DOWNING] ME THODS IN NA TURE-S TUD Y 227 



the significance of the commonplace. Read the great nature 

 poets. Study the great nature pictures. Good reproductions of 

 Landseer, Bonheur or others, hung where the eye may study them 

 will help in the appreciation of the beauty about one. Put your- 

 self in touch with some one whose eyes have been unsealed, whose 

 lips have been touched with the coal from the altar. Above all 

 cultivate a first-hand knowledge of the out-of-doors. Here rear 

 your shrine and religiously keep tryst with the spirit of nature. 

 "One impulse from a vernal wood 



May teach you more of man, 

 Of moral evil and of good, 



Than all the sages can." 



[Editor's Note — The first paper of this series by Dr. Downing was 

 •published in this magazine for September, 1907, pages 162-167 of Vol. 3; 

 the second paper in October, pages 191- 195.] 



