INTRODUCTION. 3 



with questions which cannot be answered, even by the 

 wisest of us, there remains, alas ! but little sense of 

 superiority, nay, rather a sense of distress, that man should 

 be so ignorant that a child can ask questions in reply to 

 which we can but answer " I do not know." 



But some will say " May not snubbing after all be best ? 

 Who wants his child to spend his life in collecting beetles, 

 or labelling bits of rock, or spending his time over dried 

 vegetables ? There are more important things in life than 

 these to perform." But I have not found that those who 

 love to understand nature's ways are more liable than 

 others to leave important things undone, or to do them ill. 

 Did Charles Kingsley fail in these respects ? 



I want you, I even implore you, to cultivate this interest 

 in, this sympathy with, nature in all her moods and in all 

 her manifestations. I would have you dull to no aspect 

 of nature. I would have you know how the clouds are 

 formed in the sky, and why they sometimes lie in wreaths 

 on the mountain sides or in the valleys, sometimes form 

 billowy masses near the earth, sometimes spread out in 

 long streaks along the horizon, sometimes float in fleecy 

 fragments in the upper regions of the atmosphere. I 

 would have you know (from observation and not from 

 reading only) what the rain-drops are doing in helping to 

 model the surface of the earth, and what the collected 

 rain-drops in streams and rivers can effect. I would have 

 you understand why it is that in different parts of England 

 you find different kinds of scenery. Why the scenery of 

 the Isle of Wight differs from that of the Isle of Man, 

 why the South Downs, the Cotteswolds, the Mendips, 

 Exmoor, and the mountains of Wales all have their 

 peculiar and characteristic stamp. Believe me, if you will 

 be at the pains to learn how the elements of scenery are 

 constituted, how form is dependent upon structure, you 



B 2 



