€Sit &(Xi of t^t &(xn)> 



they have no place to take us, nothing to show us 

 when we arrive. Their real world does not exist. 



But we know that a real, ordinary, yet a marvelous 

 world does exist, and right at hand. The present 

 great nature movement is an outgoing to discover it, 

 — its trees, birds, flowers, its myriad forms. This is 

 the meaning of the countless manuals, the " how-to- 

 know" books, and the nature study of the public 

 schools. And this desire to know Nature is the rea- 

 sonable, natural preparation for the deeper insight 

 that leads to communion with her, — a desire to be 

 traced more directly to Agassiz, and the hosts of 

 teachers he inspired, perhaps, than to the poet-essay- 

 ists like Emerson and Thoreau and Burroughs. 



Let us learn to see and name first. The inexperi- 

 enced, the unknowing, the unthinking, cannot love. 

 One must live until tired, and think until baffled, be- 

 fore he can know his need of Nature ; and then he 

 will not know how to approach her unless already 

 acquainted. To expect anything more than curiosity 

 and animal delight in a child is foolish, and the 

 attempt to teach him anything more at first than to 

 know the out-of-doors is equally foolish. Poets are 

 born, but not until they are old. 



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