THE SPIRIT OF NATURE STUDY 65 



be seen, and is continually encountering facts that it never 

 saw in a book or heard from a teacher. The records of 

 nature are very meager as compared with the facts of 

 nature, and it is the latter that the student is exploring. 

 To select a few cut-and-dried things beforehand and then 

 to go out into nature to find them is like matching a pat- 

 tern in a great department store rather than looking at its 

 wealth of offering. Experience is a good guide, but not 

 if it keeps one in a narrow path between high walls; its 

 use in nature study is to show that there are no boundary 

 walls. 



Teachers may be troubled by the freedom which this 

 spirit produces. They have laboriously familiarized them- 

 selves with certain observations, and when the boundaries 

 are disregarded they are at a loss. Questions are asked, 

 material is introduced, observations are made, which are 

 out of bounds and hence perplexing. But the spirit is 

 vital, and must not be suppressed, for it is the very free- 

 dom of nature. The wise teacher, who does not feel com- 

 pelled to know everything, can guide and use it, and is 

 most fortunate if his work has permitted its expression. 



A Spirit of Inquiry. — This is an attitude of mind es- 

 sential to nature study, and is also one of the most valuable 

 assets in life. The need of this in life may serve to illustrate 

 its place in nature study. In our experience we encounter 

 a vast body of established belief in reference to all im- 

 portant subjects. Not only do we encounter this in others, 

 but we find ourselves cherishing beliefs, often called 

 hereditary, but really the result of early association. Noth- 

 ing seems more evident than that all this established belief 

 belongs to one or the other of two categories; to wit, the 



