lo THE THIRD YEARBOOK 



It is a fact of tremendous import for teachers to remember that 

 there can be no rational observation of anything that is not stimu- 

 lated and guided by the suggestion of law. This is true whether 

 the pupil is a child or an adult. Failure to understand the impor- 

 tance of this point is responsible for the unspeakable confusion 

 which now exists in most teachers' minds regarding the selection 

 and presentation of material in nature-study. The examination 

 by children into the minute details of a subject is not only a physical 

 impossibility, but it is also an absurdity, for the simple reason 

 that for them through these minutiae there can be no manifestation 

 of law. Illustrations are abundant. The older botany, when tried 

 with the children, failed for precisely this reason. The children 

 could see, physically, the venation, margin, shape, etc., of leaves; 

 but their work fell below true observation, and consequently interest 

 died out, because as presented, no reason or law suggested itself in 

 explanation of these facts. When the same facts are reached through 

 a broad presentation of the plant's relations to light, heat, and 

 moisture, they at once become true and interesting objects of 

 observation and fruitful sources of thought, because the perceived 

 relationships suggest reasons that explain them. The same is true 

 whatever may be the aspect of presentation — that of beauty as well 

 as that of use. For the idea of beauty rests finally upon the 

 perception of fitness, of adaptation ; and adaptation points to the 

 statement of a law. 



It must not be supposed that it is here maintained that everything 

 done in nature-study should lead at once to an actual formulation 

 of law. This would be manifestly impossible and absurd. Many 

 things are under observation at present for which the wisest cannot 

 state the law but it is their suggestion in that direction that preserves 

 interest in the study. The sweep of the seasons is a fact that 

 may be so presented to children that its hint of law will stimulate 

 active observation and thought long before any formula for it can 

 be stated. 



The region of nature is for the child, as for the savage and the 

 ignorant man, a domain of mystery and of fancy. The aim of the 

 teacher should be so to present nature and its various manifestations 

 that the reasonableness of things shall appear. The pupil must be 

 trained to see things, as nearly as he can, as they actually exist, and 

 not as though he were intoxicated or insane or in a delirium. 



