NATURE & OBSERVATION 



out to study Nature and make friends with her ; 

 we must not trouble ourselves with unimportant 

 details. It does not in the least matter how 

 many trees there are in a group, unless we 

 intend either to sell or buy them, nor how high 

 a hill is, nor how fast the wind travels, nor how 

 many sheep there are in a flock, nor how many 

 cows in a meadow. We are neither timber- 

 merchants, engineers, wind-mills, shepherds, nor 

 farmers. We shall do wisely at first if we think 

 only of such things as we believe to be beauti- 

 ful, or hope will help us to understand the world 

 we live in. 



It will be useful, in the first place, if we 

 try to find out what powers of observation we 

 have ; whether we do usually notice the objects 

 around us, whether we remember correctly 

 what we have seen, or whether we are in the 

 habit of walking about with our eyes open 

 and our minds shut. Can we, for instance, 

 draw a plan of the house we live in, putting 

 the doors and windows on the right walls ? 

 Do we know how the roads and paths go in 

 the gardens and parks with which we are 

 familiar ? There are some pieces of ground 

 we walk over almost every time we go out. 

 Are they paved with flag-stones or cement ? 

 Are they covered with gravel or asphalte ? 

 Are they just the hard earth trodden down, 

 which is good to walk on in fine and dry 

 weather, but becomes a mass of mud after a 



(5) 



