^'ATURE■SWDr. XXTH 



gets that those humble parents (aside from the produc- 

 tion of a prominent son) had just as important a mis- 

 sion in this world, and could get just as much happiness 

 out of that humble mission, as can the talented son. The 

 world needs not more at the top, but more conscientious, 

 educated, contented people in the "lower positions," 

 falsely so called. Natural history is the antidote to per- 

 nicious civil history. It says, laud your scarlet tanagers 

 all you please, but I say that earthworms are more im- 

 portant. There is room for a few scarlet tanagers at 

 the top of the trees, but there is more room for farmyard 

 hens to scratch at the roots. 



Literature proclaims the great and talented writer. It 

 has praise for the great novelist and the great poet. It 

 has no word of praise for the reporter on the village paper 

 who faithfully records a local occurence, who takes mat- 

 ters not on hearsay, but investigates the details and 

 records them correctly. 



But natural history never tries to make an eagle out 

 of a crow by any amount of sunstaring. It never tries 

 to do any so called raising to the top of a good shoe- 

 maker by making him a third-rate minister. But it does 

 ever strive to inculcate the lesson that we should love all 

 natural things; that everything can be happy, and can 

 adapt itself to its environment and capacity. The study 

 of nature is an important factor in bringing about the 

 day when society shall open its door to the honest and 

 well-educated artisan of whatever name; when praise 

 shall be given for good work wherever it may be, whether 

 in the ground, the waters, or the treetops. From our 

 civil histories we may learn of those who excel and strug- 

 gle, but from our natural histories, of those who live 

 faithfully in that position in life to which they shall be 



