172 INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE 



hand, from the first till to-day schooling in Nature 

 has deepened humane feeling, as many of the 

 poets have confessed; and our position is that 

 schooling in Nature has been and remains an 

 essential part of the discipline of the developing 

 human spirit. Think of the past for a moment. 



Man was cradled in Nature and brought up 

 in close contact with Nature, and the influences 

 of Nature have supplied the raw materials of, 

 perhaps, half the poetry and art in the world. 

 From language and literature, from religion and 

 rites, and from what may be seen still among 

 simple peoples, it seems certain that the influences 

 of Nature took a very firm grip of Man in the 

 making. Very largely, perhaps, in a half-con- 

 scious way, just as in our own childhood, but 

 none the less firmly. The poet tells us of the 

 child who went forth every day, and what the 

 child saw became part of him for a day, or for 

 years, or for stretching cycles of years; and what 

 is true of the individual has been equally true of 

 the race. 



FUNDAMENTAL IMPRESSIONS OF NATURE. It 

 is unlikely that the impressions borne in on 

 our early ancestors were essentially different 

 from those that come to us, though the particular 

 form and colour of the impression must vary 

 from age to age. What, then, are the essential 

 impressions? When we reflect on this in the 



