no THE NA TURE-STUD V RE VIE W [3 : 4-apr., ,907 



began to tell the children how spiders spin, how they have a little 

 reservoir of adhesive liquid substance within which is forced out and 

 hardens into a thread on exposure to the air. Locke was vastly inter- 

 ested; he wanted to write down what the teacher had said, and at 

 his request his paper was returned. This is what he added: "Inside 

 of himself the spider has two tin cans. These are for its web 

 which is glue before it is spun." 



Of the other values of nature-study we may note briefly: 



1. Power of expression; the child can talk about the thing he is 

 interested in; he can write about it; he can make a picture of it. 

 But let his teacher remember that these are the products of nature- 

 study, and that nature-study can never be the product of talking of 

 writing or of drawing. The child's language should become more accur- 

 ate and logical. He should learn to tell the truth and not exaggerate. 

 Laboratory methods should lead to greater skill and dexterity in the 

 use cf the hands. 



2. Knowledge for its own sake and love of knowledge should 

 result from the widened environment of the child. Knowing his own 

 surroundings, he is able to interpret what he reads, and geography 

 and literature take on a new meaning. 



3. The industrial and economic side of the question appeals to 

 many, particularly to parents and school-boards. Plants and ani- 

 mals beneficial and injurious, pests and their extermination, problems 

 of food and clothing, of shelter and sanitation and personal hygiene 

 all become a part of the great subject. 



4. Finally, the ethical value of nature-study which results in hap- 

 piness to the individual is most important. One is never happier 

 than when riding a hobby and riding hard. Birds or butterflies, 

 trees or mosses, ferns or fungi — it doesn't matter so long as one has 

 an absorbing interest in the world without. Health and happiness 

 are not to be despised in these days of nerves and demand for new 

 sensations. To the sympathetic appreciation and love of all created 

 things, nature-study should lead; and if it be true that love is the 

 greatest thing in the world, then is nature-study indeed justified. A 

 man who ranks high in the scientific world showed this spirit when 

 he carried a tub of sea-water back to the beach from which it came, 

 a distance of some rods, and poured the water into the sea saying, 

 "I could not see any life there but it would be a pity to run any risk 

 of destroying life needlessly." 



The first value of nature-study then is the aesthetic value. The 



