196 HOW NATURE STUDY SHOULD BE TAUGHT 



they return from the water as gleefully as do my 

 ducks. AH nature shall combine to win them. 

 Even the grass by the brook along which they cast 

 the artificial fly, shall add to this inspiration. Says 

 Richard Jefferies : 



" As a few strokes from a loving hand will 

 soothe a weary forehead, so the gentle pressure 

 of the wild grass soothes and strokes away the 

 nervous tension born of civilized life." 



The carol of a bird is more soothing to weary 

 nerves than the explosive bang of a gun, and 

 never harmful to any living creature. A wild rose 

 in the buttonhole is as valuable, and as nourish- 

 ing to one's esthetic nature, as a dead fish to his 

 animal instincts. The tendency of most of us is 

 to allow the animal within us to develop at the 

 expense and final extinction of the spiritual. The 

 slightest observation, even a casual reading of the 

 daily newspaper, will prove that. We shall be 

 better for this world, and for the next one too, if 

 we can have a few more bird songs and a few 

 more wild roses in our daily experience. 



