1899.] ESSAYS. 89 



with signs " kee[) ofl" the grass," nor gravelled walks, nor raie 

 plants necessitating the employment of a gardener, hut a jiiece 

 of land like that used for pasturage in the country. A wall 

 should be built around it that would secure quiet and seclusion 

 as far as possible. In it should be planted wild flowers, in such 

 nooks as would best suit each variety, and there they would 

 blossom through spring, summer and autumn, — from arbutus to 

 goldenrod. Trees should be set out, — Maples, alders, beeches, 

 pines, birches, — shruhheri/, such as we find growing by the 

 country roadside ; bushes and vines, such as we find in pastures. 

 There should be water — either a pond or a brook — in some 

 part of it. In short, it should be as full of wild plant and 

 animal as well as insect life, as by any contrivance it could be 

 made. 



This could not be a public place, but must be kept as care- 

 fully from depredators as a schoolroom. During as many days 

 of the year as possible, the little children under eight years of 

 a^e should come in classes of a dozen or twenty, at stated times 

 during the day, for an hour or two's walk and talk with a 

 teacher provided by the school board. Any teacher who failed 

 to awaken the interest, sympathy and love of the little ones 

 for the life about them should be considered unsuccessful. 



This plan could be followed in the country without the 

 expense of preparing a park, as everything is there arranged by 

 Mother Nature in the best possible manner. When a child has 

 become acquainted with life, — animal, insect and plant, — has 

 really seen it in the right way, has learned that animals suffer 

 pain and fear when we are not gentle in our treatment, that they 

 love and trust us when we are kind, that insects sutler, that 

 their little life is easily destroyed, that plants are living beings, 

 that with careless hands we may tear them from their home and 

 they will die, — the thoughtless, even cruel treatment that so 

 often helpless life sutlers at the hands of children will be im- 

 possible. I have heard that the Romish Church says, "Give 

 me the children till they are seven years of age and any one 

 may have them afterwards"; and 1 fully believe that we should 

 seize that most impressible period of a child's life to leach him 



