HOW NATURE STUDY SHOULD BE TAUGHT 47 



if you have none of the genuine article in your 

 own heart ; heart, not head. 



We who would teach and inspire the young 

 folks, must learn our own lesson before we try to 

 instruct them. Otherwise the child will find our 

 teaching as interesting and impressive as Frank 

 Stockton's bookseller found the " Logarithm of 

 the Diapason." 



Let me quote again from John Burroughs : 



" A great many people admire nature ; they 

 write admiring things about her ; they apostro- 

 phize her beauties ; they describe minutely pretty 

 scenes here and there ; they climb mountains to 

 see the sun set, or the sun rise, or make long 

 journeys to find waterfalls, but nature's real lover 

 listens to their enthusiasm with coolness and in- 

 difference. Nature is not to be praised or patron- 

 ized. You cannot go to her and describe her ; 

 she must speak through your heart. The woods 

 and fields must melt into your mind, dissolved by 

 your love of them. 



" The passion for nature is by no means a mere 

 curiosity about her, or an itching to portray cer- 

 tain of her features ; it lies deeper and is probably 

 a form of, or closely related to, our religious 

 instincts." 



