HOW NATURE STUDY SHOULD BE TAUGHT 145 



Wentworth Higginson has said, " We strive to 

 picture heaven, when we are barely at the thresh- 

 old of the inconceivable beauty of earth." If so, 

 it is then that a walk abroad restores us to the 

 heaven of childhood and of youth. All the senses 

 combine to suggest and restore perpetual youth. 

 Walking is the storing of priceless wealth for 

 maturity and old age. It is the link connecting with 

 things eternal, not the eternal things promised in 

 some distant future, but the eternal, priceless 

 things of the present. It gives health of body and 

 wealth of soul, enjoyable for the present and stored 

 for the future. 



Walking in the full strength of maturity ! Is 

 there any other luxury that can equal it ? It puts 

 all earth beneath us and heaven around and above. 

 No toiling horse shall drag us, no freaky bicycle 

 claim our undivided attention, no smoky locomo- 

 tive shall pull our car, rank with the odor of 

 varnish, except when we cannot have what nature 

 intends us to have, the glorious privilege of walk- 

 ing. Walking brings into play every muscle. It 

 fills the lungs with pure air and the arteries with 

 rich blood. It restores us to ourselves. It gives 

 independence. We do as we please. It may be 



to saunter leisurely along this road, to climb that 

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