144 THE SOUTH COUNTRY 



derived from the contact of Nature with the child's 

 mind. 



Of health, though there are exactly as many physicians 

 as patients, it is unnecessary to say anything, except that 

 one of the pieces of knowledge — I do not speak of in- 

 formation — which science has left to us is that movement 

 and the working of the brain in pure air and sunlight is 

 good for body and soul, especially if joy is aiding. 



Knowledge aids joy by discipline, by increasing the 

 sphere of enjoyment, by showing us in animals, in plants, 

 for example, what life is, how our own is related to 

 theirs, showing us, in fact, our position, responsibilities 

 and debts among the other inhabitants of the earth. 

 Pursued out of doors where those creatures, moving and 

 still, have their life and their beauty, knowledge is real. 

 The senses are invited there to the subtlest and most 

 delightful training, and have before them an immeasur- 

 able fresh field, not a field like that of books, full of old 

 opinions, but one with which every eye and brain can 

 have new vital intercourse. It is open to all to make 

 discoveries as to the forms and habits of things, and care 

 should be taken to preserve the child from the most ver- 

 bose part of modern literature, that which repeats in 

 multiplied ill-chosen words stale descriptions of birds and 

 flowers, etc., coupled with trivial fancies and insincere 

 inventions. Let us not take the study, the lamp and the 

 ink out of doors, as we used to take wild life — having 

 killed it and placed it in spirits of wine — indoors. Let us 

 also be careful to have knowledge as well as enthusiasm 

 in our masters. Enthusiasm alone is not enthusiasm. 

 There must, at some stage, be some anatomy, classifica- 

 tion, pure brain- work; the teacher must be the equal in 



