THE IDEALS OF NATURE STUDY. 3 



same fundamental reason as the poet or artist does they 

 appreciate FORM, COLOUR, and MOVEMENT. Children, for 

 example, gather shells on the sea- shore. They admire 

 them, they speak of lovely shells. So does Tennyson : 



" See what a lovely shell 

 Small and pure as a pearl 

 Lying close to my foot, 

 Frail, but a work divine, 

 Made so fairily well 

 With delicate spire and whorl, 

 How exquisitely minute, 

 A miracle of design. 



The tiny cell is forlorn, 

 Void of the little living will 

 That made it stir on the shore. 

 Did he stand at the diamond door 

 Of his house in a rainbow frill ? 

 Did he push when he was uncurled 

 A golden foot or a fairy horn 

 Through his dim water world ? " 



Now just as there is to be seen' here clearly the transi- 

 tion from the functional to the intellectual appreciation of 

 nature's manifestations, so we may note this as an ideal in 

 our nature studies. Nature Study as apart from formal 

 science teaching is distinctively a response to the aesthetic 

 instinct, and as such alone claims important recognition in 

 school work. Apart from the values it undoubtedly has in 

 common with science, properly conducted it will yield a 

 cultured appreciation of nature at large, and will foster the 

 growth of human faculties for which only slight provision 

 has hitherto been made, and which too frequently have 

 been stifled at a period when they are most capable of 

 development. How this may be encouraged as part of the 

 school programme it is the aim of this work to show. 



While we thus seek to make clear this important aspect 

 of Nature Study we do not overlook its other values. We 

 seek first to develop interest and delight in nature, but we 



