COLLECTIONS. 29 



the Nature Study class has mainly to do with living plants 

 and living animals. To these pupils the work of collecting 

 is better than the collection made. The objects should not 

 themselves strongly suggest the destruction of life ; suitable 

 groups are seeds, dry fruits, leaves, woods, fossils and 

 minerals, weeds and injurious insects. The artistic mounting 

 of these objects, if done by the pupils, is no mean part of the 

 education that can be derived from them. Our pretty wild 

 flowers are not mentioned in the list because it is better to 

 teach the youth lessons on protecting them than on drying 

 them. The killing of injurious insects offers opportunity to 

 teach humaneness in the necessary or permissible taking of 

 life. The writer heard of a lesson on the grasshopper to 

 which the pupils had brought the specimens. Several of 

 them held their hapless captives alive transfixed with pins. 

 Call such a lesson science, if you like, but it lacks an essential 

 quality of Nature Study. The argument is not intended 

 to discourage collecting on the part of the pupils; on the 

 contrary, the practice of having the pupils do the necessary 

 collecting cannot be too strongly commended. They should be 

 taught how to collect properly. 



Collections made by a class are not supposed to be for the 

 use of its successors. Precious minutes are those spent by the 

 children in the fields or woods in pursuit of a definite educa- 

 tional object. Some of the rewards are sense-training, mental 

 and physical exhilaration, acquisition of tastes that will 

 contribute to life-long enjoyments, and experiences that will 

 live in the mind among its most delightful memories. Every 

 class should enjoy the pleasure and benefits derived from 

 doing its own collecting. 



I thought the sparrow's note from heaven, 



Singing at dawn on the alder bough ; 



I brought him home in his nest at even ; 



He sings the song but it pleases not now, 



For I did not bring home the river and sky ; — 



He sang to my ear, — the}' sang to my eye. — Emerson. 



