34 THE NEW METHOD 



it the other, is not to teach it how to observe, but to 

 make it a mere recipient of another's observations ; a 

 proceeding which weakens rather than strengthens 

 its powers of self-instruction. . . . 



" Object-lessons should not only be carried on after 

 quite a different fashion from that commonly pur- 

 sued, but should be extended to a range of things 

 far wider, and continue to a period far later, than 

 now. They should not be limited to the contents of 

 the house ; but should include those of the fields and 

 the hedges, the quarry and the sea-shore. They 

 should not cease with early childhood ; but should 

 be so kept up during youth as insensibly to merge 

 into the investigations of the naturalist and the man 

 ■of science. Here again we have but to follow nature's 

 leadings. Where can be seen an intenser delight than 

 that of children picking up new flowers and watch- 

 ing new insects, or hoarding pebbles and shells ? 

 And who is there but perceives that by sympathizing 

 with them they may be led on to any extent of in- 

 quiry into the qualities and structure of these things ? 

 Every botanist who has had children with him in the 

 woods and the lanes must have noticed how eagerly 

 they joined in his pursuits, how keenly they searched 

 out plants for him, how intently the)* watched whilst 

 he examined them, how they overwhelmed him with 

 questions. . . . 



" It will by and by be found that a knowledge of 

 the laws of life is more important than any other 

 knowledge whatever — that the laws of life include 

 not only all bodily and mental processes, but by im- 



