BOOK REVIEWS. 



169 



''The Nature-Study Idea." By L. H. Bailey. Ed. 3. 8vo., 

 Ix. + 246 pp. (Macmiilan, New York, 1909.) 4s. 6d. net. 



Professor Bailey always writes inspiring books, and this is no ex- 

 ception to the rule. His plea for the introduction of nature-study into 

 the educational system is a powerful one, and ^his manner of making 

 it is, as usual, forcible and original. 



The term " nature-study " has come to mean a more or less 

 improved system of object-lesson teaching, which sometimes degene- 

 rates into an attempt " to enlarge the children's vocabulary " by 

 making them learn a number of technical terms for which they feel 

 no need, and which they will never actually need to use. The frequent 

 result of this is to instil great respect for mere names and to generate 

 that peculiar attitude of mind which, when a difficulty is met, gives it 

 a high-sounding name and passes it by as overcome — that most un- 

 scientific attitude of mind that hinders progress and cramps the 

 intellect. 



Nature-study is not a subject, but a point of view — a method of 

 education that puts the pupil into sympathy with his environment, to 

 lead him to actually know and sympathize with nature and tO' quicken 

 his senses and his brain. Nature-study is not science, but it makes an 

 admirable introduction to habits of scientific thought and to an appre- 

 ciation of healthy country occupations. 



Not everyone who reads will accept all the author says, but to 

 everyone who is interested in the true education of the quite young, 

 Professor Bailey's book will give many a suggestion as to the methods 

 best calculated to allow the full and natural development of the growing 

 intellect of that most observing and inquiring of human creatures — the 

 little child. 



A History of Gardening in England. " By the Hon. Mrs. Evelyn 

 Cecil (the Hon. Alicia Amherst), Citizen and Gardener of London, 

 3rd ed. 8vo., xviii.+393 pp. (Murray, London, 1910.) 12s. net. 



The first edition of this excellent " History of Gardening " was 

 published at the close of 1895, and was quickly sold out, a second 

 edition being published in 1896 ; and now a third edition has been called 

 for, and in it the authoress pays a glowing tribute to the memory of 

 , her father, the late Lord Amherst of Hackney. 



i The "Amherst Library," lately dispersed, was known the world 

 over, and but for the help of Lord Amherst and his famous library this 

 book would never have been written. " Nearly all the rare gardening 

 books quoted,- Macer the 'Aggregator,' ' Ortus Sanitatis,' the works 

 of Turner, Gerard, Parkinson, Tusser, Hill, and countless other 



; writers ' ' were her familiar friends from childhood ; and the book is the 



I result of living with these precious volumes. 



I Many persons collect old books, and a few m.ay take the trouble 

 \ to read them; but what is the use of knowledge unless it is used not 

 I only for the benefit of its possessor but for others as well ? 



