22 THE SCHOOL GARDEN. 



as absolutely necessary to him whose existence is bound 

 to nature by a thousand inseparable bonds. He is, in- 

 deed, dependent upon it in all and every thing, over 

 which he is to be master in many points, and upon 

 which his activity is to be directed. For while nature 

 must be his friend, and an open book for counsel, in- 

 struction and warning, it to-day is in fact locked up 

 from him by seven seals. 



But the knowledge of the natural sciences is to the 

 man of the country regions, not only necessary for fu- 

 ture practical value, and as a point of union for later 

 progress in useful knowledge, but it may and must serve 

 him precisely as the groundwork of a universal human 

 culture. And here we stand before one of the weighti- 

 est problems of the modern school garden, before the 

 known systematic use of the educating element that lies 

 in the natural sciences, for which, so far as it concerns 

 the education of the masses, the magic wand is to be 

 found in no other way. 



THE GARDEN SCHOOL A PLACE TO BE HAPPY. 



That this use of natural history for educational pur- 

 poses may and must be begun in school gardens, it is 

 the design of the following pages to show. A proper 

 school garden may, must, and is destined to be the 

 place where children are happiest ; it must be the dear- 

 est spot in those hours which they do not spend in the 

 school room or occupy at home in work for the school. 

 To be shut out from the instruction and plays of the 

 school garden will necessarily be one of the most pain- 

 ful punishments to the child. The school room (and 

 also the little school workshop) and the school garden 

 are to be the whole world of the child when this is not 



