142 THE SOUTH COUNTRY 



position in an infinite universe, and shows him particularly 

 in his physical environment of sea, sky, mountain, rivers, 

 w^oods, and other animals. Second, the enormous, aston- 

 ishing, perhaps excessive, growth of towns, from which 

 the only immediate relief is the pure air and sun of the 

 country, a relief which is sought by the urban multitudes 

 in large but insufficient numbers and for too short a time. 

 Third, the triumph of science, of systematized observa- 

 tion. Helped, no doubt, by the force of industrialism — 

 to which it gave help in return — science has had a great 

 triumph. At one time it was supposed to have fatally 

 undermined poetry, romance, religion, because it had con- 

 fused the minds of some poets and critics. 



These three things considered. Nature-study is inevit- 

 able. Literature sends us to Nature principally for joy, 

 joy of the senses, of the whole frame, of the contem- 

 plative mind, and of the soul, joy which if it is found 

 complete in these several ways might be called religious. 

 Science sends us to Nature for knowledge. Industrialism 

 and the great town sends us to Nature for health, that we 

 may go on manufacturing efficiently, or, if we think right 

 and have the power, that we may escape from it. But it 

 would be absurd to separate joy, knowledge and health, 

 except as we separate for convenience those things which 

 have sent us out to seek for them; and Nature-teaching, 

 if it is good, will never overlook one of these three. Joy, 

 through knowledge, on a foundation of health, is what 

 we appear to seek. 



There is no longer any need to hesitate in speaking of 

 joy in connection with schools, yet might we not still 

 complain, as Thomas Traherne did two hundred and fifty 

 years ago — 



