THE GUIDE TO NATURE 
128 
flowers?” These questions and allied 
ones are susceptible of many different 
answers according to the age, location, 
temperament and attainments of the 
one who asks the question. Here in 
our laboratory Howard’s and Com- 
stock’s and Vernon Kellogg’s books on 
insects are in constant use, but for the 
beginner I doubt whether they are the 
best, and surely for a handbook to take 
afield each of the three is out of place. 
I have several times started to make 
for the naturalist a list of the best 
books but have come to the conclusion 
that if such a thing can be done it can- 
not be by President Eliot’s foot rule 
nor by Mr. Horton’s specified number 
of titles but must be by authors. Even 
so I should probably find that I had 
listed the books that I myself use most 
frequently and it takes only a moment’s 
thought to realize that they are not the 
best for everybody ; they are only the 
best for me and my needs. 
What a multitude of good books 
there are pertaining to the stars. We 
have many of them here at ArcAdiA, 
but I would not venture to point out 
the best. Better than any book is our 
department conducted every month by 
Professor Barton. Go to the stars them- 
selves and watch them or, as Agassiz 
would advise, “Study nature.” But the 
book that did not help me to distin- 
guish Orion from the Big Dipper but 
did inspire me with the wonders of the 
subject is Flammarion’s “Popular As- 
tronomy.” I devoured that book with 
a feeling of inspiration and elation that 
comes but once in a lifetime. Reading 
it was a conversion from indifference 
to the keenest kind of interest. In my 
enthusiasm I have talked with other 
astronomers only to have them casually 
and coolly remark, “Yes, he is right 
from the popular point of view.” So I 
may have needed popularizing rather 
than technicalizing. 
In the matter of honeybees, in view 
of our large apiary here at ArcAdiA, 
we have many inquiries, “What is the 
best book?” Of course the best book 
to inspire one for life is Maeterlinck’s 
“Life of the Bee,” but I should shock 
practical beekeepers if I should say 
that to them. They would select “The 
ABC of Bee Culture” published by 
The A. I. Root Company, Medina, 
Ohio, and I would shake hands heartily 
with these professional beekeepers and 
say, “I agree with you.” Thus in one 
breath 1 say one thing, then another. 
The reason is that when I grasp the 
professional beekeeper by the hand I 
look at things apiarian from his point 
of view. But suppose a minister should 
come here and say, “I want an inspir- 
ing book to help me in arousing my 
people in a sermon on the wonders of 
a honeybee.” It would be absurd for 
me to recommend “The A B C.” He 
does not want to know about frames 
and hives and supers; he wants to 
know about the life of the living thing 
with which to inspire other living 
creatures. 
Look at horticulture and agriculture. 
The subject is too big even to be 
touched. If anybody should come into 
my office and w r ant to know the best 
book on these subjects I should 
want to get that person’s complete 
biography. How different would be the 
advice to a practical worker in the 
greenhouse, to a farmer, to a school- 
teacher, to a lawyer. But after all isn’t 
this attempted selection of the best and 
the worst simply an ego, a self-centered 
point? It is about equivalent to my 
calling up the family physician and tell- 
ing him, “I want to take a dose of 
medicine. What is the best?” 
Mr. Horton, you place me in the po- 
sition of that physician when you write 
to ask for a list of best books. What 
is the matter with you? I must find 
out that before I can intelligently reply. 
I must know your specific need before 
I can write the prescription. 
Only two chimpanzees are known to 
have been born in captivity. The first 
was in Cuba in 1915, the second in New 
York in the summer of 1920. The lat- 
ter, at birth, was sixteen inches long, 
weighed three pounds and was nearly 
hairless. It lived only a few days. 
“I am sorry,” said the magazine ed- 
itor courteously, “but we are not ac- 
cepting any short stories now.” 
“But the scene of this story,” said the 
confident contributor, “is laid in a place 
that nobody ever heard of, and is writ- 
ten in a language that no one can un- 
derstand.” 
“Then why didn’t you say so be- 
fore?” exclaimed the magazine editor, 
as he grasped it eagerly. — Life. 
