74 THE WAY LIFE BEGINS 



youth continued to look upon nature singly, with the eye of 

 the child; it were well, perhaps, if there existed for him 

 but one world instead of two, so that when the stage of re- 

 flection and full self-consciousness is reached, the youth 

 might still see the self as a closely membered form of the 

 natural creation. This power may come again with the years, 

 it may be the continuing possession of gifted minds, but for 

 most of us, it passes with adolescence. 



Yet even here there are compensations. Strange passions 

 and appetites are awakening. An intense, one might even say, 

 an intelligent selfishness, prepares the way for lust as the 

 great and unregulated forces of creation come to birth in the 

 boy. But along with lust comes chivalry. Man seems to have 

 inherited the impulses or instincts that make the higher life 

 possible. A devotion to ideals, a capacity for sacrifice, and, 

 for the moment, a power to enter into high social ideals, 

 struggle side by side with impulses which lead directly and 

 without circumlocution to reproduction. It makes a tre- 

 mendous difference to youth which of these two sets of forces 

 receive reinforcement from the environment. Sexual impulses 

 may be turned into depraved and vicious acts, or they may 

 be controlled, adjusted to social life, and made the agents of 

 personal and racial good. There are those whose heredity 

 or early environment commit them without a struggle to the 

 worst; there are, on the other hand, those whose environment 

 is fortunate, whose physical and mental development goes 

 on uninterruptedly, and who have the rare privilege of enter- 

 ing upon marriage with all of its obligations and steadying 

 influences at the time when these are most needed. For the 

 great majority of youth, however, there are many dangers 

 and many problems of life to be settled and adjusted. 



What May Nature Study Do 



There is no intention to maintain here that nature study, 

 even though it deal with the entire life history of living 

 creatures rather than conventionally acceptable portions of 

 them, will of itself solve the problems of youth, or indeed, 

 greatly lessen the strain of the 'storm and stress' period. It 



