THE STUDY OF PLANTS 27 



self, not in a book, nor by any figuring process which 

 some one else devised, but right here in nature, exactly as 

 the pioneers of science discovered them. You are to play 

 at being a pioneer of science yourself, and, if you play the 

 game well, you can fairly feel the powers of your mind 

 waking up and stirring within you. If you play the game 

 well, you will let no one supply you with answers or explana- 

 tions which you can find for yourself. That "finding for 

 yourself " is the whole object of the game. To let some one 

 else do this for you is as foolish as to steal a game from 

 yourself. The object of any game is to try fairly to win. 

 You win in this game, as in the game of Ufe, by doing your 

 own thinking. You lose in this game, as in the game of 

 life, when you let other people do your thinking for you. 



It is by such work in school as this work with plants 

 that your powers to think are to be aroused. If you solve 

 thoughtfully for yourself some little questions about plants, 

 you may by the same method solve wisely for yourself 

 some of the big questions of life. In this lesson it is not 

 important that your solutions be right, but it is immensely 

 important that they be your own and as right as you can 

 make them. Observations and questions too must be 

 your own ; they are important even if you cannot find the 

 answers. 



So if you give your best efforts to this task and others 

 like it, the powers of your mind will begin to work for you 

 as perhaps you never knew they could work. " After all," 

 you will begin to think, " this thing of solving real problems, 

 especially the problem of my own living, is not going to be 

 so very difficult, if I only have the sense to apply myself 

 diligently to it. There's nothing to be afraid of except 

 myself. I have the power to work independently and to 



