144 HOW NATURE STUDY SHOULD BE TAUGHT 



he himself feeds upon the excitement of the hunt, 

 the happy mental rest, the sunshine of the fields, 

 and the flavor of the woods." 



The more I observe my fellow enthusiasts in 

 other departments of nature the more firmly am 

 I convinced that this assertion applies equally 

 well to them, and in full force, too. 



Go on, happy mortal, in your innocent delusion. 

 Dream of your diatoms, birds, snakes or boulders. 

 They are only agents to entice you to the real 

 thing, walking and its accompaniments. It is the 

 accompaniments that give it the charm. These 

 are not the minutiae of nature magnified into 

 importance, nor yet the larger interests hampered 

 within the folds of scientific environments. But 

 you will, O scientist, artist, photographer, not go 

 into the fields only to rake up the straws, but to 

 look at the real things. Your soul will and does 

 drink in the influence of things. You will walk 

 in this paradise, and be happy, though perhaps 

 you may be ignorant of the reason. 



What a boon is walking to every child and 

 youth. It is not only in our infancy that heaven 

 lies about us, but through our youth. In the 

 merry rambles of childhood, we get near to this 

 paradise. It may be that later, as Colonel Thomas 



