THE MISSION OF NATURE STUDY 25 



Aside from the usefulness of plants and animals under 

 cultivation as interpreters of those that are not, they also 

 furnish the appeal that is strongest to many. To such per- 

 sons a field of wheat or a bed of radishes stands for some- 

 thing worth while, and any knowledge that will help in 

 their culture is prized. Nothing is to be gained by failing 

 to recognize and reckon with this attitude of mind; in fact 

 it has been called the genius of the age, and we must take 

 people where we find them. Such a point of view must be 

 laid hold of and used as a natural introduction to an interest 

 that is larger and finer. 



Besides, it is not discreditable to possess an exclusively 

 utilitarian point of view; on the contrary, it is quite hopeful. 

 To relate nature study to human interests is sound pedagogy, 

 for intelligence in what relates to living should^be a funda- 

 mental in education. When intelligent living has been 

 established, there will come to many the leisure and the 

 desire to enlarge the horizon, and to surround the circle of 

 living with the larger circle of purely intellectual interests. 

 This means that there is a field of nature study "within the 

 circle of living, and another beyond it; but the radius of 

 the former is extended naturally into that of the latter. 



Summary of Educative Results. — These results are in 

 addition to the sentiment, the pleasure, and the enlarged 

 interests that come from nature study and that would make 

 it very worthy of attention for their own sake. They will 

 not follow the study in many cases, and it remains to be 

 seen through experience whether they follow it in any con- 

 siderable number of cases. However, it is certain that 

 nature study is capable of such results and that, too, without 

 forfeiting any of the others. As they appear to be far the 



