Nature Study

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 26, 1906

It has been proved that the surest way to keep young is to live outdoors, take an interest in growing things, study the stones and rocks, associate with the beautiful birds, and listen to nature’s thousand voices that speak of God. This secret of perpetual youth seems to have been discovered by the naturalists; for however venerable they became, their fresh hearts kept their eyes from fading, and the lines from gathering on their faces, and made them proverbially young both in manner and in spirit.

Nature study brightens faces and enlarges minds. Not only may one “go to the ant” and “be wise,” but insects, birds, and beasts are our teachers. They are always furnishing us with useful patterns and ideas, and some of our most wonderful inventions have been merely copied from their feats of engineering.

There is no such thing as a lonely forest or field. The city’s activity is nothing compared with the life that is to be studied in nature’s quiet places, where each leaf is a separate study; for no two of the countless billions that clothe the trees are exactly alike.

The great musicians of the world have put into their finest compositions echoes of the lovely bird-songs they have heard in their rambles, and the great artists have taken their fadeless colors from the numberless tints of flowers. When we recall that there are fifty shades of red between crimson and scarlet, we are able to realize dimly that the study of color alone could keep one busy a lifetime. No one can be low spirited who opens his eyes, mind, and heart to the world of nature. A high, earnest, happy look must be on his face; and happiness is beauty always.—Selected.