Professor Miall's Address 221 



I believe that no course of Nature-study is valuable 

 that has not some degree of originality. The teacher 

 who finds out nothing for himself has not yet hit 

 upon a good method. I would apply this test not 

 only to the teacher, but to the text -book. Some 

 books on Nature-study, though pleasantly written 

 and beautifully illustrated, contain no fresh matter 

 whatever, which means that the writer has not dis- 

 covered a productive way of interrogating Nature. 



The chief interest of Nature-study is life, and living 

 objects, especially living plants, are found to be more 

 stimulating than any others. We can observe them 

 under all conditions, and experiment on them without 

 cruelty or appreciable cost; we can vary their food, 

 vary the stimulus of light, investigate the conditions 

 necessary for fertilization, and so on. The plant does 

 the thing which is really hard : it grows. The many 

 substitutes for the direct study of living nature, such 

 as learning by heart, collecting, naming, drawing up 

 lists, filling up schedules, are at best accessories, and 

 may be positively harmful. Live natural history is 

 what we want above all. 



The hindrances to Nature-study are many. The 

 number and variety of public examinations, the 

 crowded time-tables of most schools, the lack of 

 time for due preparation, and (in elementary and 

 secondary schools) the large number of pupils who 

 are taught in one class, all these are serious obstacles 

 to good work. In many ways the organization of 

 education is very defective, and the teacher is 

 seriously impeded by difficulties which do not belong 

 to the subjects taught, and which admit of a remedy. 



According to the method pursued in training we 



