THE HIGHEST AIM OF NATURE STUDY. 125 



Adaptation to environment means more than making 

 our environment minister -to our needs, getting from it 

 all we possibly can, and giving the least possible return. 

 We owe something to our environment, whether nature, 

 man, or God; and adaptation is incomplete until we 

 learn to recognize and perform what we owe. 



We have considered as successive aims in nature 

 study the acquisition of knowledge, or facts, the devel- 

 opment of intellectual power, the awakening of interest, 

 thq cultivation of sympathy, the development of the 

 higher nature, sesthetic, ethical, spiritual. We shall 

 find that in the ultimate analysis these are all subor- 

 dinate to the highest aim, adaptation to environment. 

 They all prepare for more complete adaptation to en- 

 vironment, to nature, man, and God. 



The question now arises, How, through or by means 

 of nature study, can the child be better adapted to his 

 threefold environment? 



The child is first brought into relation with the 

 physical world. His early wants are physical. He 

 gains everything through his senses, and they tell him 

 only of his physical surroundings. Of his intellectual 

 and spiritual environment he knows almost nothing at 

 first. What he gains later comes directly or indirectly 

 through the medium of his senses. In his earliest edu- 

 cation we must use matter and methods which appeal 

 most strongly to his senses. These we find in nature 

 study. 



The first step in adapting the child to his environ- 



