166 NATURE STUDY. 



of broadening and uplifting the ideas and thoughts and 

 pictures gained from nature study, is illustrated in the 

 study of the dandelion in Chapter I. Lowell's " To 

 the Dandelion " leads into a new world, if the reader 

 has seen or experienced enough, and has an imagina- 

 tion sufficiently trained, to picture what the poet ex- 

 presses. Genuine literature can be distinguished from 

 mere prose or rhyme by the extent to which it gives 

 broader, higher views, opens new vistas. That which 

 merely gathers up what has been already perceived or 

 apperceived, lacks one great essential of literature. 



If we realize the importance of cultivating the im- 

 agination of our boys and girls, of leading from the 

 seen to the broader, more uplifting unseen, if we ap- 

 preciate the higher aims of nature study, the impor- 

 tance of cultivating the higher nature of our pupils, 

 we will in our nature study make use of the best 

 literature, and so study it with our pupils that they will 

 be able to see something of the pictures the authors 

 have seen. 



