Ill 



The Meaning of the Nature-Study 

 Movement 



IT is one of the marks of the progress of the 

 race that we are coming more and more into 

 sympathy with the natural world in which we 

 dwell. The objects and phenomena become a 

 part of our lives. They are central to our 

 thoughts. The happiest life has the greatest 

 number of points of contact with the world, and 

 it has the deepest sympathy with everything 

 that is. 



The best thing in life is sentiment; and the 

 best sentiment is that which is born of the most 

 accurate knowledge. I like to make this appli- 

 cation of Emerson's injunction to "hitch your 

 wagon to a star" ; but it must not be forgotten 

 that a person must have the wagon before he 

 has the star, and he must take due care to 

 stay in the wagon when he rides in space. 

 Mere facts are dead, but the meaning of the 

 facts is life. The getting of information is 

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