1 8 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE 



criticised on the ground that it emphasizes unduly the 

 economic side, some even going so far as to insinuate 

 that economic values are the only ones recognized. 

 Nothing can be farther from my thought, as I hope this 

 chapter will conclusively prove ; but I would include all 

 human values in about the relations that they bear to life, 

 especially to child life in its different phases and interests. 

 I have made economic values prominent because all other 

 plans of nature study ignore them almost completely. 

 I have used them because money is the common, univer- 

 sal expression of value that every one understands and 

 respects ; and while we may realize that there are many 

 things that money cannot buy, no other measure of value 

 is so fundamental to the ordinary affairs of life. Money 

 value is, moreover, the trunk that supports many of the 

 higher values. Some measure of assured material wealth 

 must be attained before art, literature, and science can 

 develop, and what holds true in the race, among different 

 peoples, holds, in the main, with individuals. Further, the 

 entire organization of society, social ethics, laws, and cus- 

 toms group themselves about this as the common measure 

 of value for the life and work of man. 



More and more, as society becomes organized, the com- 

 mon goods of nature come to form a great public prop- 

 erty, — pure air, pure water, forests and roadside trees 

 and flowers, game and fishes, birds, and other beneficent 

 animals ; and the laws founded on these nature values are 

 yearly widening their circles of influence as knowledge of 

 nature advances. On the other hand, the evils in nature, 

 — insect pests, noxious weeds, fungous or bacterial dis- 

 eases, injurious animals, — constitute a continual menace 



