NATURE AND REVELATION 25 



The second and greater risk is that we 

 teach materialism, and, while impressing 

 upon young people the beauty and interest 

 of their surroundings, point only to natural 

 causes. This danger is to be combated by 

 taking care that Nature study shall be 

 pursued under a sure conviction that Nature 

 is but one part of the divine revelation, and 

 has to be studied along with the other part, 

 which is contained in the Bible. We ought 

 to bear in mind the analogy which I founded 

 on the two paths in the Ochils, and follow 

 that way which leads upwards, in the sun- 

 shine, amidst verdant trees and many-hued 

 flowers. 



In the succeeding chapters of this book 

 I have sought, so far as I was able, to guard 

 against the first of these dangers. I have 

 again and again impressed upon the lover 

 of Nature that it is better, and generally 

 more profitable to himself, to observe and 

 note natural phenomena, than to make collec- 

 tions of dead and dried specimens ; that the 

 sanctity of life, in its lower not less than 

 in its higher forms, has to be respected ; and 

 that, where a collection must be made for 



