Correspondents and Critics. 275 



own microscopes and use unaided eyes to our 

 own advantage ; correcting, it may be, others' 

 errors and adding not only to our own stock of 

 knowledge but to that of the world's. Do not, 

 as is so often the case, believe that it is always 

 your neighbor and never yourself whom Nature 

 selects as her interpreter. Do not, above all 

 things, tremble in the presence of learned great- 

 ness, but ask yourself how it comes that they 

 know so much and you so little. Solve that 

 problem and you have bridged the yawning 

 chasm between you. 



There is no career for man, or none worth 

 following, that does not bring him into more or 

 less close contact with Nature, so why all your 

 life a stranger to her? Your indifference will 

 not yield you any extra dollars. Ignorance 

 may be lucky at times, but in the long run 

 knowledge comes out ahead. Why, for in- 

 stance, be not as weather-wise as your neighbor? 

 If the wind or clouds can be read, why not read 

 for yourself and not listen to another? One 

 newspaper would not meet the needs of a vil- 

 lage even, yet one naturalist is not to be found 

 among ten thousand men. Even if mere trail- 



