A Book of Natural History | Page 3

and shells, the frogs and lilies, always tell the absolute truth.
Every leaf on the tree is an original document in botany. When a
thousand are used or used up, the archives of Nature are just as full as
ever. By the study of realities wisdom is built up. In the relations of
objects he can touch and move, the child finds the limitations of his
powers, the laws that govern phenomena, which his own actions must
obey. So long as he deals with realities, these laws stand in their proper
relation. "So simple, so natural, so true," says Agassiz. "This is the
charm of dealing with nature herself. She brings us back to absolute
truth so often as we wander."
So long as a child is led from one reality to another, never lost in words
or abstractions,--so long this natural relation remains. "What can I do
with it?" is the beginning of wisdom. "What is it to me?" is the
beginning of personal virtue.

By adding near things to near, the child grows in Knowledge.
Knowledge, tested and set in order, is Science. Nature-study is the
beginning of science. It is the science of the child. The "world as it is"
is the province of science. In proportion as our actions conform to the
conditions of the world as it is, do we find the world beautiful, glorious,
divine. The truth of the world as it is must be the final inspiration of art,
poetry, and religion. The world, as men have agreed to say that it is, is
quite another matter. The less our children hear of this, the less they
may have to unlearn. Nature studies have long been valued as "a means
of grace," because they arouse the enthusiasm, the love of work, which
belongs to open-eyed youth. The child blasé with moral precepts and
irregular conjugations turns with fresh delight to the unrolling of ferns
or the song of birds.
Nature must be questioned in earnest, or she will not reply. But to
every serious question she will return a serious answer. "Simple,
natural, and true," she tends to create simplicity and truth. Truth and
virtue are but opposite sides of the same shield. As leaves pass over
into flowers, and flowers into fruit, so are wisdom, virtue, and
happiness inseparably related.
This little volume is a contribution to the subject matter of Nature
Study. It is the work of students of nature, and their work is "simple,
natural, and true," in so far as it is represented here.
[Illustration: (Signature) David Starr Jordan]
LELAND STANFORD JR. UNIVERSITY, CALIFORNIA, April 22,
1902.

A BOOK OF NATURAL HISTORY

THE WONDER OF LIFE
(FROM HIS SCIENCE PRIMER, INTRODUCTION.)

BY PROFESSOR, T. H. HUXLEY.
[Illustration]
Every one has seen a cornfield. If you pluck up one of the innumerable
wheat plants which are fixed in the soil of the field, about harvest time,
you will find that it consists of a stem which ends in a root at one end
and an ear at the other, and that blades or leaves are attached to the
sides of the stem. The ear contains a multitude of oval grains which are
the seeds of the wheat plant. You know that when these seeds are
cleared from the husk or bran in which they are enveloped, they are
ground into fine powder in mills, and that this powder is the flour of
which bread is made. If a handful of flour mixed with a little cold water
is tied up in a coarse cloth bag, and the bag is then put into a large
vessel of water and well kneaded with the hands, it will become pasty,
while the water will become white. If this water is poured away into
another vessel, and the kneading process continued with some fresh
water, the same thing will happen. But if the operation is repeated the
paste will become more and more sticky, while the water will be
rendered less and less white, and at last will remain colorless. The
sticky substance which is thus obtained by itself is called gluten; in
commerce it is the substance known as maccaroni.
If the water in which the flour has thus been washed is allowed to stand
for a few hours, a white sediment will be found at the bottom of the
vessel, while the fluid above will be clear and may be poured off. This
white sediment consists of minute grains of starch, each of which,
examined with the microscope, will be found to have a concentrically
laminated structure. If the fluid from which the starch was deposited is
now boiled it will become turbid, just as white of egg diluted with
water does when it is boiled, and eventually a whitish lumpy substance