METHOD OF STUDYING MATERIAL. 197 



I leave it behind with the games of youth : " 



As I spoke, beneath my feet 



The ground-pine curled its pretty wreath, 



Running over the club-moss burrs ; 



I inhaled the violet's breath ; 



Around me stood the oaks and firs ; 



Pine-cones and acorns lay on the ground ; 



Over me soared the eternal sky, 



Full of light and of deity ; 



Again I saw, again I heard, 



The rolling river, the morning bird; 



Beauty through my senses stole ; 



I yielded myself to the perfect whole. 



The manner of conducting field lessons must be 

 determined mainly by the aim and the conditions in 

 such out-of-door work. The aim is to get in touch or 

 harmony or unity with nature ; to investigate the rela- 

 tion to natural environment of that bit of nature in 

 which teacher and children are specially interested ; to 

 gain or study what cannot be studied or acquired in 

 the schoolroom. The conditions are very different from 

 those prevailing in the school. The pupils are at 

 home, where they realize their natural privileges and 

 rights, and where the teacher often has to become the 

 pupil. They are more free, more natural, more difficult 

 to restrain or control, or at least less amenable to 

 schoolroom rules or methods of discipline. The sur- 

 roundings attract and distract the pupils. There is so 

 much about them, that it is much more difficult to gain 

 their attention, keep them at work, or pin them down 

 to special, definite work. 



Nothing is more helpful in giving direction to an 



