THE EXPRESSIVE WORK OF THE SCHOOL. 243 



If the main aim in the teacher's mind is to develop 

 the purely intellectual powers of the child, the power 

 to see and tell and think, to compare and discriminate 

 and classify or generalize, then nature study and music 

 will have as little relation as nature study and litera- 

 ture. If teachers are satisfied with the study of mere 

 externals, general form or structure, then music is al- 

 most useless as a means of expressing the ideas gained. 



If teacher and children go beyond form to the heart 

 of nature, then nature is full of music, is instinct with 

 thoughts which music can best or can only express. 

 The play of the wind, the song of the birds, the ripple 

 of the brook, the patter of the raindrops, the roll and 

 roar of the waves, the singing of the tea-kettle, are all 

 parts of the eternal symphony. 



The harp at Nature's advent strung 



Has never ceased to play ; 

 The song the stars of morning sung 



Has never died away. 



WHITTIER. 



After a lesson, a real wide-awake lesson, on the signs 

 of spring, or on the bluebird, or on the nest with its blue 

 eggs in the tree just outside the window, the teacher 

 may find that a song will express more, and impress 

 more of what is most important to express and impress, 

 than a half-hour or hour spent in drawing the nest, or 

 in writing about the swelling buds or the habits of the 

 bluebird. 



A song at the opening exercises of the school may 

 be more expressive and more effective in increasing the. 



