XII 
THE GUIDE TO NATURE 
vance their minds and strengthen their 
intellects to enable them to obtain cer- 
tificate of school clearance some weeks 
ahead of what is possible under any 
system of tutelage they or the school 
faculty now use, and of which in this 
respect they seem not to have been 
appraised of. The beauty expressive of 
ArcAdiA is the lifting thought above a 
pecuniary profit, the love of nature it- 
self. It would be of little worth for 
one whose eyes seek curiosity alone, 
and of transitory interest. 
Nature’s Storehouse. 
I take it, ArcAdiA is of storehouse 
character out of which to obtain knowl- 
edge leading up to the Author of all 
being, setting forth in the order of wis- 
dom the adaptations to the uses or- 
dained of nature. Yet even the one 
curious, who “sees and tells,” may out 
of a latent sense become enthused, and 
so led to grasp the true sense of it. 
I noted in a letter by Dr. Bigelow, 
appearing in The Daily Advocate of 
September 20, among other things 
which he mentioned under the ques- 
tion, “What is ArcAdiA for?” is: “To 
help us to live, to help us to die, to help 
us to help the other fellow * * * the 
nature that transmutes itself into a 
broader and better life.” I saw in 
ArcAdiA a nature-study park, where 
are to be found things of pleasing in- 
terest of an informal wildness. The 
more wild and disorderly of character, 
paradoxically, the truer and correctly 
beautiful does it present itself to the 
mind of him who looks upon it. 
I did not expect to find elephants. 
Of the charming little four-footed crea- 
tures to be observed were the squirrels 
— the nimble feet with the bushy tail 
curled over the body when respectfully 
engaged in disposing of some selected 
morsel he has secured from the locality. 
But of the bees and the honey of 
bees. A hive of bees has only one 
mother and several thousand good-for- 
nothings that are kept to be slaugh- 
tered at a proper time of the season, 
and sixty or more thousand workers to 
provide provender for the children. A 
funny thing of the bee is that it swal- 
lows all the nectar it gathers, and, after 
a while, it comes up manufactured into 
honey and is then packed away into 
cells. 
Visit to Thirteen Buildings. 
ArcAdiA has thirteen buildings — 
Welcome Reception Room, Office, 
Laboratory, Wood - House, Birchen 
Bower, Astronomical Observatory, 
Botany Bungalow, Pet House, Apiary, 
Rest Cottage, Annex, Serving House 
and Storage Building. To each of these 
we were admitted and shown the par- 
ticular uses made of them. Nymphalia 
the home of the nymphs of nature 
study ; exhibitions with compound and 
projection microscopes of best make; 
an astronomical observatory with six- 
inch Clark telescope. Little Japan has 
Japanese decorations, Japanese ever- 
greens and shrubs from Japan, a beau- 
tifully decorated interior. We were 
taken throughout the enclosure of 
about five acres, and lastly treated to 
microscopical views of plant life and of 
insect nature. “Knowledge is power” 
is true, but behind it is Capital, the me- 
dium by which it attains its potency. 
ArcAdiA, though established at 
Sound Beach but ten years ago, is 
practically in infancy as to develop- 
ment. The field is mighty large, and 
the work of that character which 
stands but second in order to Chris- 
tianity itself, because in it is included 
all of moral grandeur that Christianity 
itself possesses, and what heart and 
mind of man accepts of truths of which 
the heavens contain and of what is 
found in God’s secrets revealed in His 
footstool beneath. Dr. Bigelow has 
opened to the world in his study of 
nature his life’s interest and is deserv- 
ing of an appreciation which I am sur- 
prised has not been accorded him. Man- 
kind at large is so superficially consti- 
tuted, they do not naturally tend to 
more than what commercially concerns 
them. To cultivate the fields for bread 
and barter in the markets is the sum- 
mum bonum of their aspirations. To 
grow corn and pumpkins for money 
value alone is to miss the real pleasure 
in living in God’s creation. One might 
think of the millions, and the posses- 
sion of millions of wealth, among so 
many that little more than a few might 
be born at least with a generosity and 
with liberality enough to bestow and 
bequeath to the support and mainte- 
nance of at least one such ArcAdiA 
as found at Sound Beach, Connecticut. 
