204 NATURE STUDY. 



flies, it may be better to study life history before 

 structure. 



Much has been said in previous chapters of the 

 greater educational value, particularly for children, of 

 such investigation of the living, working side of nature, 

 or of the function and story of plants and animals and 

 rocks, as compared with the study of mere form or 

 structure or morphology. It is in accordance with the 

 law of apperception. Life and action are more like the 

 child himself, appeal to him, can be better understood 

 by him. Life and action and work, the story of devel- 

 opment and formation, interest the children, and appeal 

 to their sympathies and to their higher nature, because 

 life and function, rather than structure, show the higher 

 side of nature. 



The observation of life and function and the study 

 of development and formation lead to the questions 

 " why " and " how," and compel the child to think and 

 to relate what he is learning, and thus tend to unity. 

 Until an animal or plant is studied alive, and as a living 

 thing, with all its parts co-operating, it is not a unit, 

 but a collection or aggregation of parts. When we 

 know the story of a mineral or rock, the forces which 

 have acted on it, and the changes through which it has 

 gone, it becomes almost a thing of life, a connecting 

 link between the past, present, and future. 



The study of habit and function and development or 



formation is the best possible preparation for an under- 



I standing of structure. The child who has watched the 



cat drink milk or eat meat, or climb a tree, or sharpen 



