134 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



THE LOVE AND STUDY OF NATURE: A PART OF 

 EDUCATION.* 



BY DR. G. STANLEY HALL, PRESIDENT CLARK UNIVERSITY, WORCESTER. 



My subject, the love and study of nature, is both very old 

 and very worn. Nature has always been studied and such 

 work has always been approved. Trite and hackneyed as the 

 theme is, however, you will all admit that study is one of the 

 most ennobling occupations of man, that love is the highest 

 sentiment, and that nature in its broadest sense is the largest 

 theme in the world ; so that at the outset it must be evident 

 that in the limited time at my disposal I can only touch my 

 vast theme at a few points, and these in only the most general 

 terms. 



To begin with, I wish to urge that science, art, literature, 

 religion and human history and society are the five great 

 objects, not only of education, but of human interests. Nearly 

 all of the courses of study in the world have been framed of 

 the material in these departments, and every one of them 

 roots in the love and study of nature. 



This may not seem obvious without a little reflection. 

 Let us therefore glance at the history of each of these depart- 

 ments, — first, of science. 



I. Astronomy, for instance, which originated with Eu- 

 doxus and Hipparchus and was developed by Copernicus, 

 Gallileo and Kepler, is a creation of one of the sublimest of 

 all human interests, that in the heavens above us. From 

 Tycho Brahe, isolating himself on his lonely island for years 

 to devote himself more exclusively to the stars, down to 

 Professor Pickering, in his all-night work in photographing 

 the entire sky on a vast co-operative plan ; Professor Holden, 

 at the summit of Mount Hamilton ; Mr. Lowell, on Chim- 



* Evening lecture. 



