22 HOW NATURE STUDY SHOULD BE TAUGHT 



to say, " We didn't have any room for that 

 kind." 



But editors, parents, voters, and school officers 

 are not all who ask, " Vat for ish dat ? " 



Listen to Thoreau for a moment : 



11 We study botany and zoology and geology, 

 lean and dry as they are, and it is rare that we 

 get a new suggestion. It is ebb tide with the 



scientific reports, Professor in the chair. 



How little I know of that arbor vitae when I have 

 heard only what science can tell me. It is but a 

 word, it is not a tree of life." 



This is as true of the dilute as of the con- 

 densed, of the kindergarten as of the university. 



Regarding those sciences, Thoreau is asking, 

 " Vat ish dat ? " 



Then we have our own John Burroughs, in an 

 Outlook on educational affairs, asking the same 

 question in another form, as he denounces worth- 

 less results and lack of vitality : 



In our time, it seems to me, too much stress is laid upon 

 the letter. We approach nature in an exact, calculating, 

 tabulating, mercantile spirit. We seek to make an inven- 

 tory of her storehouse. Our relations with her take on the 

 air of business, not of love and friendship. The clerk of 

 the fields and woods goes forth with his block of printed 

 tablets upon which, and under various heads, he puts down 

 what he sees, and I suppose foots it all up and gets at the 



