26 Education through Nature 



weaker. Pure science enables us to put things to- 

 gether in such a way as to make natural forces minis- 

 ter to our wants. It is largely by thus ministering 

 to human wants that nature, in the harness of science, 

 has enabled us to rise from one level to another in the 

 scale of culture. Having mastered the little problems, 

 we have been made free to occupy ourselves with 

 larger ones. 



If this is true of society as a whole, it may be equally 

 true of the individual, namely, that science and art 

 must be acquired together, in order to enable the indi- 

 vidual to appreciate the highest culture, and finally be 

 capable of the pursuit of science for its own sake. 



II. Stages in Human Culture. 



Economic Stages. Human society, culture and 

 science, are the results of slow growth. Changes are 

 sometimes brought about by revolutions that are the 

 results of great discoveries. Such events, however, 

 as, for instance, the discovery of America, are them- 

 selves the result of slow changes and accretions to 

 human knowledge which are often overlooked in 

 the contemplation of the magnitude of the event. 



Nevertheless, in a general view of human develop- 

 ment, there can be distinguished certain stages that 

 are characterized by some feature not so marked in 

 other stages. Thus from the point of view of economics 

 the following stages are noticeable: 



i. The Hunting Stage. Men with scarcely any 

 social relations wander about over large areas of the 

 earth's surface in search of what food nature produces 

 spontaneously. There is no permanent abode, and 

 hence no stores laid by for a " rainy day." Each day 

 brings its own joy or care, it may be plenty, it may be 

 want. Tools, of the crudest material and construc- 

 tion, like the bow and flint arrow, were the only prop- 

 erty possessed by these savages. 



