226 THE NA TURE-STUDY REVIEW 13 :8-nov., 1907 



older pupils. Simultaneously the rocks of the neighborhood are 

 studied. The out-crops are visited, their strata noted and the 

 texture of the rock, its rounded grains, its component minerals. 

 Perhaps fossil remains are first collected as curios, then studied 

 with wonder, and finally their real significance thought out, when, 

 perhaps at high school, the whole series of contours and agencies, 

 shore deposits, sand strata, rock ledges, all known intimately by 

 virtue of early nature work, fall into their proper places and reveal 

 the story of one's home environment in terms of the world drama. 

 I have seen adult students fairly gasp in surprise and admiration 

 when the hills and valleys, rivers, shore lines and rock ledges with 

 which they had been on terms of intimacy for years, suddenly 

 arranged themselves into an intelligible whole, and revealed the 

 significance of the familiar landscape. 



All will agree that the development of upright character is the 

 most important aim in nature-study, as in all education. It is 

 because of a firm faith in the ennobling inflaence of an intimacy 

 with nature that nature-study — ^the training by doing things 

 rather than reading of them, the laboratory method — has appealed 

 so hopefully to many educators. Yet this moral impetus is the 

 most difficult to impart. One may not gush with the avowed pur- 

 pose of transmitting some admiration for beauty and marvelous 

 order to the pupil, nor be ever pointing out the moral. Such 

 sentimentalism is promptly discounted and excellent intention 

 dubbed prudishness. The teacher herself must experience what 

 she would impart, must acquire a contagious enthusiasm. I do 

 not know how this may be accomplished except by getting in con- 

 tact with some one in whom the fire has been kindled. Read 

 William Hamilton Gibson's," Eye Spy" or "My Studio Neighbors," 

 as models of accurate observation and artistic appreciation. 

 Study Mabel Osgood Wright's "Four-Footed Americans" as 

 illustrating her happy methods of putting facts together to assist 

 children in working out conclusions, or get acquainted with 

 "Uncle John's" charming ways of suggestive instruction. Study 

 Metcalf's, "Organic Evolution," or Salisbury's "Physiography" 

 to tax your own more mature powers of inductive reasoning. 

 Browse through Burrough's or Thoreau's writings until you strike 

 passages that appeal to you and then study them. Read Van 

 Dyke's "God of the Open Air," Fiske's "Through Nature to 

 God," or Drummond's "Ascent of Man," for inspiring vistas into 



