

 patience. I should like to try it again next year, to see 

 if I can have more patience than I had this year." The 

 ethical value of such a lesson is too patent to require 

 comment. Patience, carefulness, faithfulness in little 



