CHAPTER XVIII 



OUTINGS 



" How many pupils do you usually take with 

 you on your outings ? " recently inquired a school 

 superintendent. 



" I most usually don't take any," was my reply. 



" Don't take any with you ! " he exclaimed. 

 " Why, I thought you conducted parties of school 

 children on natural history excursions ? " 



" So, indeed, I do," I replied ; " but if I didn't 

 have a love of nature that would take me out alone 

 into the fields and forests many, many times to 

 once that I go with a natural-history party, I 

 am confident that I should not have sufficient 

 love of my own for nature to inspire any of it 

 in others." 



And I went on to say to him, as I now say to 

 you, that you cannot give to others what you your- 

 self do not possess. The first essential is to get 

 into harmony with the infinite, into loving intimacy 

 with nature, so that through your influence a re- 

 sponsive chord may be set into vibration within 



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