272 NATURE STUDY. 



should be gems, not mere rhymes or doggerel. The 

 very best literature is not too good for the primary 

 children. It is helpful to begin the lesson with a line 

 or couplet or verse containing some beautiful thought 

 which may give tone to the whole lesson. 



A lesson gathering up some of the facts and thoughts 

 the children have gained from their study of air and 

 winds may begin with the verse from " The Child's 

 World": 



"The wonderful air is over me, 

 And the wonderful wind is shaking the tree; 

 It walks on the water and whirls the mills, 

 And talks to itself on the top of the hills." 



Such an introductory thought is almost certain to give 

 spirit and direction to the whole lesson. 



A lesson on any flower may begin with the words of 

 Henry Ward Beecher : " Flowers are the sweetest things 

 God ever made and forgot to put a soul into." What 

 the children read about grains, as they are studying 

 wheat or oats in the fall, will mean much more if they 

 can be given the thought of Lowell ; he calls the grains 

 " Four months' sunshine bound in sheaves." When 

 they are writing or reading about the uses of leaves, or 

 about the leaf-miners and leaf-rollers, whose homes are 

 in the leaves, how much may be added by quoting from 

 Lowell : - 



"And there's never a leaf nor blade too mean 

 To be some happy creature's palace." 



Many illustrations of primary reading lessons based on 

 nature study are given in Part II* 



