A "Use" for Everything 135 



she could see them. It is a bother to look 

 behind for causes. 



This is a typical case. This attitude toward 

 nature comes almost daily to the teacher; in 

 fact, it sometimes comes from the teacher. 

 The mischief is increased by many popular 

 books on science, and some of these books have 

 been written by persons who have done noble 

 work for truth. 



This is one of the greatest faults with the 

 popular outlook on nature the belief that 

 every feature of plant or animal has a distinct 

 use in the present time and that one has only, 

 to look to be able to see what this use is. Per- 

 sons often look at the little things and miss the 

 big ones. They look for the hairs and miss 

 the plant. They see the unusual and overlook 

 the common. 



Having seen a feature of which the function 

 is not evident, they assume a condition and 

 jump at a conclusion. A plant has poison; 

 various creatures eat plants; the creatures are 

 killed by poison : therefore the plant has poison 

 to protect itself from the creatures. Now, it 



