" Nature Study trains us to keep our eyes open to the 

 living things about us and to an earnest inquiry into the 

 meaning of what we see." — A. C. Boyden. 



" It can never be too strongly impressed upon a mind' 

 anxious for the acquisition of knowledge, that the com- 

 monest things by which we are surrounded are deserving 

 of minute and careful attention." — Rennie. 



I wrote a sober, scientific account of all its parts, with- 

 out a spark of life in it — but I threw it away. I know now 

 that there is something better than the botany of the 

 Horse Chestnut tree, and that is the poetry of it. . . . 

 There is poetry and beauty all around us in every common 

 thing, and we, who have had health and eyes, have not 

 seen it. Let us wake up and look about us and get the 

 most out of life every day that we live ! Happiest are 

 they who can still look out upon Nature with the eyes of 

 childhood ! . . . The first thing is to open the heart. The 

 next thing is to open the eyes. 



Julia Ellen RoaEES, in "Among Green Trees." 



" As a rule, children observe well ; but a false method 

 of teaching especially that which reduces all school work 

 to a study of books, often destroys this natural tendency. 

 When we reflect what an important factor in mental 

 growth the habit of close and accurate observation is, we 

 can but deplore that so much of our school work tends to 

 diminish rather than to increase this power. Nature study 

 if so taught as to awaken interest, rather than fatigue the 

 pupil, can be made an important aid in the development 

 of this power." — Education through Nature Study, John 

 P. MUNSON, Ph. D. 



34 



