CHAPTER XXXV

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CONCLUSION.

[Sidenote: 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.

[Sidenote: Think while you look.]

[Sidenote: 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 not merely 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 a _habit_ of 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,