254 THE ADVENTURES OF A NATURE GUIDE 



spiration of many of the great men and women 

 who lived heroic lives, who did much to promote 

 the glory of the growing world. 



The magnificent influence of nature is revealed 

 by many poets. Wordsworth eloquently pictures 

 this in "Three Years She Grew"; William Cullen 

 Bryant in "Thanatopsis"; and Shakespeare in 

 many lines, especially in the outburst of universal 

 sympathy in King Lear's magnificent prayer on 

 the storm-wild heath. 



Although Australia and New Zealand were set- 

 tled chiefly by convicts, these convicts under an- 

 other sun and sky, with new opportunities and with 

 the many-sided helpfulness of nature, quickly 

 developed people as kind, alert, and unselfish as 

 any upon the globe. 



Mother Nature is ever ready to train the growing 

 child. By using our wonderful national parks 

 or other wild places we may give the boys and girls 

 of to-day even better nature training than the 

 pioneers received from their environment. Hux- 

 ley says: "Knowledge gained at second hand from 

 books or hearsay is infinitely inferior in quality to 

 knowledge gained at first hand by direct observa- 

 tion and experience with nature." 



The poetic interpretation of nature was a promi- 

 nent factor in the education of Helen Keller. 

 In "The Story of My Life," she says: 



" For a long time I had no regular lessons. Even 

 when I studied most earnestly it seemed more like 



