Editorial 



The last editorial extolled the practical 

 values of nature study. In this the adverse 

 side of the shield will be displayed. Nature 

 study aims at an ennobling, inspiring, heal- 

 ing companionship with nature as well as a 

 •commercial knowledge of nature. The moral 

 uplift is the ultimate desire. We all appreciate 

 with Whittier — 



"How wearily the grind of toil goes on 

 Where love is wanting, ho~w the eye and ear 

 And heart are starved amidst the plenitude 

 Of Nature. 



Jjl ^ ^ 3j» 



And, in sad keeping with the things about them, 

 Shrill querulous women, sour and sullen men, 

 Untidy, loveless, old before their time, 

 With scarce a human interest save their own 

 Monotonous round of small economies, 

 Or the poor scandal of the neighborhood; 

 Blind to the beauty everywhere revealed. 

 Treading the May flower with regardless feet; 

 For them the song sparrow and the bobolink 

 Sang not, nor winds made music in the leaves; 

 For them in vain October's holocaust 

 Burned gold and crimson, over all the hills, 

 The sacramental mystery of the woods." 



Nature study aims to reveal the significance 

 of the commonplace environment. The aver- 

 age school child is destined to spend its life 

 among familiar things. The hills and valleys, 

 the winding river, the flowers seen so often 

 they remain imseen, the indififerent voices of 

 field and woodland — these become monono- 

 nously commonplace in the humdrum existence 

 unless the teacher or some one with the 

 breadth of outlook can put into them the full- 

 ness of meaning they really possess. 



I go out into the fields and from the copse 



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