, O my sister," he said to the
grasshopper chirping beneath the fig-tree near the window of his cell;
"the smaller the creature the more perfectly does it reveal the power
and goodness of the Creator."

Each tiny thing is worthy of the scientist's minute attention; he
counts the articulations which make up the claws of an insect, and
knows the veinings of its most delicate wings; he finds interesting
details where the ordinary eye would not linger for a moment. St.
Francis also observed these things, but they awoke in him a feeling of
spiritual joy and called forth a hymn of praise: "Who, who gave me
these little fairy feet, furnished with healthy and flexible little
bones, to enable me to spring swiftly from branch to branch, from twig
to twig? Who further gave me eyes, _crystal globes that revolve_ and
see before and behind, to spy out all my enemies, the predatory kite,
the black crow, the greedy goose? And he gave me wings, _delicate
tissues of gold and green and blue_, which reflect the color of the
skies and of my trees."

The vision of the teacher should be at once precise like that of the
scientist, and spiritual like that of the saint. The preparation for
science and the preparation for sanctity should form a new soul, for
the attitude of the teacher should be at once positive, scientific,
and spiritual.

Positive and scientific, because she has an _exact_ task to perform,
and it is necessary that she should put herself into immediate
relation with the truth, by means of rigorous observation, that she
should strip off all illusions, all the idle creations of the fancy,
that she should distinguish truth from falsehood unerringly, that, in
fact, she should follow the example of the scientist, who takes
account of every minute particle of matter, every elementary and
embryonic form of life, but eliminates all optical delusions, all the
confusion which impurities and foreign substances might introduce into
the search for truth. To achieve such an attitude _long practise is
necessary, and a wide observation of life_ under the guidance of the
biological sciences.

Spiritual, because it is to man that his powers of observation are to
be applied, and because the characteristics of the creature who is to
be his particular subject of observation are spiritual.

I would therefore initiate teachers into the observation of the most
simple forms of living things, with all those aids which science
gives; I would make t