HOW NATURE STUDY SHOULD BE TAUGHT 17 



cannot convey the thing. You must see it, or it 

 is not there. Light is useless to a blind man. So 

 I say as to the popular pedagogical conception of 

 nature study, anybody knows what it is. And it 

 may well be added, that every " anybody's " is 

 different from every other anybody's. I cannot 

 even adequately convey in words my own idea of 

 it. I can feel it, and see it, and live it, but I have 

 difficulty in defining it. Here is an attempt to 

 convey some suggestion of what I have in mind 

 for ideal nature study : 



Nature study is the examination of natural ob- 

 jects for your own gratification, to satisfy your 

 own curiosity, to give you something to make your 

 walks for exercise and fresh air more attractive ; to 

 free your mind of its work-a-day thoughts, and to 

 supply their place with thoughts of God's work ; to 

 lead your attention from the ugliness and the evil 

 that are in the world, to the beauty and goodness 

 that are also in the world ; to forget self and the 

 troubles of life, and to sit in the sun, and look at 

 the sky ; to wonder if you really understand why 

 it is blue, and why the clouds are white. It is 

 nothing less nor more than taking an intelligent 

 interest in the earth and its products. When you 



have taught the child to do this, you will have 

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