12 THE THIRD YEARBOOK 



trustworthy exactly in proportion to the accuracy with which the 

 senses furnish the data. Natural science is dependent upon the 

 same organs and upon data obtained by precisely the same means. 



In nature-study the value of the subject to the individual 

 depends upon his own observation and investigation. The original 

 and personal character of these determine the rate and amount of 

 progress that an individual can make. It is this point, too, that 

 is strongly insisted upon in natural science. Everything is open 

 to question by everyone. Nothing is necessarily assured simply 

 because someone else has claimed to have made the observation. 



In nature-study the aim is to have the pupil investigate phe- 

 nomena and things for the purpose of determining their relation. 

 Nothing is studied in isolation. By such methods certain relation- 

 ships are discovered to be constant and the pupil early gets the clue 

 to the meaning of natural law. In natural science the aim is the 

 same ; the student seeks then the study of natural phenomena for 

 those abiding relations, those sequences of cause and efi'ect, the 

 expression of which becomes the statement of natural law. The 

 determination of the constant, hence natural, order of phenomena 

 is the ultimate end of all study. It is the task of the scientist, 

 the historian, the philosopher alike, and nature-study represents 

 but a primary stage of the same thing. There is no actual dividing 

 line, therefore, between the pupil in nature-study and the student 

 of natural science. The motive, the material, and the principles 

 of method are precisely the same. In practical instruction, however, 

 the characteristic differences are encountered in teaching these sub- 

 jects to pupils of different ages that are met with in other studies 

 of the curriculum. 



In nature-study with . children the teacher has to deal with 

 untrained senses and with mental powers generally undeveloped. 

 The pupil is unable either to see great detail or to grasp relation- 

 ships that exist among the minutise of the subject. As the story 

 told by the pupil's senses is vague and inaccurate so the pictures 

 of his incipient imagination are erratic and fanciful. He must 

 therefore deal with larger masses than are necessary with the trained 

 student of science. The sights must be more vivid, the weights 

 heavier, the relations more striking, the movements more pro- 

 nounced, and the functions more obvious. In natural science the 

 better-trained student discovers minute details and recognizes more 



