of 



So it is. Certainly if ignorance, a great deal of igno- 

 rance, were unwholesome, then nature-study would 

 be a very unhealthy course, indeed. For, when the 

 most curious of the herbalists and birdlorists (Mr. 

 Burroughs, say) has made his last prying peep into 

 the private life of a ten-acre woodlot, he will still be 

 wholesomely ignorant of the ways of nature. Is the 

 horizon just back of the brook that marks the termi- 

 nus of our philosopher's path ? Let him leap across, 

 walk on, on, out of his woods to the grassy knoll in 

 the next pasture, and there look ! Lo ! far yonder the 

 horizon ! beyond a vaster forest than he has known, 

 behind a range of higher rolling hills, within a shroud 

 of wider, deeper mystery. 



There is n't the slightest danger of walking off 

 the earth ; nor of unlearning our modicum of whole- 

 some ignorance concerning the universe. The nature- 

 lover may turn nature-student and have no fear of 

 losing nature. The vision will not fade. 



Let him go softly through the May twilight and 

 wait at the edge of the swamp. A voice serene and 

 pure, a hymn, a prayer, fills all the dusk with peace. 

 Let him watch and see the singer, a brown-winged 

 wood thrush, with full, spotted breast. Let him be 



68 



