General Aims of Nature Study 53 



knowledge will be sure to follow; while, if not attained, 

 a few facts more or less will be of little consequence. 



It is, however, by exploring the original sources 

 of knowledge, and by acquiring as much of that 

 knowledge as present powers permit, that natural 

 growth of the nervous system, and consequently 

 mental power, is promoted. We gain our knowledge 

 through experience, either personal or ancestral, and 

 we are what we are by virtue of that experience. It is 

 probable that every reaction to a sense impression 

 implies a more or less permanent change in the nervous 

 system, and that a pupil is not the same after having 

 learned a fact by observation that he was previous to 

 the acquisition of that knowledge. However worth- 

 less some facts may seem in themselves, therefore, 

 they may be important factors in the shaping of the 

 plastic mind. Furthermore, no fact is really worth- 

 less in science. 



Youth seems to be a period very favorable to the 

 learning of some facts which in later years are acquired 

 less easily. This is especially true of terms, such as 

 names, etc., which are held more or less mechanically 

 in the mind, with no necessary logical connection with 

 other mental products. The acquisition of this technical 

 language in early life, with the simple idea back of 

 the word, is valuable to every one in this age of science, 

 even though the person fails to enter upon the study of 

 pure science. 



Nature study is the natural means of acquiring that 

 language which enables us to appropriate the human 

 treasures of the past as contained in books. With an 

 appropriate method of teaching and study, both the 

 facts and the language will be acquired naturally, 

 without much effort on the part of the pupil. Much 

 of this will be acquired by unconscious induction, 

 while the pupil is engaged in the healthy exercise of 

 his powers. 



