1.66 THE NA TURE-STUD Y RE VIE W ,3 : 6-sept., 1907 



apprehension as well as the purely commercial appropriation of 

 nature. Our scientific texts and the bulk of our scientific instruc- 

 tion have been negligent of the development of the will and 

 emotions. They have centered effort on the production of 

 intellectual keeness. Science is a statement of bare facts, — a 

 cold, impartial, uncolored recital of truth. This is inadequate 

 for the complete education. It lacks interest. It fails to stir 

 the emotions, to stimulate the will. It does not recognize an 

 important soul power, faith. But add to the scientific know- 

 ledge of fact, the artist's joy in beauty, the glamour of poetic 

 interpretation, the raconteur's literary style, the interest of 

 human kinship and utility and it makes subject-matter in which 

 the imaginative child soul revels. 



Nature-study supplies in part at least that element of culture 

 and spiritual uplift in modern scientific education which the older 

 classical courses gave by virtue of the student's contact with the 

 splendid thoughts and sturdy heroes of the classical literature. 



Nature-study aims at an ennobling, inspiring, healing com- 

 panionship with nature rather than mere knowledge of nature. 

 The love of nature is the goal; the moral uplift is the ultimate 

 desire. Humanity owes much to these friendships with nature. 

 They have been the source of inspiration for poets, moralisto, 

 reformers, a never failing fountain of perpetual youth for the 

 world's great toilers. The exquisite Lake region of England and 

 our own charming Concord valley have stamped their character 

 on the literature of a brilliant period because they have moulded 

 the characters of the poets and philosophers their beauty has 

 inspired. Every religion has drawn on nature for parables and 

 the great religious leaders have spent years apart meditating 

 amid the suggestive voices of nature. Man's worship of God 

 has evolved from a worship of nature. Religion has been con- 

 ceived of the solitary places. Freedom has been nurtured by 

 the hills. Literature and art have been cradled in the lap of 

 Mother Nature. That which is true of the race is true of the 

 individual. Sturdy character is the gift of the sun-flecked forests 

 the rushing river, the eternal hills. 



"By the breadth of the blue that shines in silence o'er me, 

 By the length of the mountain lines that stretch before me, 

 By the height of the cloud that sails with rest in motion 

 Over the plains and the vales to the measureless ocean 



