Very many things to be learned in this world.
I have thus, in the Three Parts of this book, described to you some of the wonderful things that are all around you upon the earth and in the water. But there are many more things than I have described. In this book you have only begun to learn what is in the world, and you could not learn all if you should study all your lifetime, and even if your life should be as long as Methuselah’s was. But I hope that you will go on to learn as much as you can. With your mind wide awake, you will see and hear, as you go about from day to day, a great many interesting things that I have not mentioned. I have told you about many things in plants; but if you look at different plants as you meet with them, you will soon see that you can learn much about them that you can not find any where in this book. So, also, if you watch animals, large and small, as you see them, you will find many more interesting things in them than I have told you. And the same is true of the subjects of the Third Part—air, water, light, etc. I have only opened to you a few of the leaves in the Book of Nature, and you can go on to open more of them for yourselves.
Think while you look.
Every fact valuable.
To know much about things, you must not merely look at them. You must examine them—that is, you must think while you look. You must think what this is for and what that is for. In this way you can find out a great deal for yourselves. You will notmerely see that what I and others tell you is true, but you will find out things that no one has told you, and perhaps some things that no one has found out before you. Newton, who found out so many things that men did not before know, always thought about things as he saw them; and so did Franklin, who, as you remember, discovered that lightning is electricity. They began early, when they were children, to think while they looked. They had ahabitof doing it. If they had not, they would not have been such discoverers. Though perhaps none of you may ever discover as many things or as great things as they did, any of you may make some discoveries. Though your discoveries may be small ones, they are not to be despised. They will be worth something.Every fact that is found out is of some value.And if you always think while you see and hear, you may find out for yourselves many facts, and some of them may prove to be of great value.
Sometimes a fact that would appear to be of no value turns out to be worth a great deal. Most people would not think that there was much to be learned from a hen’s muddy tracks on a pile of sugar; but, as you remember I told you in Part First, Chapter XXIX., some one observed the fact that the sugar was whitened wherever the tracks were, and thought about this fact; and the result was that moistened clay came to be used in every sugar refinery in whitening sugar.
One that is in the habit of thinking while he looks will find something interesting wherever he goes. He will not be obliged to go to some museum to see wonderful things, but he will findthem all about him. In the most common plants and animals, which most people do not think of much, he will see many things to interest and astonish him; and to him the air and the water, and even the stones under his feet, will be full of wonders.
Much to be learned that is not in books.
You see by what I have said that there is a great deal to be learned that is not in books. Indeed, books will not do you much good if they do not wake up in you a disposition to learn more than they tell you. People that know much are not content with learning merely what they find in books, but learn what they can from every body and from every thing. They use books only as helps, and the most of what they know they learn by observing—that is, seeing and thinking upon what they see.
Knowing the reasons of things.
It is very pleasant to know the reasons of things. I have therefore told you in this book, as I have gone along, as much as I could do, why things are as I have described them; but you will remember that I have now and then said about some things that you are not old enough yet to understand them. As you grow older you can learn more and more, and so the things that you will be interested in will be all the time increasing. But, though you may keep on learning all your lives, there are some things that you never can understand. God understands the reasons of every thing, but there are many, very many things that the wisest of men can not explain.
What Newton said about what he knew.
Very wise men are not apt to be proud of their wisdom. They commonly feel that what they know is very little when it is compared with what they do not know. Newton was one of the wisest men that ever lived. He was so wise that he discovered morethings than any other man ever has. But he was very humble about his knowledge. He said this about it: He felt that what he knew was like a few pebbles that he had picked up on the sea-shore, and that there was so much of what he did not know that it was like the great ocean that was before him.
Our knowledge in another world.
You remember that I told you in Part Second that all that we know we learn by the senses of our bodies—the sight, the hearing, etc. But the glorified bodies which the Bible says that we shall have in another life will be fitted with better means of getting knowledge. Some things that are mysterious to us now we shall then understand. We shall know more than Newton and all the wise men of this world ever knew here, and we shall ever be learning more and more of the wonders of God’s power, and wisdom, and goodness.
Questions.—What is said about learning all that is in the world? How can you learn about things for yourselves? What is said about Newton and Franklin? Can you make some discoveries? What is said about the value of facts? What about finding wonders all around us? How can books help you to learn more than is in them? What is said about understanding the reasons of things? What is said about the feelings of very wise men? Tell what Newton said about his knowledge. What is said about our getting knowledge in another world?
Questions.—What is said about learning all that is in the world? How can you learn about things for yourselves? What is said about Newton and Franklin? Can you make some discoveries? What is said about the value of facts? What about finding wonders all around us? How can books help you to learn more than is in them? What is said about understanding the reasons of things? What is said about the feelings of very wise men? Tell what Newton said about his knowledge. What is said about our getting knowledge in another world?
THE END.