comstock] NATURE-STUDY FOR CHILD AND TEACHER 133 



imagination and at the same time his truthfulness. There are 

 many wonderful true stories which he may read with his own eyes 

 which affect his imagination as much as do fairy stories. At the 

 same time he understands perfectly that an observation as to the 

 habits of any bird, animal or plant must be accurate or it is of 

 no use. Nature-study cultivates in him a perception and a regard 

 for what is true, and he finds within himself the power to express 

 it. I have always held that at least half the falsehood in the 

 world if due to lack of power, first, to detect the truth, and 

 second, to express it. Nature-study aids both in discernment and 

 expression of things as they are. 



In the many pictures and letters which the children of the 

 Junior Naturalist clubs have written us, we have been able to 

 establish clearly that nature-study cultivates in the child a love 

 of the beautiful; it brings to him early a perception of color, 

 form and music. He sees the azure on the wing of the butterfly 

 as surely as in the sky above him. The lowliest and commonest of 

 flowers teach him to look for beauty and form beneath his feet. 

 He reads the music score of the bird orchestra and learns to 

 know which birds sing the different parts. And more than that, 

 nature-study gives the child a sense of companionship with the 

 life out-of-doors and an abiding love for nature. I believe this 

 latter should be the teacher's criterion for judging his or her 

 work. If nature-study as taught does not make the child love 

 nature and the out-of-doors, then it should be given up. 



Perhaps the most valuable practical lesson the child gets 

 from nature-study is a personal knowledge that nature's laws are 

 not to be evaded. Wherever he looks he discovers that attempts 

 at such evasion result in suffering and death. A knowledge thus 

 naturally attained of the immutability of nature's "must" and 

 "shall not" is in itself a moral education. That the fool as well 

 as the transgressor fares ill in breaking natural laws, makes 

 for wisdom in morals as well as in hygiene. 



Out-of-door life takes the child afield and keeps him in the 

 open air, which not only helps him physically and occupies his 

 mind with sane subjects, but keeps him out of mischief. It is 

 not only during childhood that this is true, for love of nature 

 counts much for sanity in later life. This is an age of nerve ten- 

 sion, and the relaxation which comes from the comforting com- 

 panionship found in woods and fields is, without doubt, the best 

 remedy for this condition. Too many men who seek the out-of- 

 doors for rest at the present time can only find it with a gun in 



