6* 



will sooner be out of the world than out of the fashion, and we shall 

 all study it. 



Look out then that it doesn't swamp us. The book-makers will 

 enter the field, and we shall not lack for book instruction, and since 

 that is so easy to give, the spread of natural history will be rapid as 

 it will be killing, for, mark just here, that it is not arithmetic, nor 

 geography with which we are dealing, it is Nature, and every unnec- 

 essary remove from herself in the study, is a move toward dulling 

 faculties instead of quickening them, is a move toward death, not 

 life. Nature herself should be the study if it is possible, and it 

 almost always is, even in cities. 



The nearest approach to nature in the shape of pictures, models 

 and dried specimens should be the only permitted plan in lieu of the 

 former. To recite from a text-book alone, here, even the interesting 

 glossary, is to kill enthusiasm, dull perception, blind observation, 

 and make an added routine, where it was to be especially avoided. 

 The speaker said that the brief half-hour did not permit an exhaus- 

 tive statement of the reasons for his second proposition, viz., that 

 natural history ought to be in the schools, but trusted that with the 

 following from Mr. Chadbourne he had given some answer to those 

 who asked the educational value of natural history. 



"It gives problems for the deepest thought; it has power to make 

 the earth yield her mineral treasures and to bring forth more abun- 

 dantly every desirable form of vegetable and animal life. It is a 

 volume ever open, ever inviting the mind to activity without weari- 

 ness. It saves from the confinement and wear of other studies, and 

 makes the hours of physical exercise the most profitable in storing 

 the mind. It gives standards of the beautiful, and, by developing a 

 true taste, gives to the student the highest type of mental cultivation 

 and secures to him unfailing sources of enjoyment, so long as sight 

 and hearing remain. 



It goes deeper still, and, revealing the divine nature, leads to the 

 sublimest contemplations, elevating the moral nature, thus ennobling 

 the whole man, and strengthening the only sure foundation of all that 

 is truly noble in our natures. Shall such a study be ignored in our 

 systems of education? Shall it be left like a beggar to find here a 

 hearty welcome and there to be driven from the door?" 



The final question is, then, What are we going to do about it? The 

 speaker said his answer to this third point would be as brief as his 

 propositions regarding the first two. 1. Natural history is not in the 

 public schools. 2. It ought to be there. 3. Put it there. If two 

 bodies or studies cannot occupy the same space at the same time, 

 something must give way, if the school curriculum is full. The 

 speaker was ready to accept the logic of the situation. If primary 

 schools cannot find time for it, those in authority must be shown how 



