April 5, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



331 



quite possible for the sociologist to lay 

 hold of the principles which paleontology 

 illustrates, if paleontologists will but put 

 them into foi-m available for application 

 outside the field of fossils, just as it is 

 possible for the student of the English 

 language to lay hold of that which is vital 

 for his purposes in the Latin language, by 

 short-cut methods. Analogies between the 

 courses of events in the history of Cam- 

 brian life, and the course of human events 

 in modern times are interesting if not in- 

 structive, and they are doubtless more nu- 

 merous and more pointed than the super- 

 ficial student suspects. 



One of the chief functions of education 

 is to put man into sjTnpathetie and appre- 

 ciative touch with his siirroundings. His 

 physical surroundings are an important 

 part of his environment, always and every 

 where, and he who does not understand, is 

 cut off from one of the great resources of 

 life. It is of course true that one may 

 enjoy a landscape, even if he does not un- 

 derstand geology; but he will enjoy it 

 more if he does. A man may enjoy pic- 

 tures and music without understanding 

 much about them, but he will enjoy them 

 more if he understands. And just as some 

 education in music and art is to be desired 

 because it increases a man's capacity for 

 enjoyment of the things which he sees or 

 hears occasionally, so education with refer- 

 ence to the landscape, which the average 

 man sees much more than he sees works of 

 art, and much oftener than he hears music, 

 is a desideratum. To go about the earth 

 blindly, unintelligent as to the meaning of 

 its surface configuration, is to cut off one 

 of the great pleasures of life, and especially 

 one of the great pleasures of travel. 



Since all men are in touch with at least 

 a limited part of the land surface, and 

 most of them in touch with enough of it 

 to find lasting enjoyment in it if they are 



taught to see what it means, is it not rea- 

 sonable to conclude that the subject which 

 teaches them to see understandingly, is 

 one which it must be profitable to pursue ? 

 How can we justify ourselves, if we with- 

 hold this resource from this and coming 

 generations? 



Prompted by the attitude of mind which 

 mountains inspire, I have repeatedly 

 watched their effect on groups of students 

 who, for the first time, live in them long 

 enough to have their infiuence felt; and I 

 have seen, or thought I saw, how littlenesses 

 and meannesses drop away, and how the 

 nobler qualities come to the fore. John 

 Muir has made much of this idea in one 

 connection and another, and I think he is 

 entirely right. To many men. mountains 

 are as inspiring, as uplifting, as soul-stir- 

 ring, as great essays or great poems are to 

 others. Is it not just as great a mistake 

 to leave the one out of consideration as the 

 other? To the average young man at 

 least, I suspect that mountains are quite as 

 much of an intellectual and moral tonic as 

 the best that he finds on the printed page. 



"What has been said of the mountains 

 might be said, with modifications, of other 

 parts of the earth. If there are those who 

 think the landscape of an unrelieved tract 

 like that about Chicago unlovely, I think 

 this feeling would be changed completely 

 if the grand march of events which has 

 made that surface what it is, were under- 

 stood. While it can never have the charm 

 to the eye that some other sort of surface 

 has, it has its own elements of attractive- 

 ness, its own beautj', to the eye which really 

 sees. When men belittle the attractions of 

 the level prairie, they advertise their igno- 

 rance. One may not chose to see the flat 

 land all the time, any more than one would 

 choose to read poetry all the time. With 

 equal education in the two, I am confident 

 that the normal man could live contentedly 



