204 



IN SUMMER. 



Latin, anyhow." Is it true that life is too short 

 to acquire decent knowledge of natural history, 

 along with arithmetic and geography? And 

 what profiteth it to study Latin if such a display 

 of ignorance as the above is the ultimate out- 

 come ? Botany and zoology are in the curricu- 

 lum of many lesser institutions than colleges; 

 but, from the manner in which these subjects 

 are taught in some places, they would better be 

 omitted. These two worthy citizens whose con- 

 versation was overheard and the report thereof 

 is not " doctored " had both been through a 

 course of botany, and one of them had struggled 

 through a Latin reader. There is undoubtedly 

 still a considerable amount of prejudice against 

 science, or " organized common sense," as King- 

 don Clifford has happily called it, though why I 

 do not pretend to know. If it is a fact that birds 

 fly and fishes swim, can any harm come of 

 knowing it, and of how and why they fly and 

 swim ? And, a step further, if some birds swim 

 instead of fly, and certain fishes climb trees, as 

 is true, is knowledge of the fact likely to prove 

 dangerous? Yet again, if ten thousand facts 

 have been discovered, as they have, which upset 

 the ideas of our grandfathers, need we tremble ? 

 I trow not. And this leads me to a word also 

 about "newspaper science," of which more 

 anon. What wonderful statements creep into 



