XATVRE-8TVDT. xvii 



will be helpful to her. The material is good to those who 

 make it good, and good only as they make it good. 



To the child interested in butterflies there is no use 

 in persistently insisting on an interest in snakes, though 

 you are ever so ardent a herpetologist. And the same 

 thing is equally true in the converse, if the child takes 

 an interest in snakes and you in butterflies. The value 

 is not so much in the material as in the method. 



Here are chapters on four-footed animals, on birds, in- 

 sects, trees, plants; on geology, physics, meteorology; in 

 fact, something is selected from almost every class of 

 natural objects. Take your choice of as many things as 

 in your own method will win the child to the love of 

 nature that you are supposed to possess. One fact that 

 awakens is worth more than a thousand that are a burden. 



Real Value of Nature Study. 



As the flicker flies through the groves in the dead of 

 winter, shouting "wake up," "wake up," "wake up" into 

 spring, so nature study says to the child mind beset with 

 tedious tasks and irksome discipline, wake into the life 

 of your own activity. Winter is acted upon and re- 

 pressed by the intense cold. Spring wakes up in new- 

 ness, it leaps out bouyantly from internal life. It takes 

 all seasons to make a year, but there should be a little 

 of spring in all these seasons. 



Mathematics say, train, train, train, for future business 

 dealings, for sharp reasoning, for skilful logic with your 

 fellows, and to be able to count your money, and your 

 acquaintances. 



Grammar, reading, writing, spelling, say prepare, pre- 

 pare, prepare for interchange of thought with your fel- 



