38 NATURE STUDY AND AGRICULTURE 



has been found in certain theories of evolution than the 

 assumption that all things in nature have or have had a use 

 and we need be but sufficiently clever in order to discover 

 it. Since we are agreed that a child's interest should not 

 be bought by trifling with truth, all statements that plants 

 or animals have certain structures or habits for certain 

 specific purposes are to be avoided as dangerous. Such, 

 for example, would be the statement that flowers have 

 odors and colors and nectar in order to attract insects. 

 These characteristics may attract insects truly enough, but 

 the form of statement should be rather that flowers do have 

 such characteristics and that insects do come to them. 

 The purpose idea has been greatly overemphasized. Such 

 instances come up in nearly every lesson, and the continu- 

 ous attribution of design as behind and precedent to the 

 facts observed will form a fundamentally misleading habit 

 of thought. The teacher, therefore, must be content to 

 observe, to explain what is evident, to leave most things 

 unexplained, to ask questions, to find failures; in short, to 

 take nature as a great book of truths and of puzzles. To 

 leave the impression that all things are understood would 

 be the worst possible result. 



Sentimentality. — This has been referred to in the previ- 

 ous chapter, but, as a danger, it needs additional emphasis. 

 It is hard to make this criticism clear, for a certain kind of 

 sentiment in reference to nature is not only desirable but 

 necessary if there is to be success. But sentimentality is 

 something quite different; it is a state of feeling rather than 

 a state of intelligence. It has the effect of blunting keen 

 observation, for it responds to the total effect of wild nature 

 as to a general stimulus, rather than as a book to be read. 



