THE MISSION OF NATURE STUDY 27 



no one possessing it will be likely to lose his intellectual 

 balance. 



Some conception as to what an exact statement is. Very 

 many people are unable to make an exact statement, chiefly 

 because they are in no mental condition to do so. Their 

 ideas are vague and hazy, their thinking illogical, and their 

 expression wabbles. Nothing trains in clear thinking and 

 expression so much as accurate observation and descrip- 

 tion, and here again we are in the very stronghold of nature 

 study. To hew expression close to the line of fact may not 

 be called for on all occasions, as in familiar conversation, 

 which cannot degenerate into a series of formulas, but in 

 statements of fact or of belief it is demanded. It is sur- 

 prising and gratifying to see how rapidly young children 

 learn to hold steadily to what they have seen, and to state 

 it without exaggeration or verbiage. It is a good habit to 

 learn, and to learn so early that it becomes involuntary. 



Some conception o) what constitutes proof. This is the 

 crying need of the men and women of to-day who make and 

 hold the most impossible connections between cause and 

 effect. It is in this very broad field that charlatanism of 

 every sort flourishes like a noxious weed, and unless this 

 situation is changed through the schools the dupes will 

 continue to multiply. They are already far too numerous 

 for our good, and seem to be increasing in number in spite 

 of increasing education. Nature study presents unrivaled 

 opportunity for training in proof, for it is found that a single 

 observation is rarely trustworthy, and that additional facts 

 are apt to modify the conclusion. The spirit of nature 

 study is necessarily conservative and is very slow to 

 recognize a thing as proved, for it is compelled so often to 



