rviii NATVEE-STUDY. 



lows. All these are generals, captains; you are one of 

 the army in the battle of life. They are disciplining the 

 child to become a part of the great socialistic machine. 



Nature study comes in and says step out of the ranks 

 in the majesty of your own personality. You are, it is 

 true, a part of that machine, but not chiefly so nor always. 

 You are yourself. Think and act for yourself. Bow 

 down no longer under disciplinary, irksome tasks, but 

 wake up, in your own personality. Mathematics and 

 literary studies are cosmopolitan, nature study is indi- 

 vidual life. Where personality is not valued leave out 

 your nature study. 



Remember always that "Man shall not live by bread 

 alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the 

 mouth of God." Since God created nature, and in every 

 human heart placed more or less affection for her, since 

 he has created all natural objects by the word of His 

 mouth, it is one of the mysteries that He allows so many 

 human beings to pass through the world with their eyes 

 riveted to the ground, as if they were holding commun- 

 ion with the offal of life or with their own dusty shoes. 

 You recollect the old story of the man who once picked 

 up a shilling in the road, and never again saw a tree, nor 

 a flower, nor the clouds in the azure sky, nor heard a bird 

 sing, nor the voices of the children at play in the streets, 

 nor even the tinkle of the hurdy-gurdy; but he found a 

 goodly number of shillings before he died, and when he 

 died all that he knew was a shilling, and he had two of 

 them put on his eye-lids to keep them closed, for even in 

 his death he thought of shillings. That man had an an- 

 cient ancestry, and he left an ever lengthening line of de- 

 scendants. 



