xiv INTRODUCTION 



Union in the successive sessions of our Summer School, 

 in which approval has grown to deep interest and hearty 

 enthusiasm. 



Although the author has striven to secure the best 

 results sought by other nature books, this differs not only 

 in all respects from some, but in some respects from all, 

 and chiefly as follows : 



It contains a richer and more varied subject-matter. 

 Instead of elaborate methods applied to a few species, it 

 presents the essential and salient points about many and 

 thus avoids the current fault of over-elaborate and over- 

 methodic treatment, prolonged till interest turns to ennui. 



Another principle solidly established and here utilized, 

 is that interest in life forms precedes that in inanimate 

 nature for children of the age here in view. Rock forms, 

 crystals, stars, weather, and seasons are all interesting, 

 but have their nascent period later, and at this stage pale 

 before the deep, instinctive love of pets and the fauna 

 and flora of the immediate environment. 



Again, the principle of utility is here often invoked in 

 a new field, and in a way calculated to advance one of the 

 chief objects of modern pedagogic endeavor — an increas- 

 ing unity and solidarity between the school and the home. 

 The new use of this motive is distinctly national and sure 

 to appeal to the practical spirit of this country. 



The author is a born naturalist, and his love of nature 

 and children, which is infectious, is not less but more 

 because he does not forget nature's uses to man. Believ- 

 ing profoundly, as I do, in the poetic, sentimental, and 

 religious appeal which nature makes to the soul, it is 

 plain that for some years preceding adolescence the 



