WAYS OF NATURE 



exactly what they see; so few persons can draw a 

 right inference from an observed fact; so few per- 

 sons can keep from reading their own thoughts and 

 preconceptions into what they see ; only a person 

 with the scientific habit of mind can be trusted to 

 report things as they are. Most of us, in observ- 

 ing the wild life about us, see more or see less than 

 the truth. We see less when our minds are dull, or 

 preoccupied, or blunted by want of interest. This 

 is true of most country people. We see more when 

 we read the lives of the wild creatures about us in 

 the light of our human experience, and impute to 

 the birds and beasts human motives and methods. 

 This is too often true of the eager city man or 

 woman who sallies out into the country to study 

 nature. 



The tendency to sentimentalize nature has, in our 

 time, largely taken the place of the old tendency to 

 demonize and spiritize it. It is anthropomorphism 

 in another form, less fraught with evil to us, but 

 equally in the way of a clear understanding of the 

 life about us. 



