l6 HOW NATURE STUUY SHOULD BE TAUGHT 



And, after all, perhaps these excellent nature- 

 study writers and workers are in the same " boat," 

 only they will not admit it. Perhaps the thing is 

 not definable. It seems to me to be as intangible 

 as electricity, or gravitation or life or love. We 

 may tell much about it, what it will do, and will 

 not do ; we can go all about, and teach it here 

 and there, and watch for results, but without 

 knowing what it is. We are in as great a difficulty 

 as was Walt Whitman in defining the purport of 

 his own poems, " My final merits I refuse you." 



John Burroughs, in " Whitman, a Study," at- 

 tempts to clear up a difficulty that he thus form- 

 ulates: "A great many readers, perhaps three- 

 fourths of the readers of current poetry, and not a 

 few of the writers thereof, cannot stand Whitman 

 at all, or see any reason for his being." And in his 

 great love for Whitman, two hundred and sixty- 

 two pages are devoted to an attempt to clear up 

 this difficulty. On the two hundred and sixty- 

 third he thus summarizes his success : " After all 

 I have written about Whitman, I feel, at times, 

 that the main thing I wanted to say about him I 

 have not said, cannot say; the best about him 

 cannot be told about him anyway." 



So it is with the spirit of nature study. Words 



