1898.] ANNUAL REUNION. 157 



.subject like this for two reasons. The first one is that not long 

 ago at one of the meetings of the Horticultural S(jciety it was 

 stated that Clark University stood for pure intellectualism. 

 My joy in being called up is in the thought that I can repudiate 

 a statement of that sort. Certainly the man who made the 

 statement could never have heard Professor Hall lecture upon 

 Education of the Heart, and Education of the Will, if he calls 

 Clark University an institution of pure intellectualism. The 

 truth of the matter is, I take it, Clark University stands for such 

 a subject and things as the Worcester County Horticultural Soci- 

 ety stands for, that is, for the kind of education which should be 

 from the beorinning active education. Now the old basis that 

 Plato and Socrates laid down is that the first step toward virtue 

 is to know what is best to do. We must have of course some 

 knowledge as a basis of action. Nothing in the world is so 

 terrible as active ignorance, so we must learn in order to know 

 what to do, but unless we do what we learn to do what availeth 

 our knowledge. 



The other subject which has been a " Bee in my Bonnet" for 

 some time, is that of nature study in the public schools, and it 

 did my heart good to hear President Appleton bring it out as 

 he did. It is something that I think is not appreciated by the 

 more conservative portion of the Society. I believe our nature 

 study is a movement back toward Paradise in the horticultural 

 sense. If we can make it a study which shall give the young 

 people of the country a knowledge as to what is good to do in 

 horticulture, and then by some means or other induce them to 

 make that education active, to bring it out in their lives and in 

 their practice, we may have a horticultural community which 

 will show the country what a city can be made to look like with 

 a horticultural people in it. And right here I would say in 

 conclusion, that the Worcester County Horticultural Society 

 strong as it is, vigorous in all its branches, containing as it does 

 practical and theoretical horticulturists (I count myself in both of 

 these classes), can do the work for Worcester through the public 

 school which no other institution in the place can do, and which 

 it seems to me would be the legitimate work for the Horticul- 

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