Inquiries and Answers 195 



should be taught to respect the life of every 

 creature. Collecting should be an incident, 

 particularly with very young children, and it 

 should be encouraged only when it has some 

 definite purpose. The spirit of savagery should 

 be discouraged. I do not like to encourage 

 young children to "catch things" for the mere 

 excitement of catching them, but to study the 

 habits of things as they are. I have little sym- 

 pathy with the development of shallow senti- 

 mentalism regarding the life of animals and 

 plants; but it is a safe principle, with children, 

 to respect the life of everything, and to dis- 

 courage the spirit of the hunter. 



How may we develop the humane attitude 

 toward living things? 



In reply to your letter, asking how I would 

 advise the teaching of "humane education" in 

 the schools, I will say that I should let such 

 teaching come as a result of a natural and well- 

 directed development of the child. I should 

 not teach tenderness, sympathy and morality 

 directly as abstractions. I should try to inter- 



