7186 Natural History versus Geography, ^c. 



of Natural History can be proposed ? But in order to secure the 

 desired end Nature must not be " got up " from books, technically 

 and scientifically, and committed to memory as a task, but rather read 

 in her own simple though sublime language, and studied in her own 

 pleasant way, which, by appealing persuasively at once to the senses 

 and to the higher faculties, is sure to make a deeper and more 

 lasting impression on the mind and memory than the mere " rote " 

 system. This is only to be accomplished by lessons on objects. I 

 would have every teacher able to take his or her pupils out into the 

 lanes and fields and woods, and there to open up to them the beautiful 

 workings of God in Nature, which are of necessity secrets hidden from, 

 or at best mysteries dimly revealed to, the untaught eye. The won- 

 drous unfolding of the flowers from seed to fruit, — their hidden uses 

 to man, — the curious forms of insect life they nourish, each one its 

 own, — the mysterious powers of seeming sensibility wherewith some of 

 them are endowed, — the remarkable adaptation of others to their 

 peculiar circumstances of soil and climate, — the many minute testi- 

 monies they one and all bear to the wisdom and goodness of their and 

 our Creator ; — in this branch of Natural History alone is there not 

 endless matter for useful lessons, and would they not prove as in- 

 teresting as useful ? Then, again, a little trouble in collecting a few 

 specimens, and a small outlay for a microscope, what a vast store of 

 interest and instruction would they provide against the rainy days of 

 winter ! 



When the children thus taught come to leave school, there are the 

 books they have learnt to read and to love all around them — in the 

 fields turned up by the ploughshare, in the hedges laid bare by the bill, 

 by the highways and by-ways as they go to work, in their gardens and at 

 their doors when their day's work is done. Tlie great volume is open 

 before them always and everywhere — open to the very poorest "without 

 money and without price" — open to the most wearied and toil-worn 

 without a long walk to the library to fetch it. How then can they 

 help reading from it, if once its language has been interpreted and 

 become familiar to them ? And reading, how can they help being 

 interested — reflecting — improving their minds ? True the same volume 

 is open to the untaught, but how open ? Just as a book that you may 

 set before an infant ; it may see the letters, it may crow over the 

 pictures ; but it understands nought of it. Or as a child just beginning 

 to spell may tell over every letter upon the page, and even syllable 

 them all, but yet is none the wiser for them. s 



So is it with him who, untaught in his younger days, sees a great '* 



