50 The Nature-Study Idea 



vances, the work will naturally become more 

 systematic, until, in the high school, it may 

 develop into more formal teaching, and then a 

 regular period will be required. Those who 

 complain that nature-study is desultory are 

 really thinking of science, not of nature-study. 

 Although not the teaching of science, as such, 

 nature-study is not unscientific. It is not in any 

 sense a letting down of standards, if properly 

 handled, but a new intention in education. 



What may be the results of nature-study? 



Its legitimate result is education the de- 

 veloping of mental power, the opening of the 

 eyes and the mind, the civilizing of the indi- 

 vidual. As with all education, its central 

 purpose is to make the individual happy; for 

 happiness is nothing more nor less than pleasant 

 and efficient thinking, coming from a conscious- 

 ness of the mastery, or at least the understand- 

 ing, of the conditions in which we live. 



The happiness of the ignorant man is largely 

 of physical pleasures ; that of the educated man 

 is of intellectual pleasures. One may find com- 



