196 NATURE STUDY. 



Remembering that the best foundation is sense-per- 

 ception, actual seeing, by far the best way to relate 

 to environment is to take the children out for a field 

 lesson, to see grasshopper or cricket or caterpillar or 

 ant or snail in its natural home ; to see where and 

 how buttercup and mallow and fern and elm grow ; to 

 gather the stones, and study the position and arrange- 

 ment of rocks, and watch the work of rain and streams. 

 A field lesson with a definite aim and definite work for 

 each pupil, carefully planned, well conducted, well fol- 

 lowed up afterwards and clinched, is, in general, worth 

 half a dozen schoolroom lessons. 



The higher value of out-of-door study of nature Em- 

 erson has expressed in his poem " Each and All " : 



I thought the sparrow's note from heaven, 



Singing at dawn on the alder bough ; 



I brought him home, in his nest, at even ; 



He sings the song, but it cheers not now, 



For I did not bring home the river and sky ; 



He sang to my ear, they sang to my eye. 



The delicate shells lay on the shore ; 



The bubbles of the latest wave 



Fresh pearls to their enamel gave, 



And the bellowing of the savage sea 



Greeted their safe escape to me. 



I wiped away the weeds and foam, 



I fetched my sea-born treasures home ; 



But the poor, unsightly, noisome things 



Had left their beauty on the shore 



With the sun and the sand and the wild uproar. 



Then I said, "I covet truth; 

 Beauty is unripe childhood's cheat; 



