About ten years after the first introduction of elementary 

 science into the grades, two men came forward to whom children 

 will be grateful for centuries to come. Of all the numerous 

 writers who have considered nature-study from one standpoint or 

 another, the principles set forth by Professor Bailey of Cornell 

 and Professor Hodge of Clark, are as sane and practical as any- 

 " To little people " 



i the c 



cold ; 



mospher 

 mosphere 



eagerly welcc 



While there is no doubt of th. 

 study over the country as a whole, yet the gain is not the 

 mushroom growth of the first few years, and this is well. There 

 has been lack of nbro-vascular tissue, and in more than one place 

 nature-study has been dropped after a trial. This has occurred 

 in a few large cities where the problem is most difficult, or where 

 the school-board has failed to recognize the value of nature-study 

 as a means of education, or in some cases where the teaching has 



Nature-study, then, has 



fad ; then 



, came the period of reaction and criticism when nature- 



study be. 



:ame less serious — more of a recreation — and here 



came the 



opportunity to run in the unusual, the exceptional, the 



sensation; 



il in nature literature, which is not nature-study at all, 



though it 



may be Very good literature ; and now our leading lights 



tell us th; 



it nature-study is an idea, an atmosphere, an attitude, — 





1, it is spirit. This, then, is the promise of the future, 





irophets prophesy wisely and well. But we cannot hope 



for any u 



niversal fulfillment of the prophesy for several genera- 



teachers, 



and they in turn have had the opportunity of training 



the childr 



en who are to be the parents of the next generation. In 



the next 



generation we may begin to look' for parents who will 



not destr 



oy the attitude, the atmosphere of nature-study, which 



is an inhe 



rent part of the nature of the normal child. He inherits 



from anc< 



5Stors remote a primitive love of nature and every natural 



