192 The Nature-Study Idea 



book lies in its pedagogy rather than in its 

 science. Statements in such books have two 

 values the teaching value and the science 

 value. Too often the reviewer thinks only of 

 the science value. 



Of course there is danger of superficiality. 

 There is this danger in everything; but the 

 danger is inherent in the person, not in the sub- 

 ject. Solid work is as necessary in nature- 

 study as in anything^ else. It is not play, it is 

 not sentimentality, and it is not blind wonder. 



Will not this nature-study tend still further 

 to over-burden the school? 



The overburdening of the school hours is due 

 as much to the fact that the old subjects do not 

 give way as that new ones are introduced. The 

 old schools had too little variety. Perhaps the 

 new ones have too much congestion. Just now 

 we are in an intermediate stage between the old 

 and the new. Nature-study is not a new sub- 

 ject demanding a place: it is a point of view 

 asserting itself. It is an attitude toward life, 



