HiM.soNl ORGANIC FIELD OF NATURE-STUDY 131 



by nature's gifts) ever think for a moment of the cost in human 

 effort: — beginning back in primitive times in the trying Ufe of 

 the savage, passing through the dangers of explorations in foreign 

 lands, and finally coming down to our own times with its great 

 army of trained workers endeavoring to wrest yet more of nature's 

 secrets from her, and with them to mmister in still greater 

 degree to our well being and comfort. Not alone do the materials 

 themselves speak of nature's bounty and man's effort, but the 

 designs used in decoration and perhaps the thought of the book 

 are made to mirror some of nature's finer moods and so meet 

 still higher needs. May we not find a number of good reasons 

 for wishing our children to have a training that shall give them 

 a larger measure of appreciation of this great field than that 

 which has formed the habit of our thought ? Will being blind to 

 our abundant blessings, or possessing the power to see them, 

 lead to the happier and more contented life? 



In training for good citizenship we cannot afford to neglect 

 subjects which stand in so close a relation to life or death as do 

 those listed under section E. The older knowledge concerning 

 the danger of loose tigers is very generally understood by the 

 public at large, but the greater danger from flies and bacteria 

 is so little appreciated as to be more usually the subject of jest 

 than that of serious thought. Nature-study may well lay a 

 foundation in this field that shall yield results of tremendous 

 moment to mankind. 



This tabular form should speak to us of the value of real 

 nature-study in no uncertain tones. The race in its early child- 

 hood passed through a compulsory course in which the suc- 

 cessful pupils were rewarded with prizes of food, clothing, and 

 mates; while the delinquents were granted an early and per- 

 manent cessation from the struggle for existence. To eat and to 

 avoid being eaten were two great ever present and ever pressing 

 questions of the day; and man was compelled to investigate 

 nature in the most direct and persistent manner for her answers. 

 Crude as were the early ideas gained, as shown by early methods 

 and beliefs, from this direct study has come a wealth of know- 

 ledge so great that no one life can compass it, and few of us even 

 realize its extent and variety. 



Sections H to N, Part II of the tabular form, outline a portion 

 of this field of knowledge. If one would realize its vast worth, 



