Professor Morgan's Address 147 



masses, it is to the mother or the governess we must 

 look to undertake the first stages of Nature-study. 

 Her task is, in many respects, easier than that of the 

 elementary teacher, since she can give more detailed 

 attention to her fewer pupils. She can more fully 

 utilize Nature-study in fostering the individuality of 

 each child. No two children will see the same thing 

 in quite the same way. For what they see depends 

 not only on what is before the eye, but also on what 

 is behind it; and what is behind it is determined by 

 past experience. It is so easy to make a class of chil- 

 dren repeat our description of a thing parrot-wise, and 

 so difficult, where there are a number of children, to 

 give their individuality in observation and description 

 free scope, that the governess with her few pupils 

 works at a distinct advantage. But how rare it is to 

 find a governess who is in any adequate degree fitted 

 to guide children in these matters. How rare it is to 

 find parents who weigh such qualifications in the 

 balance in the selection of a governess. I am so 

 fully convinced of the supreme importance of training 

 the faculties of observation and the habit of sensory 

 alertness in the early plastic and impressionable 

 period of childhood — I hold so strongly the belief in 

 the desirability of cultivating the sensory memory 

 and storing the mind with faithful images of natural 

 objects and scenes — that I am disposed to claim for 

 Nature-study a foremost place in the early stages of 

 education for all\ and I regard no governess as fitted 

 for her work who is incapable of guiding her pupils in 

 the paths of natural observation and of inculcating by 

 example a spirit of careful and patient investigation 

 And these Nature-studies may be profitably asso- 



