THE GOSPEL OF NATURE 
to go and where J knew every particle of the reeking, 
fetid fluid would soon be made sweet and whole- 
some again by the chemistry of the soil! 
Ir 
I am not always in sympathy with nature-study 
as pursued in the schools, as if this kingdom could 
be carried by assault. Such study is too cold, too 
special, too mechanical; it is likely to rub the bloom 
off Nature. It lacks soul and emotion; it misses the 
accessories of the open air and its exhilarations, the 
sky, the clouds, the landscape, and the currents of 
life that pulse everywhere. 
I myself have never made a dead set at studying 
Nature with note-book and field-glass in hand. I 
have rather visited with her. We have walked to- 
gether or sat down together, and our intimacy grows 
with the seasons. What I have learned about her 
ways I have learned easily, almost unconsciously, 
while fishing or camping or idling about. My desult- 
ory habits have their disadvantages, no doubt, but 
they have their advantages also. A too strenuous 
pursuit defeats itself. In the fields and woods more 
than anywhere else all things come to those who 
wait, because all things are on the move, and are 
sure sooner or later to come your way. 
To absorb a thing is better than to learn it, and 
we absorb what we enjoy. We learn things at 
school, we absorb them in the fields and woods and 
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