HOW NATURE STUDY SHOULD BE TAUGHT dj 



The early lilacs became part of this child, 



And grass, and white and red morning-glories, and white 



and red clover, and the song of the phcebe-bird. 

 And the fish suspending themselves so curiously below 



there, and the beautiful curious liquid, 

 And the water-plants with their graceful flat heads — all 



became part of him." 



But your nature study must be correlated with 

 something even higher than all this. It must 

 reach the highest spiritual faculties, reaching out, 

 aye, taking hold of the Great Infinity. Your na- 

 ture study must be correlated with a religious 

 life. If you are doing that, you are doing the best 

 correlating. You are realizing what nature study 

 means ! You are agreeing with Emerson : 



" Every earnest glance we give to the realities 

 around us, with intent to learn, proceeds from a 

 holy impulse, and is really a song of praise. What 

 difference can it make whether it take the shape 

 of exhortation, or of passionate exclamation, or 

 of scientific statement? These are forms merely. 

 Through them we express, at last, the fact that 

 God has done thus or thus." 



