10 THE OPEN BOOK OF NATURE 
you are told you will wish to confirm by practical 
observation. Spiders, like all living creatures, are 
interesting in books, but they are a thousandfold 
more interesting to the intelligent watcher of them 
in their natural surroundings. The study of one 
object of Nature, if properly followed, will lead to 
an ever-increasing knowledge of scores of other 
objects, to which the first one, say a spider, is related. 
For instance, you will soon discover that spiders set 
their traps for certain insects, and you will want to 
know something about those insects. Then you 
will find that spiders have enemies in certain kinds 
of birds, who seek them for food ; you will surely 
want to know all about these birds. And your 
reading will reveal to you what you can soon see for 
yourselves, that spiders are nearly related to shrimps, 
prawns, crabs, and lobsters. This knowledge should 
fire you with the desire to get information about 
these creatures of the sea, and the next time you 
find yourselves at the seaside you will be able to 
spend many happy and useful hours in finding 
specimens, and seeing for yourselves how they 
behave themselves. If you cannot get to the sea- 
side, you will find preserved specimens in most 
museums, and, failing a museum, you can learn a 
good deal at a fishmonger’s shop. 
I need not write more on this point. I think you 
will see how to begin the study of Nature, and how 
the study of one object will lead to a wide field of 
pleasant observation. 
I hope you live either in the country or very near 
to it, and can sometimes get to the seaside and the 
mountains. But if you live in the heart of a large 
